Check out the police

If you are reading this, you are on line. And you could join sign up to facebook (I can feel the shudders). But there are big pluses like keeping up with Bedfordshire Police's facebook presence. You don't have to be a hoodie - even parish councillors and the police are doing it now.  They will respond to questions and you can sound off

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Village hall

Meeting of the village hall management committee last night. While the roofing is going ahead (Phase 1) the difficulty in selling the former caretaker's house is a blow and could affect resources available for overall works.  The AGM of the Management Committee is on Wednesday 30 November at St Peter and St Paul Church. The committee needs as many volunteers to service and fresh ideas as possible. 

Lodge Road disturbances

Lodge Roaders still being affected by working starting early on Home Farm and lorries 'parking up'.  Martin seems to be on the case. See below.

Dear Laurence,

Thank-you for your note.  Hannah has already raised this point with us previously and I did address the concerns immediately with our construction teams.   I am disappointed that this is still not being adhered and will discuss this again with the relevant people.

Kind regards,

Martin Wright

Senior Land Manager

Persimmon Homes

---

From: Laurence Pollock [mailto:broadgreen68@btinternet.com]
Sent: 25 October 2011 10:14
To: Wright, Martin
Cc: Hannah.Pattinson@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk; Rosie Davey-Hunt; D.BALL; Alan Bastable; sue.clark@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
Subject: Lodge Road

Martin, I have learned with concern that there has been infringement of the planning  consent regulations in Lodge Road. A resident has told me that construction work was going on at 7.15 last Thursday and lorries have been parking up onLodge Road. I carried out a visit this morning  and several lorries were parked up on Lodge Road at 7.40. I understand the resident has asked them not to continue this practice and I am sure you will want to emphasise that. I also noted that a  fence construction company was also working on site at 7.40.


Now that construction has started again we are hoping this can be done in a way that inconveniences residents as little as possible.

Best wishes
Laurence


Laurence Pollock
Parish Councillor
8 Broad Green
Cranfield 

bus services

Well done to the Bedford Area Bus Users' Society  Society for highlighting the cuts Central  Beds is making to public transport. As I reported in the previous post the council officials at the transport consultation event attended by Alan Morris and myself described our input as a 'Wish list'. Not encouraging.


We need to get beyond wishes.








http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/Launch.aspx?PBID=5e282046-f9ed-4368-9df8-78956bc97001&refresh=

Bus planning

I went to a Central Beds consultation on the local area transport plan with Alan Morris.  Please note that the Central Beds officers described it as a 'wish list'. I don't know if there are any bus fairies around but here goes anyway. 






Alan reports:

A meeting took place at Eversholt Hall on Thursday 6th October attended by Parish Councillors Alan Morris and Laurence Pollock, Central Beds Councillor Alan Bastable together with councilors from Marston, Millbrook and Ridgmont.  The meeting was hosted by Jim Tombe with presentations given by Manouchehr Nahvi both Officers from Central Beds Council.  The purpose of the meeting as explained by Jim Tombe was to discuss the transport ‘wishes’ of the villages in the western end of CBC.  The formal minutes of the meeting are attached to this email.

On behalf of Cranfield Village the following points were emphasised:
1. That the bus services linking Cranfield with Bedford and locations in the Central Beds area are being seriously reduced due to cuts in the financial support given to bus operators.  It was made clear that this deteriorating situation was unacceptable and that any new transport plan should endeavour to rectify this as a priority matter.

2. In dealing with future bus services the Cranfield representatives encouraged CBC to look for ways forward that matched the needs of the village communities through the employment of imaginative solutions.  It was pointed out that discussions had been opened by Cranfield Parish Council with Milton Keynes and Arriva for creating an effective service linking Cranfield to MK which would come into effect next year and might involve the creation of an express commuter service to MK station.  This could be considered by CBC for an express service from Cranfield via Marston to Flitwich station.

3. The importance of creating a cycle and pedestrian link between Cranfield Village and Cranfield University to allow students and staff to cycle or walk to work was explained.

Holes in the ground

I have been informed that we have an infestation of fieldmice in the cemetery who are drilling lots of unsightly holes in the grass. Last year it was moles. Then the current outbreak was attributed to voles. Now we have mice. 

Open Evening

The open evening on October 12 was well attended by both parish councillors and members of the public. Thanks to Central Beds councillor Sue Clarke for rearranging  a commitment to come. It was good to have input about the links between the parish and the unitary authority.

We are also grateful to Peter Haddon and Colleen Dinner at Holywell Middle School for facilitating the space and the materials for tea and coffee.

While it was a taster for those who might consider parish council membership there was also attendance from individuals representing organisations we work in partnership with such as the Village hall management committee and the parochial church council. 

Covanta

Old news now I know but as its green bin weekend I've been thinking about one of the implications of Covanta. The bid to cut landfill has actually boosted recycling and a lot of people go to a lot of trouble to separate out their plastics, paper etc from food and other waste and this all gets reused in some way or another. Its only Friday and our green bin's stuffed but there was hardly anything in the residual bin the previous Monday (thanks to the brown waste food bin and our compost bin outside plus the green stuff).

But Covanta can't really make a profit unless it burns everything. So that whole culture of careful reuse is all going to be dumped.

Of course there are other objections to Covanta like hundreds of lorries a day. 

CBC Children's centre consultation

Use this link to read the CBC consultation on children's centres and to respond.

http://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/images/110927%20CC%20Consultation%20Document%20v9%20Final_tcm5-42097.pdf

Children's centres

We'll be talking about Central Beds plans to cuts back Sure Start children's services in the village - after shelving plans for a permanent centre last winter. As usual options take the form of

'Do you want to be
A Hung?
B Drawn?
C Quartered?'

The option 'None of the above is not available.'

My draft proposals to the Parish Council for our response are as follows:

A new consultation on the location of Sure Start Children’s Centres in Central Beds means the end of at least some or possibly all services in the village.

Sure Start offers children a better start in life through early education, health and family support. It has been running for the last decade. 

There are sessions at Cranfield Lower School, the Methodist Church and the Scout Hut five days a week. These include baby and crawler, baby clinic, story and rhyme, creative play, toy library, new parents and Cranberry stay and play.

Proposals for a permanent centre at the lower school were pulled by Central Beds last December, after staff and governors had spent 18 months in preparation.

CBC says that Government guidance issued to Councils last year stated that while children’s centres were a universal service there should be a targeted approach to vulnerable children and families.

‘There is a need for a more focused approach to early intervention in Central Bedfordshire which targets areas of greatest need.’

In consequence it proposes three options

1. Services ‘clustered’ rounds Dunstable, Leighton Buzzard, Flitwick, Sandy, Biggleswade,  Shefford and Stotfold & Arlesey.

Outcome: Reduced services to Cranfield

2. Close eight centres including Cranfield in areas of ‘less need’ and transfer these resources to the remaining 14 centres.

Outcome: No services in Cranfield

3.  Close 13 centres in areas of less need and transfer these resources to Dunstable, Houghton Regis, Leighton Buzzard, Sandy and Flitwick.

Outcome: No services in Cranfield

Cranfield is being downgraded on some crude average of income and lifestyle but it is a large village with a growing population and should not be told it is losing out to other communities. We were told last December that money for the new centre was being transferred to Leighton Buzzard and Dunstable and I don’t see why we should lose even more.

I propose that we endorse none of the above options but write, stating that the consultation is flawed, lacking an option which would have preserved these services and calling for CBC to reconsider any plans to scale down services to Cranfield. 

Kick walls

Kick walls paid for with Lincroft 106 money now going  up in the Rec, Broad Green and Wharley End

Persimmon build

Message from Martin Wright at Persimmon Homes.

Good morning all,
We just wanted to let you know that we have now received approval of all
Reserved matters, and prior to commencement conditions and will be making a
start on-site today.  This will initially see the construction of the
Persimmon show home and the surrounding houses.

Hopefully the contractors vehicles will fit into the local environment more easily  and they might stay off the 'quiet lane'. 

Open evening

We are hoping to build up the parish council's profile with events like tomorrow's open evening. But the aim is to attract people even if they are not considering membership  just to make people more aware of our work.