SCDC News
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Barton Parish Councillors attended the East West Rail “South Cambridgeshire” local councillors meeting Thursday 27 May 2021. The meeting, hosted by EWR, lasted more than 90 minutes and started with a small presentation followed by a Q&A session. The main topics covered were the rationale behind choosing the route south into Cambridge over the route north; the height and length of embankments and via ducts; compensation; diesel over electric. The chat was live and provided an insight into the audiences views on the project, which, needless to say, was anti EWR and the southern route.
EWR tried to justify the requirement for four tracks into Cambridge north when two tracks seem to be fine through Harston by claiming that there would be time-table clashes coming in from the north which are not there in the south on the Kings Cross line. EWR promised to provide the detail on this point. Obviously if four tracks are not required for the northern route, then the cost would be lower, property would not need to be destroyed, and new bridges would not be required.
EWR claim that new technology would probably be ready in the next nine years to replace diesel trains and avoid electrifying the line. However, they have not dismissed using electric trains if they have to. Hydrogen trains are being trialled in Germany and Hitachi plan to trial a battery powered train in the UK next year. So it is possible that diesel will not be required at all by 2030 nor electrifying the line become a requirement.
On embankments, EWR say that they will be working to minimise costs in the detailed design and so will reduce embankment heights where they can. I think everyone should be aware that a track at ground level will reduce noise and be visually less intrusive, but could be at the cost of cutting footpaths, permissive routes and bridleways. With embankments these could be maintained as it is easier to run a tunnel through an embankment as it is being built rather than bridges over the railway. Noise has to be kept to 55 dB as required by the environmental agency. However, the World Health Organization suggest a night-time limit should be 45 dB to protect health.
EWR will review the trenching and culvert system suggested by CamBedRoadRail. This is an alternative to embankments and viaducts across floodplains. It is likely that this scheme will be dismissed on cost, both capital and operational. CBRR pushed for this to be studied though and EWR said they would look again.
The business case for going south rather than north was also discussed. EWR talked about the importance of supporting jobs growth in south Cambridge around the medical campus. This was questioned as details and plans are not available yet.
(In a separate meeting, Chris Heaton-Harris said that the route into Cambridge was consulted on a few years ago and that the route would be in to Cambridge South and that this was vital to support companies moving or that have moved on to the Medical Campus. It seems like a done deal from his point of view!)
Parish News
26 residents attended the East West Rail drop-in presentation at the recreation ground pavilion on a very wet Monday afternoon and evening. Thank you for all who braved the rain!
Maps of alignment routes from Cambourne North and Cambourne South were displayed with elevation details added to give an idea of the impact of the proposed routes that would affect our closest neighbours. In addition, envirnomental maps covering these routes were also shown. All other documents and maps provided by EWR were available.
The main questions were over the northern route into Cambridge and why that was not considered in more detail by EWR; freight train movements; diesel; passenger numbers; and frequency of trains.
The Parish Council welcome all comments and feedback so that we can compile our response to the EWR consultation in a way that reflects our residents views. If you have comments then please email the clerk.
In addition, we would encourage everyone to read up on EWR alignment proposals and complete the consultation form.
Parish News
We can confirm that the Pavilion on the recreation ground is booked from 3 pm to 7 pm next Monday (17th May 2021) for a drop-in session so that Barton Parish Council can canvas views on the EWR consultation. Barton Parish Council will respond to EWR proposals and we want to make sure that we present and answers questions where we can on these proposals and gather your views. Whist EWR proposals do not impact Barton directly, they will impact our neighbouring parishes.
There is a feedback form to complete that is available on EWR website for both individuals and other organizations such as the Parish Council. There is a lot of information on their website and we have two sets of hardcopies of the consultation documents that we will have at the Pavilion. We will also display maps provided by EWR and have some printouts of their fact sheets. EWR have held several webinars where they have presented their schemes and followed up with seminars answering questions. Your Parish Councillor and working group members have attended as many seminars as possible. In addition, independent research has been conducted so that we are in a position to challenge EWR and also engage in a meaningful way with various campaign groups and local politicians.
We do have to follow COVID guidelines on Monday by restricting the numbers inside the Pavilion to six members of the public and two councillors at any one time. We will enter from the front and exit from the rear. Please bring along your own pens and face coverings (masks are a BRIG requirement), and be prepared with questions.
We hope that this will be an informative event. We look forward to seeing you and look forward to your feedback and comments.
Next week (17th to 23 May 2021) is Global Road Safety Week.
Global Road Safety Week 2021 offers us an opportunity to keep local communities safe by tackling neighbourhood speeding. Neighbourhood teams, Roads Policing, Special Constables and volunteer groups, such as local ‘Speedwatch’, should be deployed to work together and provide lots of visibility as a deterrent to those who put others at risk by speeding on what we often perceive to be low speed streets. Given that the UK had (pre-COVID) on average 5 road deaths per day, and many more seriously injured, safe and responsible road use is clearly everyone’s responsibility and by joining this effort your teams and the public can certainly reduce the likelihood of road and vehicle related harm occurring in their local communities during Global Road Safety week 2021. https://www.unroadsafetyweek.org/en/home
Parish News
We are now allowed to conduct Community Speedwatch sessions. Our first one was last Wednesday morning on Haslingfield Road. 100 vehicles were counted in the hour coming in to Barton with three travelling through the speedwatch site at over 35 mph. Our MVAS unit was also active at the same spot.
MVAS data was downloaded today from Haslingfield Road. Over 42,000 vehicles passed the site coming in to Barton during the 35 day period. 30% were travelling at more than 35 mph with a top speed of 78 mph. v85, which is the key number for Highways, was 39 mph. This is an increase of 2 mph from the previous monitoring on the road.
We should hear confirmation of our LHI bid sometime in June or July. Then we can start work with Highways to add buffers around the village to, hopefully, reduce speeds entering the 30 mph zones. More details will follow.
We plan to hold a public meeting on EWR if allowed. Our current plan is to hire the Pavilion at the recreation ground on Monday 17th May 2021 from 15:00 to 19:00 (3 pm to 7 pm). We will display the maps we have been sent from EWR of the routes from Cambourne to Harston and have some of the documentation on show.
As a Parish Council, we have been following the debate on EWR from Cambridge Approaches, CamBedRoadRail, Anthony Browne MP and through direct contact with EWR. In addition we have conducted our own research on some topics to fact check various issues.
This meeting will give us the opportunity to gauge opinion as the Parish Council should response to EWR consultation on behalf of residents. Residents are also encouraged to respond as individuals.
Please note that there is another EWR virtual meeting organized on 27th May for this area and EWR would like questions submitted by 20th May for that meeting.
We will confirm the date, time and venue as soon as we can.
EWR are holding more webinars in May. Some of relevance to South Cambridgeshire, so if you are interested in the route between Cambourne and Haslingfield, then try and attend one of the sessions.
Webinar sessions
Please see below for the full list of future webinar sessions covering each section of the Consultation Document.
Clapham Green to The Eversdens (all)
Tuesday 11 May, 2pm – 3pm
Clapham Green to The Eversdens (focusing on the eastern part of this section)
Tuesday 11 May, 7pm – 8pm
Clapham Green to The Eversdens (focused on the western part of this section)
Monday 17 May, 7pm – 8pm
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Harlton to Hauxton* and The Shelfords to Cambridge
Tuesday 11 May, 11am – 12pm
*Please note that this event was originally focused on Section E of the Consultation Document (Harlton to Hauxton) and will now be a combined event that will also cover Section F of the Consultation Document (The Shelfords to Cambridge)
——–
The Shelfords to Cambridge* and Harlton to Hauxton
Monday 10 May, 7pm – 8pm
*Please note that this event was originally focused on Section F of the Consultation Document (The Shelfords to Cambridge) and will now be a combined event that will also cover Section E of the Consultation Document (Harlton to Hauxton)
For details of all EWR events, to download copies of the consultation documents or videos from previous sessions, to order print copies for you or someone else, to view the proposals with our interactive maps, or to walk around EWR virtual consultation rooms, visit the consultation page of the EWR Co website, where you will find everything you need to understand and respond the proposals.
Dear Residents,
As a result of a little more freedom and the lovely weather, opportunistic theft and burglary rear their ugly heads.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning (21st April), an outbuilding of a property on the High Street was broken into.
Nothing appears to have been taken and anything of value has now been removed by the owner and reported to the police.
It is however a reminder to lock sheds and buildings at night, and alarm them if possible. Padlocking a number of items together making the theft of them difficult can be off-putting to the person who wants to ‘grab and go’.
Please report any crime to the police or to your Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator (details below).
101 Takes you through to Cambourne police station or use the link to report a non-emergency crime Report a crime online (cambs.police.uk). 999 is for emergencies and life threatening
For those of you that know myself and Pcso John Coppard this email is to say we will very sadly be leaving our jobs as PCSO’s.
Between the two of us we have around 25 years’ experience covering South Cambs, with the majority of it around the Cambourne/Melbourn/Bassingbourn beat areas.
We both love neighbourhood policing and working with key individual networks in the village as well as liaising with schools and councils, problem solving and trying to make your communities as safe as possible, we believe between the 2 of us covering a vast area in South Cambs we have done the job to the best of our abilities with the lack of resources and we would like to hope that we have made all the communities a safer place to live in.
Some highlights over the years for us have been multiple drug seizures in villages, gathering intelligence and acting up on it which resulted in a high volume of cannabis factories detected with one of them even making front page of the national press, working with schools and colleges educating students on different topics, Modern day Slavery incidents, and protecting the most vulnerable in the villages.
As many of you might be aware the Pcso’s jobs were at risk at the back end of last year with the force having to make further budget cuts leaving the force with around 40 pcso’s. John and I managed to keep our jobs as Pcso’s but not knowing what the future was going to be for this role which we both believe is so valuable to our communities we have decided to join up as serving police officers.
The good news about this though is that once we have completed our training and done 10 weeks on shift we can come back to our neighbourhoods (as promised by the chief constable) and carry on with our role which we know extremely well.
We should both be returning to Cambourne station around December time, so in the long run this will be good news.
Some of you may know Pcso Lindsay Gardiner and she will be returning to work in the near future along with Pcso Davey who will come over from St Neots at the end of May, there are also 2 Police now officers based out of Cambourne.
We do try extremely hard to manage a vast area approx. 110 villages/towns and we will target the areas that need us the most so please be patient when you are waiting for replies, the best way to contact us would be through the below email address:
Thanks for your continued support and feel free to pass this on to anyone else who might like to know and we will see you on the other side.
Stay safe,
John Coppard
Wimpole Road was closed for 3 hour on Friday afternoon to deal with a three car accident. This happened right in front of the speed camera. There is a detailed report in the Cambridge Evening Post.
This is a stark reminder to local authorities that speeding vehicles is an issue on the busy roads through Barton. our Parish Council has applied for an LHI grant to help pay for much needed traffic calming measures. We are confident that our bid will be successful and that our community will be supportive in starting to make our roads safer.
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