Out & About... Fit 4 fun...

Out and about with...
Ken Churchill...

Saturday 13th April

I now declare...

Ken together with members of the Little Paxton Parish Council, Little Paxton Scouts and many residents from the village, gathered together to officially welcome the installation of new leisure facilities on the Queen Elizabeth II playing field. Residents comments were very positive about the new equipment.

"These facilities are excellent." One resident remarked.

"What a fantastic thing for our village."

The installation of seventeen items of outdoor gym equipment and eleven items of fitness trail equipment means that at any one time 40 people can use the facilities at the same time!

Included is a cross country skier, a double air walker, Tai Chi spinners, a double rower and a seated leg press. There are also facilities especially for disabled people to use including an arm and pedal bike and a combination seated chest press with a pull down challenger. 

Ken says: "The fitness trail looks really inviting. Hopefully a lot of people in the village will reap the benefits these facilities have to offer. People of all ages can use this fantastic equipment."

All images and text © cg-photography
Promoted by Carol Gamby on behalf of Ken Churchill and Bob Farrer all of 83 Huntingdon Street, St Neots, Cambridgeshire, PE19 1DU

Where have all the people gone?

St Neots High Street...
Where have all the people gone?

For many, many years St Neots high street on any Friday morning has been alive with the hustle and bustle of people going about their business. It is now a distressing and rather sad sight. The roads are full of traffic while the pavements are empty of pedestrians. The shops are empty of customers and the car parks are now empty of vehicles.

Councillors Churchill and Farrer witnessed the scene with their own eyes while meeting with Highways agency personnel in the High Street recently.

Not a busy time for St Neots.

Bob explained. 

"Ken and I were in town for a meeting about the new traffic system we have been consulting on for the past twelve months. I was taken aback at the numbers of people about in the town. At one stage I counted just five shoppers, yet the road was bumper to bumper. Where is everybody?"

Recent published figures show a significant drop of 20% in foot-fall figures for St Neots.  The Tebbuts Road car-park image, recorded at 10:30am demonstrates the problem facing our small businesses and shopkeepers only too well. 

Bob says: "Both Ken and I are determined to do something about this situation. The council, against better judgment went against our advice and increased the cost to park for one hour from 60p to 80p. It's no wonder people are avoiding the town."

Twelve cars. One van. Too few people!

All images and text © cg-photography
Promoted by Carol Gamby on behalf of Ken Churchill and Bob Farrer all of 83 Huntingdon Street, St Neots, Cambridgeshire, PE19 1DU

Doorstep issues... A 'hole' lotta damage going on!

Potholes... It's a 'grate' big problem!

Meeting residents and listening to their concerns is certainly interesting...

This hole has been a growing problem for Wordsworth Avenue residents for some time. One resident said. 

"We have a local councillor living up here but we have not had anything done about this. The state of the roads around St Neots is unacceptable. Other pars of the area are alright, why not here? You would think road maintenance would be a priority because making repairs is cheeper than re-covering the whole road."


Bob agrees. "You can see the tarmac is breaking down all around this grate, that's not happened over night thats taken months if not years to break down. It is something that should be addressed quickly before it really does someone's vehicle some serious damage."

It's a well known fact that pot hole damage is on the increase as councils have chosen to cut back on essential road maintenance in order to save on repair expenditure. According to the District Council: 

"Potholes are considered dangerous when they are vertically sided, and more than 20mm deep, with a greater than 0.1 sq. m in principal road carriageways and 50mm deep in non-principal road carriageways, cycleway and marked cycle lane and are sufficiently far from the edge of the carriage or footway to be surrounded by bituminous material."

A local tyre fitter concurred... "We have more people coming in with tyre damage now than ever before. The winter we have had has really messed up some of the roads around St Neots. Something should be done. I had a customer in here the other day bought four new tires less than a month ago and came back in with two taken out by potholes... They can do some wicked damage because you're in them before you know how deep some of them are."

If any resident has a pothole issue - we suggest you contact your local ward councillor.
Or you can report the problem on the internet by going to:

www.gov.uk/report-pothole
www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/CMSWebsite/Apps/Highways/ReportProblem1.aspx

COUNCILLORS ACTION UPDATE...

Bob raised the matter with the necessary person's and we are pleased to report the issue has now been fixed.

All images and text © cg-photography
Promoted by Carol Gamby on behalf of Ken Churchill and Bob Farrer all of 83 Huntingdon Street, St Neots, Cambridgeshire, PE19 1DU

Doorstep issues... Play time?

Kids needs places to play!

Blue topped campaign leaflets would have people believe that nothing is being done in respect of the balance between housing growth in Little Paxton. However, nothing could be further from the truth. A number of meetings have been happening between Cllr Churchill and developers to ensure that the play areas and the community centre are progressing

The Little Paxton plans were drawn up and approved before 2005 but were approved with facilities being locked into place only after a certain level of owner occupancy. Ken believes that play facilities need to be in place when the first occupant takes up residency as children on these new developments need safe areas to play.

Ken explains. "New developments are usually completed and occupied prior to the installation of infrastructure. Personally I believe the infrastructure should be put into place along with the creation of the development. Then people would have the facilities they require as they move into an area. Residents with children need the play facilities in place from day one!"

"The Little Paxton development grew without the necessary play areas being put into place as occupancy commenced and children came to live in the village which is such a shame, especially as it's a long way through to the village play park. This is I believe, very short sighted but sadly not uncommon. The matters of community hub and play areas remain under discussion." 


All images and text © cg-photography
Promoted by Carol Gamby on behalf of Ken Churchill and Bob Farrer all of 83 Huntingdon Street, St Neots, Cambridgeshire, PE19 1DU

Doorstep issues... A cutting debate?

A 'cutting' issue runs through the streets of St Neots...

A lesson for us all as to why residents should go straight to the horses mouth...

The Hallards... An unsightly mess.

Eaton Ford Residents have asked the question; Just who should be caring for the grassy landscaped area at the far end of this pretty cul-de-sac??? 

So far they have been given excuses and assurances, without any success. 

Bob explains. "Since before last years Golden Jubilee  there has been an issue on who should cut the grass and look after this small area." 

Unfortunate interference from the Town Council chairman, together with another portfolio holder at HDC made matters worse when they tried to short cut proceedures, only to be found out by the executive officers at HDC!  The upshot was that the St Neots town clerk had to intervene. As a result this one little issue has since been escalated into a major land swap issue! Mountains and molehills spring to mind! 

To make matters worse Bob, as ward Councillor discovered the problem almost by accident when one resident chose to contact him and raise the matter directly. Negotiations had been carried out on this matter entirely without his knowledge.

Needless to say that no longer remains the case. Bob is now dealing directly with both the Town Clerk and HDC Executives in order to resolve this issue in the best interests of the residents of The Hallards...

One resident recently explained: "No body cuts the grass or attends the trees at the far end of the road. Branches fall off the trees, the grass and overgrown weeds make it look an unsightly mess! That's not acceptable, we pay enough in council tax and everywhere else gets looked after but we just get forgotten."

Bob Farrer surveying the situation...

All images and text © cg-photography
Promoted by Carol Gamby on behalf of Ken Churchill and Bob Farrer all of 83 Huntingdon Street, St Neots, Cambridgeshire, PE19 1DU

Questions on the doorstep...

Questions on the doorstep..
Why go 'Independent'?

New car parking charges come into effect today including the removal of the free spaces in Riverside Car Park. Both Ken and Bob have long been opposed to the car parking charges in Riverside Car Park, St Neots and the removal of the free spaces...

Ken explains. "We were given assurances, in August 2011 by both the Leader and the Deputy Leader of Huntingdon District Council that the car parking charges would be removed. So it came as both a surprise and a huge disappointment that these assurances were reneged upon - without reason or justification!"

57% of District Councillors when responding to a consultation document, voted against car parking charges at Riverside. 

So why did the District Council go against the majority? The reasons remain unknown although the Council have publicly said it needs to take opportunity to raise revenue to avoid increasing Council Tax any further. Is Riverside becoming a cash-cow for the Council?

One resident who spoke to Ken recently said... "What good is this going to do? How much are they going to get by charging extra for this car park? When you take into account the cost of the new machines and all the other bits that go with making these changes... This is a council-tax increase by stealth!" 

It is interesting that apart from Ken and Bob no other Councillors from the local area have disagreed with the increases and the removal of the free spaces. They have all been strangely quiet... 

Particularly some standing for election in the upcoming County Elections...

We urge residents to ask... Why the charging?
All images and text © cg-photography
Promoted by Carol Gamby on behalf of Ken Churchill and Bob Farrer all of 83 Huntingdon Street, St Neots, Cambridgeshire, PE19 1DU

Education... Education... Education!

The government recently released data for England's state schools, showing funding and expenditure per pupil, as well as how the money is spent. There has been considerable media coverage in recent weeks on this very contentious issue. 

Bob explains... "It's a sad reality that Cambridgeshire's Children receive 13% LESS in educational spending than other children in the rest of the UK."

In 2009/2010 Cambridgeshire's children received £34 million less than almost everywhere else in the UK!

In 2012/2013 Cambridgeshire was 143rd out of 151 local authorities in education spending...

In 2013/2014 Cambridgeshire drops to 151st... Bottom of the pile!

That's approximately £600 per year, per pupil less than the rest of the UK!!! 

WHY?

Ken explains: "Our schools have been under funded since the 1980's when funding was first cut. Today our children are still paying the price for those decisions. It seems there has been little intervention from successive governments, so year on year our children have had significantly less spent on their education than their contemporaries in other counties."

Less money last year - even less money this year!

"Of course every child should be given the opportunity to be educated to the best of their ability but evidence of that is lacking within the county. Indeed educational standards are slipping in some areas. That was evident last year with the lower A* - C GSCE results.

Ken and Bob are proposing to build closer ties to the Cambridge Schools forum and work alongside the St Neots schools to raise awareness of this very important issue. They believe that far too little has been done by the County Council's Cabinet member for Learning on this extremely serious matter. It's not a matter of writing a few letters or holding court on the playground - this requires action and fast!

Recent figures show that Cambridgeshire's results, place the county 94th out of 152 local authorities for GCSE results for last year. 

Ken commented. "This drop from 64th the previous year is bad enough, but consider two years before that, we were 38th! It is not our children that are failing the County, the County is failing our children!"

We recognise that locally the focus has been on foundation and early years which provides our children with a good grounding for their education. But now Ken and Bob believe that now more than ever there is a real need to increase the scope of focus to include the years beyond foundation, right through to the completion of education. Our children deserve to receive the education that children in other counties receive.

Gaps in the funding, which currently covers nursery provision, mainstream schools, special schools and all high-needs pupils are evident to anyone working within Education as well as many parents, particularly those with a child with special needs.

At a recent meeting one local parent spoke frankly... "You have to justify yourself and justify your child's needs because they are different. You have to fight all the way to get anywhere, its exhausting! We were told the same thing, over and over... It always takes a very long time before children get the help they need because of the lack of funding, and even then there is no guarantee you'll get anywhere! How long does my child have to wait? He needs help now - not in two years time when things will be so much worse!" 

The campaign from the Cambridgeshire Schools Forum have been trying for a number of years to get something done to close the gap between what our children have and what they need. Ken says: 

"Pupils in Cambridgeshire deserve to be treated like every other student in every other county. This is something we feel very strongly about, I really want to raise this issue. I've had a good education, my children received a good education. Like many other residents... I want the same for my grand-children!"

All images and text © cg-photography
Promoted by Carol Gamby on behalf of Ken Churchill and Bob Farrer all of 83 Huntingdon Street, St Neots, Cambridgeshire, PE19 1DU