Planning applications have started including active travel routes, but they are so often poorly thought out or turn out to be ‘optional’ for the developers. It feels like so many active travel routes don’t link up to anywhere. Take the Leisure Village, the developers told me that they weren’t responsible for making sure their cycle […]

Before the start of the meeting, prayers were said, followed by a minute’s silence for Walter Bebbington, a former Councillor and former Mayor of Ely, who died recently. The meeting is the first of the new year and the new council. As the Annual Council Meeting, the first action is to elect the chair and […]

A busy week but mainly routine items for noting. Firstly was a Pensions Fund Investment Sub-Committee, followed by the Audit & Accounts Committee. Cambridgeshire County Council Pension Fund Quarterly Performance Report for the period ending 31st March 2023 An interesting update shows the fund’s value rising to £4.217bn while the liabilities were only £2.8bn – […]

Below are the planning applications for Ely submitted in the last week Reference: 23/00500/FUL             Date application valid:    15th May 2023 Location:              60 Silver Street Ely Cambridgeshire CB7 4JF Proposal:             Replacement windows to front Reference: 23/00386/FUL             Date application valid:    9th May 2023 Location:              7 Egremont Street Ely Cambridgeshire CB6 1AE Proposal:             Two storey & single storey […]

What a full council agenda it proved to be. The most emotional point of the meeting was then a speech from a care-experienced woman. She told of the challenges this brought to her life and how it never goes away, despite being near the end of a successful university course. The challenges faced by care-experienced […]

The new administration at Cambridgeshire County Council made a small change to the constitution at the annual meeting taking a small step towards inclusivity. Conservative Councillors tried to kick the constitution changes into the long grass but they were passed. Headline grabbing stories of savings on Councillor Allowance of £72k overshadowed a short paragraph Using […]

At this morning’s Annual Council meeting, the new Joint Administration of Cambridgeshire County Council has been put in place, with councillors elected to key leadership positions. The meeting was in the unusual setting of The Duxford Air Museum and required 2m spacing between all our seats. Cllr Lucy Nethsingha (Lib Dem) is the new Leader […]

East Cambridgeshire District Council (ECDC) has thrown its future behind the commercial activity of its trading company, East Cambs Trading Company Ltd (ECTC). The problem is that the published accounts for that company do not make good reading with results showing losses and yet more losses. In fact, accumulated losses according to the published accounts […]

Recently ECDC approved their own development on the former site of Paradise Pool in Ely, despite local opposition. There is always a problem when organisations become short of money as they reach for more and more desperate measures to fill that funding gap. ECDC have become the pure image of desperation as they seek to […]

The Local Restrictions Support Grant has been created to provide support to businesses where the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has required the closure of their business under regulations made in response to the threat posed by SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19). To be eligible for the grant, firstly organisations must be included within the […]