Sure Start - a personal view

Its seems like the Cranfield Children's Centre  project was going ahead right up to 2 December when Central Beds called off a public meeting due to a snowfall. After that it concluded that it was time-out and the scheme was going elsewhere. Ms Lewis has mentioned budgetary constraints but clearly this move didn’t save any money – it just reallocated it at the last possible moment – to other projects waiting in the wings. I am extremely concerned that closeness to residential properties has been cited as an objection – especially as this had not got to the stage of a planning application. The centre would be on the school footprint and, as far as I know, nobody objects to the school.

Our village is already struggling to obtain many of the benefits promised from the Home Farm development – a health centre and proper playing space for the Lower School for instance. It lost funding for a purpose built pre-school several years ago and there are more public transport and mobile library cuts coming. Now a lot of work to establish valuable facilities for very young children, who would benefit greatly, has been lost. We seem to be going backwards.

Falling at the last hurdle

Lead story in February 2011 Cranfield Express 

Ambitious plans for a top of the range Sure Start children’s centre in Cranfield have come to nothing. But explanations vary about why it has not gone ahead. Meanwhile the money for the centre has gone to Leighton Buzzard and Houghton Regis.

Governors and staff at Cranfield Lower School, the proposed site, have been working on the proposal for over a year.

Sure Start aims to give children the best possible start in life through the improvement of childcare, early education, health and family support, with an emphasis on outreach and community development. The programme is now described as Sure Start Children’s Centres and it is run by local councils.

There are already a few Sure Start sessions at Cranfield Lower School on Mondays, and Tuesday - story and rhyme and make and bake with other sessions at the Methodist Church and the Scout Hut. The proposed new centre would have greatly expanded these valuable activities and given them a permanent home.

But Cranfield Parish Council was told in December: “The money for a Childrens’ Centre has been diverted as it was considered that the proposed site is too near to residential properties. No planning application has been forthcoming for the Centre.”

Yet a consultation meeting was due to be held in Cranfield just two weeks earlier and was called off by Central Beds because of the weather at the last minute.

Cllr Anita Lewis, portfolio holder for children’s services, in response to questions I asked has written:

“It seems that during last summer there were a number of delays about design of the children's centre. I am told that the school wished for some things to be changed and requested a full consultation with all partners, which inevitably cost time.

“The planners then expressed concern and asked for alternative positions on the site for the building to be considered. This was difficult because it impacted on sports fields, which gave problems with Sport England.

“Next the meeting that was planned to do the final agreement with partners was cancelled due to snow. It transpired that it would not have been possible to get this project through planning in time to develop the children's centre. In short, just as the contract was about to go forward we entered our spending freeze.

“The Government then signalled that such monies really ought to be spent on deprived areas.

“In terms of policy the money allocated went to the deprived areas of Tithe Farm Houghton Regis and Leighton Buzzard which is exactly where the Government is pressing that children's centre money should have been spent in the first place.

“I am sad that this is the outcome as far as Cranfield is concerned.

“Your unitary councillors will be able to explain to you why it is no longer possible to find any money for the Cranfield children's centre andtTo explain the budget restraints that Central Beds Council is experiencing.”

I can confirm, after speaking to Central Beds this week that funding is in place for the next financial year for the existing Sure Start facilities.

Paul Rossiter, chair of governors at the Lower School commented: “The governors, management and staff at Cranfield Lower School are all extremely disappointed at the decision to withdraw capital funding for the new Cranfield Children's Centre building due to be located on our playing field. The new building would have enabled a significant increase in the services available to our village and the opportunity for pre-school children to adjust to their first school.

“I am pleased that it has been possible for us to find space within the school to enable the existing Sure Start services to remain and we will continue to support their activities for the benefit of the village, in the hope that the central funding of this unit will remain in place.”

Lodge Road

It's time to commemorate Lodge Road Road as we know it - or knew it. Widening work on the top half is now imminent and these views will be a thing of the past. Lodge Road was selected by the former Mid Beds Council  as the entrance to Home Farm (There will be one into the Goodman land for about 30 houses) in response to public consultation which said villagers wanted the rural nature of the community preserved. It's anyone's guess how that is possible by making our quaintest rural thoroughfare suitable for several hundred car movements a day. 

Extensive discussions with Mid Beds Planners, Highways and Persimmon  in 2007 suggested that the entrance could be relocated to the High Street via the Goodman Charity land. But when Persimmon restarted the project in 2009 they said this was no longer possible and the entrance would remain through Lodge Road.

Nevertheless the company said the spine road could be built through the Goodman land and that would save some of the grief. Now we have been told, in the Parish Council, that since Persimmon haven't actually bought the Goodman land yet so they can't build the spine through it and everything will go down Lodge Road. 

Have a walk down it this weekend because if the road signs are anything to go by the JCBs are coming on Monday. 

Cyclepath

We - myself, John Savill from the Parish Council and  Cranfield No 1 cyclist Steve Hobbs - had a good meeting with university representative Andy Oxenham last week (Thursday 13) about looking at routes for a possible cyclepath connection the south send of the High Street with the university via, partly Moulsoe Road. On the way over I just about spotted a pedestrian on College Road as I was driving in the dark. He was on my side walking away and wearing no hi-vis. There are load of people taking risks on these roads at the moment because of poor access and unreliable bus services.

New street names

Remember Ailwyn's Acre? One of the most distinctive street names in Cranfield, thought up by Dr Margaret Rooney a former parish councillor. Ailwyn is one of the first historical figures recorded in connection with Cranfield, in the 11th century. After a nasty, life threatening  illness and prayers to the Almighty he survived and in gratitude made a gift of Cranfield which he owned to Ramsay Abbey in Cambridge. Ramsay Abbey was then the landlord of the village until Henry VIII had other ideas.

Now we need five new street names for the first phase of  the Home Farm development so its time for thinking caps and a look around the historical records, old maps and geographical features. All suggestions to the parish council clerk Rosie Davy-Hunt at cranfieldpc@btconnect.com by 2 Feb. 

On the beat

We had a very useful visit from neighbourhood police officer PC John Birch and PCSO Elaine Fleet at parish council last night. Jon came across as really engaged and at the same time he was very honest about how stretched the thin blue line is in a safer neighbourhood team that stretches across the Vale and all the way to Woburn.

The biggest issue in Cranfield in the last few years has been the so-called 'cruise', 'boyracers' or whatever you want to call them. A couple of years ago we got double yellow lines in and that cleared the way for some kind of traffic calming making hi performance hi jinx impossible. Yeh! Now local businesses have coughed up the cost of the various speed reducing structures and these are out for consultation. Someone on the business park has actually objected but we are hoping that will not stop the scheme going in.

So maybe that is on the way out as an issue but there will probably still be plenty to do. Jon related
some of the other distractions in recent months including criminal damage at a mobile in Lodge road, assault in College Road, various thefts and damages and,  would you Adam and Eve it, lead off the porch roof  at the parish church. That's happened before in the last two or three years. There was one extremely odd one that was successfully detected using DNA evidence. Nuff said - minor I would add.

Julia Wright, one of our former PCSOs, has moved away and everyone is feeling the gap. She, along with Leigh Iddon was a great advertisement for the PCSO concept, putting in a lot of local work (specially on the cruise) and getting to know all sorts of people. She was a really familiar face. No doubt Jon, Elaine and their colleague Keith Glen will do a good job as long as they are allowed to hang around.

Dont forget - to make contact tel 01234 842616 or email snt.woburn@bedfordshire.pnn.police.uk

Yes it does happen in Cranfield

  Email from a parishioner in October 


"I had a call as phone holder for "Hands Across Cranfield" from Mrs XXX at in Millards Close alerting me to the dangerous state of the footpaths near her. She tries to get out with a walker but being nearly 90, finds it quite a struggle. Could you raise this as a matter of urgency at the next Council meeting and let her know what is being done?  I know she would appreciate an interim reassuring call from you so that she knows someone with influence is taking her problem seriously."




After an inspection I'm pleased to report a nice smooth footpath. Can't remember when it was done but its probably in the customer service bulletin if I can adjust my bleary new year eyes to an excel spread sheet. Anyway, to all moaning minnies and doomsayers out there, yes the system does work.  

Not a rat

It appears we have  a  mole infestation in the Recreation Ground. This is
causing a problem with the football pitch.  Central Beds only regards rats and mice as "vermin"
and classifies moles, rabbits, foxes and pigeons as a "nuisance". They will take action to deal with vermin. We are on the look out for a suitable molecatcher/disposer.


Suggestions please to

cranfieldpc@btconnect.com

Children's Centre

I'm hoping to visit the lower school in the next week to see the important role the children's centre there plays in the lives of children who use this facility.

Home Farm Denison land

Property developers Persimmon have confirmed that they still intend to buy the Denison land (at the rear of Plough Close and Willow Springs) but have stressed that if they do not do so the community building will still be built - but elsewhere on the site. 

I'm still trying to confirm this but I believe we need more information on what is happening here and the likely implications for the design of the site.

Burial ground land purchases

We have received the following email from the diocese of St Albans:


Dear Ms Davey-Hunt
Since I last wrote our Agent has consulted the tenant who currently occupies the land in which your council is interested.  He has indicated that he is not minded to surrender his tenancy and it follows, therefore, that the Glebe Committee will not be able to take the matter further. I am sorry that I am sending a reply which will not be welcome to your council.
Yours sincerely
Nigel Benger
The St Albans Diocesan Board of Finance




This refers to some land running parallel to the cemetery which we wished to purchase, first to ensure that we had enough land to meet the village's eventual burial needs and secondly to provide space for allotments in the medium term.  

New Year resolution

Thanks to a monstrous attack of manflu in its extreme form (unable to tackle cryptic crossword) I missed the first Parish Council meeting of the year. But I have raised the following points in writing:




We need a  major debrief on why the village has lost the proposed children's centre at the lower school. Seems extraordinary given the strength  and qualities of the head teacher, the commitment of the chair of governors and a senior councillor on their governing body. No planning application  was turned down but it seems they were out of time. However I understand the funding for this centre then went elsewhere. It would be good to know where the funding was allocated  - and why the situation could not be retrieved. This is a major disaster.


Denison land (part of home farm)  - being developed separately  (report at Persimmon stakeholder meeting) we need to establish if this has any implications for the community building. [The chair of planning has since told me that Persimmon are still committed to buying this land and she would supply more information at the meeting]


Health Centre - see Dr Marcus Thomas's  letter in the last Cranfeld Express   (below). We are in danger of seeing a major tranche of Home Farm S106 money (health facilities) unused and returned to the developer unless we start to challenge the status quo and ask some searching questions. It will need our CB councillors as well as ourselves saying this is not acceptable. A solution must be found.

An old favourite: Any progress on the traffic calming?