News from Whaddon 2009

November 2009

First, apologies for not adding any news since August. A lot has been happening, but your webmaster has been very preoccupied with Parish Council and other matters. The following are the latest situations on two major matters going on in Whaddon:

New Councillor: the Parish Council is delighted to announce that Jenna Lewis has been co-opted to fill the place left vacant by Clare Byatt's departure.

Affordable Homes: the previous planning application was withdrawn by the Bedford Pilgrims Housing Association in August and is due to be resubmitted soon. Those interested in these houses should be reassured that the Parish Council is still strongly behind the project and will do everything possible to see it through to success.

Village Hall: the progress to having the hall run by a Charitable Trust is bogged down in legal and other complexities. The PC is doing everything in its power to advance matters, but the delays are beyond its control.

For progress on Speedwatch, see the Neighbourhood Watch page.

August 2009

As mentioned below, Clare Byatt is leaving us this month. This means that there will be a vacancy for a Parish Councillor, and that the Parish Council will have to find a new Chairman. It is hoped this will be done at the Council Meeting on 14 September.

We are all desperately sorry to see Clare and Martin leaving, but we wish them all the best for their new life in their new village.

July 2009

Some bad news: Clare Byatt is leaving us in August. Since the regretted death of Ted Webb last summer, Clare has been the Acting Chairman and then Chairman of the Parish Council; before that, she was Vice-Chairman for many years. As importantly, she has also been secretary of the PCC for over 20 years. Everyone wishes to thank Clare for all she has done for the village since moving here in 1981, and she will be terribly missed. We all wish her and Martin, and their dogs, a good move to the Ramsey area. The PCC presented Clare with a special drawing of houses in the village by David Grech on the occasion of the Church Fête. You can see Clare here with the Bishop of Huntingdon and Mrs Thomson, and our vicar, Revd Donald McFadyen.

See here for David Grech's report on the fête. You can read the Bishop's account of it on his website.

May 2009

May saw the Parish Council AGM, at which various annual reports are presented. On the web site so far we have the following:

The Whitsun Weekend was a great success. Thanks again to everyone for joining in the fun! Photographs will be available soon.

On the morning of Saturday 30 May, the bench donated in memory of Ted Webb by his family was formally dedicated. I hope to add more to the site about this event, but two pictures will be found below this text.

A page has been added to present statistics for the web site since it was launched in 2006.

April 2009

The playground opened on schedule on Saturday 25 April:

An album of unedited photos | A video summarising the event

March 2009

15 March: Cambridge County Council news: The latest update from our local County Councillor, Linda Oliver, is now available (PDF file).

13 March: the history of St Mary's church has been updated to reflect current thoughts on the history of the organ.

6 March: work on the playground began this morning, as you see from the adjacent photo.

More news and pictures will be posted as things progress.

3 March: the new trees have been planted! We have ten Sorbus x Thuringiaca (Hybrid Service Tree) "Fastigiata"; still to come is a Princeton Elm, and a little remedial work needs to be done on the present ten trees. On 4 March, members of the Parish Council began the process of watering the trees (see adjacent photo). More news will be given as available.

Volunteers to help with the watering process would be greatly appreciated. Please contact the Clerk of the Parish Council.

February 2009

21 Feb: Speedwatch. Three volunteers from the village have been trained to use the Speedwatch equipment. See this link to learn more.

The latest news from the Playground Project is that the Pathfinder grant has come through, and work is expected to start on the new installation of equipment very soon. UPDATE: expected start 2 March. Latest information flyer now on the site!

Items from the Parish Council: there was a meeting on 9 February. The big news was that about the Playground Project (above). Smaller items from the council which are thought to be of immediate interest are:

Closure of Bridge Street telephone box: the increase in the number of mobile phones in the UK has meant a decline in the use of many phone boxes. BT have been consulting for some time to close down little used boxes, and that in Bridge Street has been identified. The Parish Council did make representations against the idea, but BT's data did show that not a single call had been made from it in the period of 12 months, and it was felt that it would be hard to resist further, as we do have the box in Meldreth Road which is not presently under threat. As the phone box is quite a landmark, the PC decided to adopt it (deactivated) from BT; this means we will have to pay for the electrical connection, or to have it removed, and it will be the village's responsibility to keep it in good order. BT have cleaned and repaired broken parts of the structure at the time the phone was removed.

South Cambridgeshire Community Chest: There is a scheme for small grants through the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP). Small grants (up to £1,000) may be available for community and voluntary sector groups and organisations and Parish Council who put forward schemes which fit the criteria. More information and application forms are available from the LSP section of the SCDC web site.

January 2009

Cambridge County Council news: The first of what we hope will be regular updates from our local County Councillor, Linda Oliver, is now available (PDF file).

The approved drawings for the Village Hall extension are now available on this web site.

In compliance with the Freedom of Information Act, the Council has made available a document detailing what material is available, and how it may be obtained. Please follow this link for further details.

The Whaddon Playground Project now has a page on this web site.

Principal items from the January PC meeting

New Chairman: At the meeting on 12 January, Acting Chairman Clare Byatt accepted the nomination of Chairman of the Council

Update on trees on the Rec: The stumps are scheduled to be ground out around the end of January, and it is hope that the replacement trees will be planted in February.

Bus: Still no news on the bus service. The Parish Council will be communicating with Meldreth PC to explore how the service could be made more viable by extending it to run through some part of Meldreth.

Playground: if grants are forthcoming, it is hoped that the playground could be in place by March. I am hoping to be able to include up-to-date information very soon on this web site.

Village Hall: now that planning permission has been granted, meetings are scheduled to take place to finalise the electrical and mechanical features of the project, so that accurate costings can be obtained for the purposes of fundraising.

Happy New Year to everyone

The year has started well--at the very end of December it was announced that the District Council had given planning permission for the extension to the Village Hall. The plans etc may be viewed on the South Cambs web site.