A day of two contrasts

Yesterday morning I was sat on the front row of the audience for what I thought would be a packed Cabinet Meeting regarding the Guided Bus. After the tales of woe and wringing of hands over contractual stalemate the previous week, I was expecting some robust discussion at the very least.

In the event it was underwhelming. A statement was read out that negotiations are being held at the very highest level and we shall wait and see what arises. At least the people of Cambridgeshire are finally being given some more information about the problems and the overspend – something missing for a long time now.

The late afternoon saw me at the Council’s Contact Centre in St Ives, having telephone training before Sports Relief on Friday. Sadly I’m the only County Councillor taking part (I hope more colleagues from all parties will join in next time), but I shall be manning a phone line taking donations from the public from 22:00 on Friday night until 02:00 the following morning.

I’m hoping to be allowed a lie in on Saturday Morning!

What’s going on?

We’ve all cracked jokes about the misguided bus and when it will open. Stagecoach themselves have an interesting new line in signs fixed to the side of their buses regarding the ever elusive opening date.

Today however marked a new low point in the project with the release in to the public domain of the most up to date information.

If you look at http://bit.ly/9MXEXC you’ll find agenda Item 9 of the meeting papers for next Tuesday’s Cabinet Meeting at the County Council. As a side issue you might like to know that all Cabinet meetings are open to the public and the Agenda and minutes are always available on the County’s website: http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/

This has now gone way beyond party politics and a “we told you so” spat in the playground. This is a significant amount of public money spent on a project which has yet to deliver in any sort of time frame and within any sort of acceptable margin of financial outlay.

And the saddest part – the impasse that says we don’t know what will happen next because our hands are tied. At least Councillors no longer appear to gagged aswell!

A long month .....

February was not a great month - we lost a family member and another is now in hospital. Sadly it sometimes takes a hard time to remind us all of where our priorities lie.

This time last year I was so chuffed – my younger son had his place at Secondary school and life was getting easier with both sons growing up.

A year on and I’m rapidly grinding teeth to a stump. Having brought 2 boys up on my own since they were 2 and 4 I thought I’d gone through the worst of it – the younger one having set a new standard for the terrible twos.

Now I’m deep in the delights of teenage hormones. I finally have two children old enough to be left at home alone for short periods – but not hormonally balanced to be left home together.

In some ways I see an analogy of the childish spats I referee on a daily basis with what’s happening at Westminster between the Conservative and Labour parties. Whilst us foot soldiers at ground level are coping with sweeping cuts and trying to hang on to basic services for local constituents, they are getting increasingly petty and slinging more mud and names at each other.

Whoever wins the next election – this looks like turning out to be the nastiest campaign for some time – and it’s only going to get worse. Shame they’re ignoring the real issues.

The enthusiasm of youth

My younger son bounded out of bed this morning yelling at the top of his voice that it was snowing. Us less enthusiastic folks noticed a solitary snowflake and rolled over for an extra 5 mins before braving the cold. Needless to say a new cold snap means that the new (and supposedly improved) central heating timer has decided to wave its white flag and stop working.

But it did get me thinking about when it is that we lose our enthusiasm for things. In my case, I probably haven’t lost it – son number one groans whenever he has to suffer both his brother and I on a particularly enthusiastic for life day. He feels Marvin the paranoid android probably had it right and that we are the equivalent of the Sunshine Corporation’s talking doors (apologies to those who never enjoyed the Hitchhikers guide top the Galaxy).

Well – it’s half term next week – so here’s hoping for a snowman or two.

In at the deep end.

I attended my first planning meeting at South Cambs District Council yesterday – speaking re a cottage in Coton, a proposed new development for Caldecote and the proposed sixth form college for Comberton. Given that we were in Cambourne I’m relieved I got all village names out in the right order!

What stunned me was the robustness of the debate. Officers were put through the mill by members to make sure that all issues were thoroughly thrashed out before a vote was taken. It was also heartening to see that members were not voting along any party lines – it was democracy at its best.

A long afternoon but very worthwhile and an experience I hope to repeat in the not too distant future.

Happy Holidays

With my mother currently snowed in and her pre Christmas visit abandoned, and both my father and other half contemplating whether to make trips to the frozen Scottish Border it’s difficult to answer when people ask what we’re doing for Christmas. Staying home mostly seems to cover it! Whilst I deal with all the domestic things that mysteriously happen “as if by magic” over the holiday season, the younger members of the household are building an igloo in the back garden.

I hate driving on snow at the best of times and accomplished a very controlled, slow speed, 180 degree spin this morning – much to my eldest son’s amazement and amusement. Caldecote, as with many other areas in the County, gets little / no gritting when it snows. Whilst we all hope that the current gritting review will be completed in a timely fashion, it’s a good time to remind people that Parish Councils can purchase their own gritting bins and the County Council will fill them for free. If you’re suffering with icy areas at the moment, please contact your Parish Council before their next meeting in January and ask about gritting bins.

Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot is probably more productive than waiting for an early morning bus in Caldecote or Hardwick at the moment! It used to be that you waited for a bus and two came along at once. If only that were still true.

My current Councillor workload is almost entirely built around infrastructure – or lack of it. We are continuing to build more and more houses locally for families – but the infrastructure required for our existing inhabitants and the ever-increasing number coming to live in our villages is just not keeping pace.

The Citi 4 regularly leaves 6th form children at bus stops in Caldecote and Hardwick (and people on their way to work) because it’s full before it gets there. Some local Children are bussed in to Secondary Schools in the City because the local one is full. Our Village Primary School has a few places left, but next week Caldecote will consider an application for another 97 houses. If we don’t extend the Primary School what will we do with the children these new houses bring to the village?

Whilst we need to build houses I think we’re in danger of throwing the baby out with the bath water at the moment. We can’t keep building more housing developments without the necessary infrastructure in place to service them. And as some villages are finding out at the moment, what the bus company giveth, the bus company can oh so easily take away again!