Covid Update

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South Cambridgshire District News

Covid-19 update – February half term 2021

Dear members, volunteer coordinators and parish councillors

We wanted to send you a different sort of update for half term this week.

If you click on the following link, you will be able to view our half term update on Sway. This update intends to step back from the day to day running of your groups and to offer some bigger picture ideas for staying afloat during the pandemic and reducing loneliness in your communities, with inspiration from other groups within the district and across the country.

Staying afloat|18 Feb 2021

We are in the midst of a third lockdown and midwinter, though recent spells of sunshine have helped to ease it. This has the potential to be a dark time for many. The high of coming togethe…

Go to this Sway

Two other brief updates for this week, as we won’t be sending the usual e-bulletin on Thursday.

PPE for carers

The Government has confirmed that unpaid carers across the country, who do not live with the people they care for, can now benefit from free Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) through a new national scheme. Locally, if someone is a carer to a relative, and requires PPE, they could be entitled to free PPE until the end of June 2021. They will need to email to request an order form. PPE can then be collected from a PPE Hub in the county – these are based in Peterborough, Huntingdon, March, Cambridge (Trumpington).

Half term activities

We are seeing the vaccine roll out happen at great pace and over 12 million people have now received their COVID-19 jab. It is also very encouraging to see infection rates start to fall. This is mainly driven by the current lockdown and social distancing. However, the drop in positive cases will take longer to filter through to the number of deaths and hospitals are still under huge pressure. There are reasons to be hopeful and it is good to see the sacrifices of lockdown making a difference, but to ensure infection rates and hospital admissions continue going in the right direction, and to keep ourselves and those around us safe, it remains as important as ever to continue following the rules.

 

The County Council will be sharing ideas of things to do with children during half term on their social channels (Facebook or Twitter), and would encourage you to share these posts within your communities if you find them helpful.

 

Best wishes for the half term

Bill Handley

 

Lead Cabinet Member for Community Resilience, Health & Wellbeing

South Cambridgeshire District Council

Bitcoin Scams

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Neighbourhood Watch

We’re warning the public to be vigilant of unsolicited emails promoting cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) investment opportunities. We’ve received over 750 reports this week about Bitcoin-related phishing emails that use fake celebrity endorsements to try and lure victims into investment scams. The links in the emails lead to fraudulent websites that are designed to steal your money, as well as personal and financial information.

How you can protect yourself:

To see examples of the Bitcoin-related phishing emails that have been reported to us, follow Action Fraud on Twitter or Facebook.

EWR Update

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Parish Council News

Councillor Andy Martin attended recent meetings by Anthony Browne MP and, separately, by the Haslingfield-based action group Cambridge Approaches (CA).

Anthony Browne has written to the Railways Minister Chris Heaton-Harris to ask for another public consoltation on the EWR route into Cambridge. See Anthony’s Facebook page for the response from Chris Heaton-Harris and Anthony’s comments. Anthony believes the original public consulation was flawed and that fair consideration was not given to all routes into Cambridge nor that the public were properly consulted.

Following on from the above, the Hasligfield action group (CA) has been busy. There is now a well organized team helping CA based in Eversden. Eversden were on the CA call and stated that they had set up a working party to tackel EWR comprising of a legal group, marketing group and fund raising group. CA with the support of Eversden has engaged Leigh Day solicitors to prepare a legal challenge to any southern route proposed by EWR. The group missed the period allowed for a legal challenge on the current EWR option E route, but are planning to challenge future detailed route plans if they can.

CA have asked local Parish Councils to sign a letter to the DoT asking for fair evalutation of a northern route:

“We, the undersigned, request that the Department for Transport ensures that the proposal for a Northern route for the Central Section of the East West Rail, such as that proposed by CamBedRailRoad with widespread support amongst residents of South Cambridgeshire, is fairly evaluated at the same time and to the same degree as alternative routes proposed by East West Rail Company.”

They are also asking people to sign a petition which is on the CamBedRailRoad website. The goal is for 10,000 signatures. So far there are 6500.

If you have any comments or questions on EWR please contact Barton Parish Council through the website or through the clerk.

 

 

Free Gravel or Casing The Joint?

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Neighbourhood Watch

Some weeks ago it was reported that two white males in a transit van were offering free gravel whilst looking at people’s houses in Comberton. Since then several sheds have been broken into. They were seen in Kingston and Toft recently as well.

They are known to the police, so if you see them in action phone 999. The vehicle reg is FV16 KXJ.

Panther Taxis Transport Support

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Panther Taxis

Panther Taxis are offering FREE* transport (up to the value of £10 each way), in partitioned vehicles, to those without transport; who are vulnerable or need ‘door to door’ assistance and/or financial support to get to their vaccination appointment simply and safely.

 

You can take advantage of this free transport offer in 3 simple steps:

1 – Call 01223 715715 quoting ‘vaccine help’ and state your appointment time and destination.

2 – We will collect you and take you to your destination.

You will only pay any outstanding balance for the journey over £10.

3 – Call 01223 715715 when your appointment is finished (quoting ‘vaccine help’) and we will collect you within 10 minutes of your call.

When you reach your destination, you will only pay any outstanding balance for the journey over £10.

We are funding and facilitating these vital journeys with an initial £10,000 ‘Covid fighting fund’ for those that need help most across Cambridge – a commitment to local people from your local independent taxi company.

In a time when safety is paramount, we also wanted to highlight the 5 points of protection that we have implemented in order to protect our customers on their journeys.

1 – Partitioned vehicles available

2 – Drivers & passengers wearing face coverings

3️ – Vehicles cleaned between journeys

4 – Hand sanitiser available

5️ – Contactless payment

Please SHARE, and spread the word so that we can get the message out there to those who need our support the most.

*Journeys to and from Cambridge vaccination centres up to the value of £10 each way

Kind regards,
Paul Clare,
General Manager.

Urgent Request for Volunteers

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CAPALC News

Urgent Request for Volunteer Support

Due to the large number of Vaccine Hubs, urgent support is required at one of our testing hubs within the region.

The roles range from queue management, registration assistant (welcoming people to the testing site), test operative (actually processing the testing sample, in full PPE, training provided), result logger (logs result), evaluation (asks people why they’ve come, would they come again) and general role (would include cleaning).

Fen Road, Cambridge
The test site is open Thursday 28th to Sunday 31st 10- 6pm.  Staff would be expected to arrive by 9.15/9.30 latest.  The last test is 5.30pm, so we would hope staff could finish by 6.15-6.30.

If you are in a position where you can help support the testing hub, please contact Nikitta Vanterpool – 

COVID 19: Vaccine Fraud

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Government Counter Fraud Function

Criminals are using the COVID-19 vaccine as a way to target the public by tricking them to hand over cash or financial details. They are sending convincing-looking text messages letting people know they are eligible for the vaccine or phoning people directly pretending to be from the NHS, or local pharmacy.

 

See attached guide for details.

Winter Grants Fund Available

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Dear Residents,

Barton Parish Council (BPC) have received a small Winter Grants Fund to help families who may be in need of some emergency help with food, fuel or other essential services.  This fund has to be allocated by the 31st of March or returned to South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC).  If you are a family in need of this help with at least one child under the age of 18 on 1st January 2021, then please contact the Clerk (Ian Minto) on 07742 256557. The Terms and Conditions are as follows:-

 

  1. This funding can only be used to help families in South Cambridgeshire who had at least one child under the age of 18 on 1st Jan 2021.
  2. This funding should only be used to help families with emergency provision of food, fuel or other essential services or items.
  3. BPC can either help individual families or help families in the community collectively through foodhubs or other community schemes.
  4. BPC will need to keep records of those helped and report these to SCDC at the end of March 2021. BPC will need to collect the postcode of the family helped and the support/funds they received and what this was for. If we are helping through community provision SCDC will need to know the numbers of people using the service.
  5. SCDC will ask BPC to provide information on a form of the expenditure we have made.
  6. SCDC will ask BPC for case studies or comments to show how the money has been used, but these will not be compulsory.
  7. All money must be spent or allocated by 31st March 2021. Any money remaining will need to be returned to CCVS.
  8. Organisations can use up to 20% of the funding they receive to cover the costs of delivering the support.

If you are experiencing difficulties and do not meet the criteria mentioned above, then please do speak to the Clerk as we may still be able to help.

Families wishing to apply for access to this grant need to speak to Ian Minto (The Parish Clerk) on 07742 256557.

Parish Council Notes

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Parish Council News

The last Parish Council meeting was held 5th January.

Cycling on the Pavement

Cycling on the pavement between the gap between cycle paths on New Road and Comberton Road was discussed at the last Parish Council meeting. The Parish Council would like to remind cyclists that it is illegal to ride on a pavement with risk of a fine and injury or damage claim should an accident occur. Cyclist should dismount at the end of cycle paths if they wish to use the pavement. We understand the concerns about crossing on a bike to continue cycling on the road at Kings Grove and the lower end of Comberton Road, but there is also a concern about cycling illegally on a narrow pavement. Barton Greenways project has budget approval and should address road safety for cyclists through the village centre. In the meantime, cyclist should dismount and walk their bikes on the pavement if they do not wish to ride on the road.

Recreation Ground Car Park

The car park at the recreation ground is open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm with volunteers opening and closing the gate. The Parish Council are looking for more volunteers. Please contact Councillor Chloe Langford if you are willing to help.

Local Highways Initiative Bid

The Local Highways Initiative (LHI) bid was approved at the Parish Council meeting. The next stage is for our application to go before a panel on 8th February. This panel will review all Cambridgeshire bids over a number of sessions and apply scores to each. The penel review and scores will then be presented to the Highways and Transport committe in June. Successful candidates will be notified soon after. Our bid focusses on 40 mph buffer zones around the village. Barton Greenways plan includes reducing the speed limit through the village centre to 20 mph and will include traffic calming measures, so no need to dulicate that part of our village wide plans. If successful, the Parish Council contribution will be £10,000.00.

East West Rail

East West Rail will make public their route options early 2021. This is a delay by a few months. Barton Parish Council had a presentation by CamBedsRailRoad group on 1st December. CBRR are pushing for EWR to reconsider a route into North Cambridge. However, EWR did respond to CBRR proposals late 2019. In return, CBRR have responded back. Barton Parish Council has reviewed both responses and counter responses. There are issues with CBRR proposal in that it might include knocking down new houses in NorthStowe and building a track across Coldham Common (a legally protected area). A northern route into Cambridge would not impact Barton, but it is not obvious that EWR would go that way for the reasons outlined in chapter 16 of their Route Option Report of 2019 . Cambridgshire County Council report a backing for a pause in the plans and to ask EWR for a complete review.

 

Please feel free to comment on the above.

 

 

Twelve Days of Christmas

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Parish News

Did you find all twelve days of Christmas?

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping
Ten lords a leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a milking
Seven swans a swimming, six geese a laying, five gold rings
Four calling birds, three French hens
Two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree

 

  1. Partridge in a Pear Tree (New Road)
  2. Two Turtle Doves (Kings Grove)
  3. Three French Hens (New Road)
  4. Four Calling Birds (High Street)
  5. Five Gold Rings (Hines Close)
  6. Six Geese a Laying (New Road)
  7. Seven Swans a Swimming (Kings Grove)
  8. Eight Maids a Milking (Comberton Road)
  9. Nine Ladies Dancing (Mailes Close)
  10. Ten Lords a Leaping (Comberton Road)
  11. Eleven Pipers Piping (Roman Hill)
  12. Twelve Drummers Drumming (Comberton Road)

Barton Parish Council wish to thank all who participated.