More A605 works

Carriageway resurfacing works programmed to start 11th April 2011 and take 5 days to complete.

Works extend from Funthams Lane to the County Boundary with Peterborough City Council.

Contractor - Cambridgeshire Highways.

During the works the road will remain open to traffic travelling from Peterborough to  Whittlesey however traffic signal and or stop / go boards will be used to ensure safety of the workforce.

Traffic travelling towards Peterborough will be diverted via B1040 Church Street and Ramsey Road to Pondersbridge / B1095 Ramsey Road and Milk and Water Drove.

Hours of closure will be 09.15 hrs to 15.45 hrs.

Full Council - Mar 2011

Another meeting that went on too long.  But with some interesting debates.

The Lib Dems refuse to accept what we are trying to do on Community Transport, even though it is the sort of project that is getting the support of the Lib Dem Transport Minister Norman Baker.  Of course with elections on 5th May, the Lib Dems will focus on cuts rather than the visionary efforts of the County Council to do better with less funding.

The biggest part of this was shown during a debate on the City Centre shuttle, a free bus service which we, as a Council, subsidise to the tune of £80k per year, something that just cannot be a priority given the excellent bus service within Cambridge and with the cuts being made elsewhere (but let's not forget the visionary stuff about creating an excellent Community Transport scheme).

Of course, as ever with the Lib Dems, there is an alternative reason.   The motion to retain the subsidy for the City Centre shuttle for a year was their May 5th motion.   The Lib Dems are concerned about a massacre in Cambridge City in the local elections on May 5th and this motion presented them with great material for leaflets. "Lib Dems win reprieve for City Shuttle" or a "nasty Tories" line.  What they, of course, failed to do, was explain where the money was coming from - which would almost certainly have had to be from the funding set aside for the growth of community transport in rural areas.

Anyway - the whole Lib Dem group voted for this motion - including all of those that represent rural wards where we are looking to provide public transport.  Remember this - the Lib Dems priority for these elections is protection of Cambridge City, which is already pretty well served by public transport.  That is quite clearly at the expense of rural areas.

There was some good questions to me from both sides of the chamber about adoption services, EOTAS and March Skills Centre, which I think I answered OK.  But there were no questions about Academies.  Given the criticism I have made of the Lib Dems attitude in this area, this surprised me a bit.  Maybe they have realised that their King Canute approach is, indeed, the wrong one.

Alice in Wonderland at Sir Harry Smith Community College

Sir Harry Smith Community College's latest production is Alice in Wonderland which will be performed on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening (30th March - 1st April).  I am always impressed by the quality of the school's productions and I am told this year's is going to be no exception.

Tickets are £3.00 for children and £3.50 for adults. You can contact the school via their website.

Free Local Live Band Needed for Charity Gig

Thought a cut and paste job was probably better for this:

"Hi there
At Weatherspoon we support the charity ( clic sergeant ) and we re starting to hold event nights, were we can raise some more money for the charity !!!!!
At the end of may we re looking to hold a night with some music !!!!! So we re looking for a band (hopefully a local band) that would come & play for a few hours, but .......here's the catch .... ( FOR FREE ) !!! Anyone who's willing & able & for more information, contact us ...via facebook or pop in & leave your details, I ll get back to you . It will be a great night !!!
With lots of thanks
Jane corewyn"

Can anyone help?

Sir Harry Smith - Building Schools for the Future Consultation

There is a consultation at Sir Harry Smith on Wednesday night where provisional proposals for Building Schools for the Future development will be on display.   Turn up any time between 3pm and 8pm.

Having been given a heads up at a Governors meeting tonight, I have to say they are quite exciting.

Sir Harry Smith OFSTED report

The OFSTED Report for Sir Harry Smith was published last week as well.   The report classes the school as Good, but recognises that it has outstanding features and, in my view, accurately reflects the progress the school continues to make.  Whittlesey residents have every right to be proud of our Secondary school.

Congratulations to the staff, students and to my fellow Governors.

The report can be found here.

Ofsted Report - Unannounced Inspection of Social Care

Last month the County Council had the pleasure of a two day unannounced inspection of Social Care.   These are genuinely unannounced, with the OFSTED team letting you know about the inspection from the Car Park outside.

I am quite a fan of this system - it makes sure that they see life as it is (not sure how social workers feel about it though!)  Anyway, the resulting report was published last week and can be found here.

I think it is a reasonably accurate reflection of where we are and shows the progress that has been made since the last unannounced inspection.  If they had found any significant problems, they would have been included on the report as "Priority Areas for Action"  - there are none and that says something about where we are.

The most important thing about the report is whether it uncovered anything we weren't aware of, and I am pleased to say it didn't.  It shows that we know our Social Care set up well.  The issues that are identified are all part of the reason we are moving towards a different model of Social Care and the difficult process of moving to that model will be helped by the high staff moral that is recognised in the report as a strength.

In the recent past Social Workers have not had a great press.   I have to say that I am always impressed by the dedication and attitude of our Social Workers in Cambridgeshire.