COVID Community Update

/in /by

COVID community update – 27 January 2022

Dear volunteer coordinators and Parish Councillors,

COVID-19 picture locally

With COVID-19 ‘Plan B’ restrictions largely now ended (as of today – 27 January), I just want to share an update on the COVID-19 picture locally, as provided by our Health partners.

Cambridge has one of the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country, and across Cambridgeshire as a whole, rates are at an average of around 1,700 cases per 100,000 people. More than 50% of these cases are in schools and, sadly, there’s no proper indication locally that rates are coming down yet.

Cambridgeshire County Council (which leads on Public Health in our region) has today launched its new ‘COVID Cautious’ campaign, encouraging people to keep doing many of the things they’ve been doing for some time in order to deal with high rates. Please help us to get this information out to residents by sharing these posts via Facebook and Twitter into your communities. As we’ve said before – the pandemic isn’t over yet, and we can still help by following some simple guidelines such as continuing to wear masks in higher risk settings. You can read more about the current COVID-19 guidance on the Government website.

Vaccination update: pop-up in Cambourne

There is a ‘pop-up’ vaccination clinic happening in Cambourne on Wednesday 2 February. Anyone 16+ can walk-in for a first or second dose (Pfizer), or a third ‘primary’ dose for eligible individuals. Anyone who is eligible for their ‘booster’ dose can also walk-in on the day.

  • First, Second, Third and Booster doses available
  • 10am to 4pm, no appointment needed
  • Wednesday 2 February
  • Upper Cambourne Cricket Pavilion, Back Lane, Upper Cambourne, CB23 6BP

Again, please share our posts via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram into your communities – additionally a poster is attached which you are welcome to print / share in your communities. This poster also answers some vaccination FAQs.

For the latest information about where vaccinations can be accessed, please visit www.thevaccinators.co.uk. And for transport to appointments, please remember Cambridgeshire County Council’s ‘Vaxi Taxi’ scheme, where the County Council will cover the cost of the taxi journey.

Request personalised guidance for your project

Do you want to create a social group for people in your community who feel isolated? Or to tackle a community safety concern such as antisocial behaviour? Maybe you want to improve your village’s green credentials such as by planting trees?

We know it can feel challenging to keep up with the number of different toolkits and grants on offer to support positive action in your community, which is why we’ve created a new service to provide personalised advice.

Whatever challenge you’d like to tackle, we can provide personalised guidance for you. This advice could be pointing you to another village that has successfully overcome the challenge, or by introducing you to them for tips; letting you know which grants you could be eligible for; and signposting you to a relevant toolkit for more ideas and guidance. Fill in our short form to receive personalised advice from one of our team about funding and how to get started.

Bill

Bill Handley

Lead Cabinet Member for Community Resilience, Health and Wellbeing

South Cambridgeshire District Council

Save the Date

/in /by

The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations are from 2nd to 5th June 2022. Barton plan to hold our celebration on Saturday 4th June. Save the date!

CSET Busway Survey

/in /by

Have your say on GCP proposals for their CSET busway

In the next few weeks, we may see our County Council vote to progress a new busway (a purpose-built road for buses only) built entirely through the countryside to connect the Biomedical Campus with a new park and ride near Babraham.

Many residents and their parish councils, as well as prominent environmental and transport groups, have expressed grave concerns about the CSET proposals. These include the unnecessary destruction of our countryside and the cost of the project, which may not represent good value for taxpayers’ money.

I have many concerns about the proposals, and I am very aware that many residents of South Cambridgeshire rely on transport links into Cambridge. It is therefore vital that I fully understand your views on this.

If you have two minutes, please do fill out my short survey below so I can better represent your views to the GCP, the County Council, and the Department of Transport. Click here fill in my survey

Cambridge Past, Present, and Future have compiled a useful summary of the main concerns here.

My column from 2021 makes the case for a rethink on off-road busways.

Anthony Browne MP

Park on the Road

/in /by

Parish Council asks all residents and their visitors to please park on the road. We continue to receive complaints from pavement users about inappropriate parking. Many motorists think that parking on the pavement helps avoid traffic congestion but forget the impact on pavement users. The main road where pavements are shared with cyclists (Comberton Road) is the biggest problem. In fact parking on the road would be far better as it slows traffic down. Recent MVAS data show speeds of 38 mph (v85) on Comberton Road at Foxcote with a top speed of 77 mph. Other areas of the village where vehicles park on the pavement are the High Street. Again parking on the road would reduce traffic speed and High Street is another road where we receive complaints about speeding vehicles.

Many thanks for being considerate to pavements users and many thanks for helping reduce speeds on through roads in Barton.

Green Bins Collections Start Again

/in /by

Dear parish council colleagues

 

We wanted to write to you to let you know the plans to resume the monthly green bin collection from Wednesday. For full details please read our press release, with FAQs, on our website.

 

In summary, collections will resume from this Wednesday, 12 January, and we are asking residents to put their green bins out on their scheduled collection day. We’re also reminding people to check the existing (festive) schedule (as printed in South Cambs Magazine and available on the website), because collection days are not yet back into the normal repeat pattern following the bank holidays over Christmas and New Year.

 

The intention is to empty all green bins in line with the published schedule. However, because there are still several absences and vacancies, any green bins that are missed will not be emptied until the next scheduled collection in February. This is because there are not enough waste crews to return to empty these missed green bins. Any homes that are unfortunately missed will be prioritised for the subsequent collection.

 

Should you wish to share the news about green bin collections resuming within your communities, please feel free to share our Facebook post or Tweet.

 

Best wishes

Hannah

Police and Crime Commissioner Survey

/in /by

Good  afternoon

Police and Crime Commissioner, Darryl Preston has today launched an online survey asking for people’s views on his proposed increase to the policing part of council tax.

Please take a few minutes to complete the survey – a link is provided below or you will find it on the Commissioner’s website (cambridgeshire-pcc.gov.uk).

The Police & Crime Commissioner for Cambridgeshire | Consultations & Surveys (cambridgeshire-pcc.gov.uk)

Many thanks and a happy new year.

Catherine

Message Sent By
Catherine Kimberley (Police, OPCC Communications Officer, Cambridgeshire)

Parish Council Meeting Delay

/in /by

Parish News

Dear Residents,

The January meeting of BARTON PARISH COUNCIL scheduled to be held in the Village Hall, School Lane, Barton CB23 7BD on TUESDAY 4th January 2022 at 7:30 pm has been POSTPONED due to Councillor absence and will now be held on:

TUESDAY 11th January 2022 at 7:30 pm at Barton Village Hall

The Agenda will be published on Tuesday 4th January and any request to speak in the public forum should be sent to the clerk by 10 am on Tuesday 11th January.

Apologies for any inconvenience,

Ian Minto, Parish Clerk

Advent Calendar

/in /by

Parish News

Did you find all the advent windows? Let us know which were your favorites and please send us photos. Thank you to all the households that took part in this year’s event and, on behalf or the Parish Council, we wish everyone a save and enjoyable Christmas.

Are you leaving the door open for Hackers?

/in /by

Neighbourhood Watch

Why are software updates important?

Software updates are an important part of staying secure online. But why? You’ll often hear about the new features or performance improvements in a software update, but what isn’t talked about as often are the bug fixes and security improvements. Out-of-date software and apps contain weaknesses. This makes them easier to hack. Companies fix the weaknesses by releasing updates. When you update your devices and software, this helps to keep hackers out.

Why would cyber criminals target me?

Your device contains a lot of personal data that is highly valuable if it fell into the hands of a fraudster. The likelihood is your device will contain your full name, date of birth, address, bank details, passwords, as well as many other forms of personal data such as private photos or videos.

Improve your online security by using automatic software updates

We understand it can sometimes be annoying to remember to update your devices every time a new update is released, that’s why we encourage you to enable automatic updates wherever it’s available. That means you don’t have to manually install updates every time they’re released.

We’ve provided some useful links below where you can find step by step instructions on how to enable automatic updates for your devices and apps.

For more of the government’s latest advice on how to stay secure online, visit the Cyber Aware website: www.cyberaware.gov.uk
 
Thanks for reading! If you found this information useful, please help us spread the word by forwarding this email to your friends.Message Sent By
Action Fraud (Action Fraud, Administrator, National)

County Councillor Report

/in /by

Attached is the latest report from our County Councillor Michael Atkins.

Summary:

  • Covid-19: Omicron variant & Boosters
  • Household support fund: vouchers and funds for essential costs this winter
  • Holiday activities and food programme: childcare through the holidays
  • Computers for Families winter appear: please consider donating
  • Roman history unearthed in Cambridgeshire: a UK first!
  • Contact details