Allotments

Things I didn't know about allotments:

• If we set one up and we want to move people on because it will become a burial ground, we have to find them somewhere else. This dates back to legislation in  the 1920s designed to provide protection to those who suffered under enclosures in the 19th century - "the deserving poor".
• Think about water supply - A horse trough with ball valve is the best way of stopping hose pipe maniacs.
• A pole (aka a rod or perch) is 300 sq ft. 
• Allotments tend to be either five poles or 10 poles.
• Subletting or joint tenancy is not good practice.
• No cockerells, goats etc thank you. Chickens will attract foxes and their food if left lying around will bring in rats.
• All dogs on leads.
• You can mono-culture - e.g just vines. 
• The Flitwick allotment shop is behind the leisure centre in Flitwick. 

Dave Empson who did the presentation at the Parish Council last night on behalf of the Flitwick Allotment Association was brilliant - very knowledgeable, good humoured and to the point. 

Cemetery extension

We have an update from Frosts about the cultivation of the cemetery extension.

"Further to our recent correspondence, here's an update on the progress to

the cemetery extension area.

We have carried out the spray application and it taken very well, we will be

shortly carrying out the next stage of cutting the excess grass and turning

over the soil.

"Once this is done we are going to leave this to over winter (i.e. let the

frosts etc break down soil, because of the nature of the soil in this area

being untouched of a period of time). 

Which will make for better cultivation results in early next year when the

conditions are right (weather dependant), 

"Then finish off the levelling and Seeding." 

Parish Council tonight

Parish Council tonight is starting off with a presentation at 7 pm by David Empson of the Flitwick  Allotment Association about the joys and pitfalls of setting up allotments. I  understand there are big issues about whether you allow dogs on and the size of sheds.
We are still trying to purchase land from the Diocese of St Albans to eventually extend the cemetery but which, in the medium term, could offer scope for allotments. It would be an excellent stewardship of land which is basically doing nothing at the moment. We have not had a formal response to our offer yet.

Remembrance Sunday

Strong turnout at the War Memorial yesterday. I shared the civic wreath laying with Alan Bastable (Central Beds) in weather that seemed like it was OK for November but got chillier. I was impressed at the way Cranfield's schools, under new management in the last couple of years, have been more involved in the local community. Holywell head teacher Peter Haddon escorted a couple of pupils to the Memorial to lay a  wreath on behalf of the school and a lower school teacher also laid a wreath. Due to the renovation going on in the church, the service was held in the lower school hall. 
Hugh Symes-Thomson told a good story about the blitz and Coventry Cathedral being resurrected  though he did talk about the bombing on "England". My father's house in Belfast was destroyed in the Belfast blitz of April May 1941. I'm sure sure it was just an oversight. 
Remembrance Sunday and the Football Club's fireworks night are practically the only times the village assembles in some numbers and we need to think of more opportunities to do that. A job for the Parish Council maybe? Time to start another to do list. 

Parish council powers

From Private Eye

Most parish councillors can only dream of this kind of power. We have been struggling for for three, four years to get a 'quiet lane' in Lodge Road, attended endless meetings and listened to many reports about officials who have not returned our phone calls or emails. 

Wind turbine

Central Beds' development management committee approved the Marston Millennium Park's application for a 120m high wind turbine today. There was a lengthy debate and contributions from Marston Parish Council, CPRE and Tony Talbot of the Park Trust. Most the councillors who spoke were against it with the exception of Tom Nichols, sustainability portfolio holder and Nigel Aldis. There were references to efficiency, the value of a single  turbine, the colour and whether it would result in extra traffic through Marston. There was some silly stuff like the man from the Campaign for the Preservation of Rural England  who warned of turbines falling over and catching fire. And there was some blatant nimbyism from those who thought turbines should all be sent to sea. Tony Talbot said the turbine was appropriate to a post industrial landscape and justified it on the basis that climate change weas the biggest threat to a setting like the park.

Cranfield Parish Council,when it considered the application  had voted to support it |(by a narrow majority)

Despite the imbalance of speakers, in the end it was a tied vote and the chair cast his vote in favour of approval.

A421

Balfour Beatty's current predicted opening date is 1 December.

Bus seminar

I went to the Central Beds bus seminar this afternoon, at the Rufus centre. It is clear that further public transport services face the axe but we were subjected to a lecture about choosing between greening society, reducing social isolation, helping economic development or helping the most disadvantaged as criteria for subsidising buses. The facilitator then insisted we take a vote about which was most important and the least important and carefully recorded the results. To every challenging quesion he replied 'Will you write that down?' (on a post-it note). He actually came across as a rather ineffectual woodwork teacher struggling to control the boys during the last class of Friday afternoon. But it was utterly pointless in getting to grips with the threat to our bus services.

A history of Cranfield in 400 words

I'm working on an intro to the new village directory. I've come up with the following so far:

Cranfield is a large village with a population of around 5,500 set halfway between Milton Keynes and Bedford. The parish includes Wharley End, the home of Cranfield University.

Historic roots go back to the Domesday book, reflected in the part-Norman Church. Like any community with such a long history, there have been many phases in its development. Ecclesiastical ownership of the Cranfield estate passed to local gentry after the reformation. There was small-scale brick making and a strong conconformist presence, including Quakers, in the 18th century. Ancient methods of land-use and tillage came to an end in the 1840s with formal enclosure of agricultural land. Later in the 19th century, the village’s historic, listed schoolhouse was built by the Church of England and the village hall was opened in 1911.

In the 1920s the growing Marston Vale brickworks offered significant new employment and gradually Cranfield became less remote from the surrounding area as transport links improved. The RAF base in 1937 and the successor College of Aeronautics in 1946, were dominant landmarks in the 20th century and remain so today as the airfield and Cranfield University.

In the 21st century the village is set in a busy, economically active region criss-crossed by major transport routes. That marks it out as classic commuter territory. Yet Cranfield sits on a distinctive plateau, surrounded by beautiful countryside and picturesque lanes. Culturally too, it retains its own unique identity with strong local opinion about decisions taken elsewhere that affect its quality of life. The Parish Council is at the heart of that continuous public discussion and there is vigorous community life.

If you are reading this as a newcomer to Cranfield we want to welcome you to the village and introduce you to local activities and services – sport, recreation, churches, civic affairs and education, for instance. If you are a long-standing resident this guide aims to offer up-to-date information on every aspect of local living and help you to enhance your life and, hopefully, make a contribution to general wellbeing.

The guide itself is a reflection of the Parish Council’s aim of making sure that everyone who lives in Cranfield and Wharley End feels at home here and can take full advantage of everything we have to offer.

The truly vulnerable

Central Bedfordshire Council's £12m cuts are announced

Continue reading the main story

Related stories

• Council spent £500,000 rebranding
• Council travel expenses revealed
• Beds road signs for sale

More than 100 jobs are expected to go at Central Befordshire Council as £12m is cut from its 2011-12 budget. Money-saving changes will include more volunteers for youth services, an end to the mobile library and switching off street lights. The council executive said it would try to save money through becoming more efficient.

Its the little things that Central Beds says it will cut that are most miserly. Did I get it right that there will be no disposable bags for food waste? Homework clubs are being hit and the mobile library service will be sitting on bricks in the future. But there is plenty of other stuff involving schools and social care. This is on top of the totally over-the-top comprehensive spending review. All the way through there are recurrent expressions 'statutory minimum service' and the 'truly vulnerable'. I dread to think what a tiny constituency the 'truly vulnerable' are but clearly there is a wider circle of needy, and marginalised people who will now not make the cut and are expected to help George O with his deficit reduction plans. Don't grow old, get sick, be young or need a lift. 

Community safety

Nice to see Dave Rollings, Central Beds crime reduction officer at the PC last night. Dave has been off for a while but he was in good form. The issues remain the same of course, drinking and debris in the recreation ground racing up at the Tech Park. Ken Matthews reported that some kind of traffic humps at the tech park might be a step nearer.

The question has come up about keeping the community safety committee going. It was originally a public forum when I first got involved with access to funding. But membership was transient and the funding was a bureaucratic headache. At one point we had to bid jointly with Stotfold and Sandy for money for kill-your-speed wheelie bin stickers. I must have spent weeks on emails agreeing specs and looking at bids from printers. Then there were always further delays. There are still some bins around the villages with these stickers on something happened in the end.

Traffic calming

The traffic calming saga goes on.

I would hate to try and calculate the number of hours we have spent going round the houses on this one. Just when it was all systems go it appeared that the "Section 106" money payable because of Tech Park development was not there because the university argued the trigger (occupation of offices) had not been reached. We then understood that this had been overcome and the money was available.

Now an Amey engineer has told us that on discovering the hold-up he told his staff to stop working on further modifications. As far as he is concerned there is no budget. It would appear that we are still two days away from a complete set of drawings of the revised scheme. And there is no sign of them coming. Its enough to make me believe in conspiracy theories.

Cemetery benches

I am struggling at the moment with a 'bench policy' for the cemetery. Burial plots are obviously very precious places to those whose loved ones are buried there. Some people never visit graves but there are others who can't stay away. Strong feelings arise.

We don't want a completely regimented site. At the same time graves can become surrounded by clutter and festooned with bits and pieces. Our bench policy is aimed at dealing with anyone bringing garden furniture to place near the grave of a family member.

However convenient it is, it is not ultimately going to work if that happens all over the place. So, back to the drawing board.

Street light repair

"I think that this is pretty poor performance & totally unnacceptable, given that the light is in a vulnerable location which needs illumination for security?
In the past we used to call the Parish Council Secretary because I think this light is probably funded by the PC but calling Central Beds has not been a good "customer experience" in this case.
Should we be calling the PC rather than Central Beds in fact ? With regard to "specialist equipment", 2 men + 1 ladder are all that is required or are we turning in to a nation of litigation-fearing pansies I ask?"

Well the parishioner who got in touch (above) has every reason to feel fed up as the complaint was made on 28 September and nothing has happened yet. The light concerned illuminates a pretty dark pathway. Anyway way one central Beds councillor, one parish council clerk and myself are all on the case. Hopefully this will survive deficit any reduction strategies.

I have to speak up for pansies incidentally as they are the hardiest plants in the garden, out in all weathers.

A421

Looks like the new A421 is nearing completion. At least you can see the signs for Cranfield now up on the side of the carriageway. Nice to have our existence confirmed. The turn-off from Junction 13 to Salford/Hulcote is dramatic and it has "Cran" in one of the carriageways. More proof that I didn't just imagine that I lived in there.

Who was Guy?

The best we can say about the poem 'Remember Remember' in this month's Cranfield Express is that the writer should relocate to Northern Ireland circa 1968. The Orange Order would love this kind of pompous celebration of protestant ascendancy and catholics being hung, drawn and quartered after vicious torture. Catholics were seen in the late 1500s as the terrorist threat and it is true that if Fawkes and Catesby had been successful it would have been Britain's 5/11. On the basis of that one attempted outrage an awful lot of intolerance has been built, however.

So we should be grateful in some respects to Ms Cook for reminding us of what Guy Fawkes night is all about - a complete historical irrelevance in age when we have other more serious issues to hand.

Infrastructure Planning Commission

I received 30 copies of the Covanta application registration form this morning for Budgens and the Coop. The process for interacting with the application is pretty clumsy and you wonder why. However I thought the present government promised to get rid of the IPC. So why is it still here? Localism should mean local planning decisions.

Update

American founding father Benjamin Franklin said there were only two certainties in life – death and taxes.

For the parish council, this translates as maintaining the village cemetery, tucked away in Rectory Lane and setting the budget every year.

The two are linked, like all parish council services, but there are ambitious plans for the cemetery in the future. That will require money (or ‘resources’ as they say in government) and that means careful budgeting.

With the village set to grow by say, 20 per cent, with the Home Farm – and who knows what other – development, parish councillors have been thinking about capacity in the existing cemetery, opened in the early 1990s. Interment of full remains (as opposed to interment of ashes) on the north side will soon be moving into an earlier extension which is due to be tilled and reseeded. An extension road was also constructed several years ago to allow access for hearses and mourners.

To ensure there is enough space, in the long-term, the Parish Council is hoping to buy some adjoining glebe (Church of England) land to the north of the cemetery. At time of writing we are still waiting to hear if the Diocese of St Albans has accepted our offer. If we are successful, however, the land could mean a chance to meet another need in the village – at least for a few years.

There has been a big interest in allotments in Cranfield and the council has had enquiries from quite a number of people. The new land, if a sale is agreed, would offer a medium-term location for allotments. This, in my view, would be only the start for a search for suitable allotments sites. The interest in freshly grown food from an identifiable place is now starting to link in with concerns about the economy, world food prices and massive damage to the global environment by, for instance, green beans flown in from Kenya.

Apart from that, gardening is a great way to stay active without busting a gut in a sweaty gym. So it looks like a win-win-win situation.

We are inviting an allotment expert to a forthcoming meeting to check out the practicalities (maximum permitted size of sheds, are dogs allowed? etc). For more information email me on broadgreen68@btinternet.com or tel 01234 757689.

If all goes according to plan – big ‘if’ – parish council land could both feed parishioners and then bury their well-nourished bodies, eventually. Now that sounds like recycling.

High Street

High Street closed before I made it up on the bike so a quick reversal and then down Bourne End Road, Astwood Road College Road and into the uni. Round Shire Lane up to Nissan and back into the campus. Thank God the rain has stopped. But loads of gravel is still jumping around on College Road.

Cranfield Cemetery visitors/friends' group

Cranfield Cemetery is a key service provided by the parish council. The council has developed and invested in it in recent years in preparation for an expected growth in population. It has also redesigned and enhanced the memorial garden.

Unsurprisingly, there is a regular engagement with the public on the state of the cemetery and the facilities, some of it quite animated. In line with many other public service providers I am, therefore, proposing a visitors’ group, which would meet with a nominated parish councillor or parish councillors. The aim would be to hear issues and deal with enquiries and simultaneously to provide feedback to those concerned enough to attend. This would not exclude contact with the parish council on an ad hoc, day to day basis.

It might meet just twice a year plus a site visit during the growing season, perhaps. Non-parish council membership would be flexible and self-selecting. The group’s views would not be binding on the parish council in any way but ideally it should be listening to what its members are saying.

If the parish council agrees to this proposal I would place an advert in the October Cranfield Express seeking expressions of interest.

Hot material

My own experience of road resurfacing in Flitwick this week was daunting. On Monday morning, having dithered over a second cup of tea I left it a bit too late. By the time I got to Steppingley Road, Flitwick it was being closed off at the Tesco roundabout for about 200 metres. This handily blocked the entrance to the station car parks (rip-off First Capital Connect and value for money Cowlgrove). I decided to head for Harlington rather than cruise the suburbs of Flitwick looking for a spot. I cannot recall any prominent notices the previous week announcing that this was all happening and I have not the faintest idea how people who parked at the station and came back before 5 pm actually got out.

Vehicles are unable to drive over hot material

We are waiting, trembling, for the impact of road resurfacing on the High Street, next week. Bedfordshire Highways say:

I am pleased to tell you of highway improvements that are due to start in your area. The resurfacing of the High Street (junction of Mill Road to Merchant Lane) will commence 23 August and is expected to take 7 working days to complete.

Works are scheduled to take place between 08:00 and 18:00 but on rare occasions may overrun due to circumstances beyond our control. The above section will be closed as a through route during these hours and will only be opened when it is safe for all road users.

Vehicles are unable to drive over hot material. Therefore, at the time resurfacing takes place in your vicinity, vehicular access to / from your property may not be available.

Pedestrian access to / from properties affected by this restriction will be maintained at all times as will access for emergency vehicles.

Staff will be positioned throughout the site to help predict these individual restrictions to you.

In order to carry out these works we must ask you to ensure that vehicles are not parked on the affected stretch of carriageway during these hours. Advance warning signs will be in place confirming the start date and expected duration although this is subject to change due to extenuating circumstances. If it is necessary to adjust these details, the warning signs will be altered accordingly.

Should you require further information regarding these works then please do not hesitate to contact us during office hours on 0300 300 8049. We apologise for any disruption this may cause and thank you in anticipation of your cooperation.

Farmers' market

Farmers market this morning. Bought 2 applies pies and a slice of carrot cake from Sue. The only stall. Anyone any ideas for what next?

News Central

I'm wondering what the future of News Central, Central Beds' quarterly newsletter is. Communities secretary Eric Pickles has asserted that there will be a crack down on what have been called 'Town Hall Pravdas' (Chicksands Daily Telegraph to give it is local variation) . It's hard to tell how much money will be saved but local government of whatever political persuasion has struggled to get a fair hearing with the local media. There is the added difficulty that the free papers do not necessarily reach everyone and there are plenty of people who are not internet junkies - unlike the parishmatters blogger! So how will people be informed both about what is being done and how they can participate?

Wind turbines

It was interesting at the Parish Council on Wednesday there was no majority in favour of a protest about proposals for a wind turbine in Marston. A new collection of turbines are peeping over the trees in the direction of Emberton. Personally I believe we have to accommodate ourselves, at some point, to proximity to our sources of energy. Wind turbines are pretty benign compared to a multi-gigawatt power station either coal or nuclear.

Land swap

The chair of governors from Cranfield Lower School and the head teacher attended on Wed evening to discuss the possibility of a landswap between part of the recreation ground and the land allocated to the school on Home farm. They point out that that land on Home Farm is entirely useless to them because of the remoteness from the main site.

This has been manifestly obvious to just about everyone from the word go - a word spoken eight or nine years ago. The only reason large scale housing development got the go-ahead from an earlier enquiry was because it was ruled that this extra land would allow the lower school to grow sufficiently. Education capacity had hitherto been a stumbling block. But this solution is nonsense given the age group concerned. There is even money - more than £100,000 - for a toilet block on the site which needs to be repatriated to the main site somehow, otherwise it will be lost.

Cycle track

There is £100,000 in the Home farm 106 agreement for the cycle path to the uni plus upgrading the path between Church Walk and Court Road and creating a anew footpath and cycleway on the north side of Court Road between the school and the High Street. Found this out at the home farm stakeholder meeting on Thursday. But no one knows how this is to be prioritised. Investigations continue.

Community Hall

Persimmon's community hall looks better in colour with a few illustrative trees behind it. It will have neither a tin roof nor a turf roof (turf roofs are looking a bit yellow at the moment according to MW). Most the meeting was updating with news of the Phase 2 application going in soon and phase 1 being approved in the near future.

I asked about environmental standards for the community hall. These will be to Breeam ' very good'. BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) is the leading and most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings. It sets the standard for best practice in sustainable design and has become the de facto measure used to describe a building's environmental performance.

There is an 'excellent' standard that should be aspired to I believe but additional funding would be needed to upgrade. I will be asking the PC to investigate those extra costs and establish whether there are funding streams that could help bridge the difference. In simple energy costs good design will pay for itself and water conservation will become vital in the future (another dry summer looming).

Lodge Road

Designs have arrived for the development of Lodge Road. Sure enough we have indications of a 'No Left turn' sign out of Lodge road (subject to traffic regulation order). There is the beginning of the cycle way at the top of Lodge Road - subject to working with the university and potential funders to create a full length one. The bus stop on the west side has to be relocated and of course there is the roundabout. Now that there is progress on the No Left Turn into Lodge Road this is probably the remaining area of particular concern as it will have to process an awful lot of traffic.

Update

Big gap again due to day jobs and heat (my excuse any way).

Here are the headlines:

Deal on location of houses on Goodman land in relation to Maple Way brokered.

Still complaints from Willow and Plough about location of Community Building on Home Farm

Yet another hitch over timing of traffic calming. The tale of some lost money and whether St Modwen occupation had actually triggered its release.

Significant progress made it getting a 'no left turn' out of Home farm into Lodge Road. A key Parish Councillor goal in the recent discussions.