PARISH 5 COUNCIL NEWSLETTER at April 2020 EditorialEditorial Village Diary for April With the Covid-19 virus taking hold no doubtThe Autumn by the timecolours you this receive year havethis Newsletter really surpassed we will themselves, all be in complete especially If you want your event published here please contact the lockdown.the beech woods Unfortunately around Royston many of and the Editor Baldock. The leaves have stayed on the events scheduled for the next couple of Thurs 2nd Apr Literary Lunch with Christine Adams, Bull Hotel trees due to the lack of a hard frost. months may be or have been cancelled, Royston. (p4) CANCELLED as we are advised not to have any large nd The December Diary is filled with all Thurs 2 Apr First Thursday Club – Speaker Sandra Hughes. gatheringsthings of people. (p2) Sat 4th Apr Litterpick – CANCELLED th Those of you like myself who are Thurs 16 Apr WI – Speaker - Trevor Chapman. (p11) ‘supposed’ to be in complete lockdown Sat 18th Apr Litterpick – CANCELLED and isolation there is help on page 3, Fri 24th Apr SM Tennis Club – AGM (p10) CANCELLED Ginny Belson is trying to arrange a Sat 25th Apr Spring Fair, Steeple Morden Church, group to help with shopping or 10.00 – 1pm (p4) obtaining essentials in and around the villages. Give her a ring or email her I Forthcoming Events am sure she will be able to put you in th touch with someone nearby. Sun 11 May – Cambridge Gliding Club – Open Day (p5) th Sun May 17 Aquathon 2020, from 6pm, Royston Leisure I recently took up Sainsbury’s offer of Centre (p5) shopping at 7am,a designated slot for st Thurs May 21 WI – Members Meeting (p11) OAP’s – there was a queue of over 100 Thurs 28th Morden Players present the Wyrd Sisters. people – obviously not the answer to th /30 May isolation! I shall be ‘clicking & collecting’ in the future! th Sun June 14 Steeple Morden Open Gardens (p5) Sat June 27th Friends of SM Church, St Albans Choir, Mosaic, We will get through this – we must look with Pimms & canapes. forward to the Spring – our gardens are looking wonderful at the moment – we Sun Oct 4th Steeple Morden Literary Festival, SM Village now have plenty of time for the garden and the allotment! Hall. (details to follow) Desma Editor Desma Goddard: Email: [email protected] 1 Steeple Morden Parish Council Anthony Browne February Newsletter List of Councillors as at 2020 May 2018 One of my key pledges as your MP is to help to fix CLLR J CLAYTON (Chair) our creaking transport system. We had some 5 Brook End, Steeple Morden extremely welcome news this month when the 01763 852203 Transport Secretary announced that East West CLLR S WHEATLEY (Vice Chair) Rail will take a northern route through 95 Hay Street, Steeple Morden Cambourne, where local commuter demand is 01763 853826 highest. This is not only great news for CLLR G BELSON (Vice Chair) Cambourne, but also for residents in Ringdale, 2 North Brook Road, Bassingbourn, who were overwhelmingly opposed Steeple Morden to EWR taking a southern route. 01763 852475 CLLR A DREW The new Cambridge South Station will form a 76 Station Road, Steeple Morden critical new transport hub for the Biomedical 01763 853390 Campus. I have already met with Network Rail to find out more about this project and to discuss CLLR C UPCHURCH parking problems at local stations and the Greenway Farm, Litlington Road, SM notoriously problematic level crossing at Foxton. 01763 852193 CLLR K AUSTIN I have had a number of approaches from Bogs Gap Lane, Steeple Morden constituents who are worried about the rate of 01763 852023 development in South Cambridgeshire. I share many of their concerns and will be lobbying CLLR S TRAVERS-HEALY national government to ensure that we do not 46 Station Rd, Steeple Morden become victims of our own success. Whilst growth 01763 853843 is welcome, it must be carefully managed and CLLR N BADGER local people’s voices must be heard. 68 Station Road, Steeple Morden Infrastructure should always be put in place 01763 852191 before expansion - ‘I before E’ as the saying goes. DISTRICT CLLR MRS H. WILLIAMS You can make your views known by taking part in 07885 774775 the initial consultation on the Greater Cambridge Local Plan - which contemplates a significant COUNTY CLLR MR S. KINDERSLEY increase in housebuilding - 01767 651982 at www.cambridge.oc2.uk. Community Chest First Thursday Club Last Call for Community Chest Funding 2019/2020 Programme 2nd April Sandra Hughes, Hatches-Matches The deadline to apply for funding from our st & Dispatches. Community Chest is March 31 . Voluntary and Community Groups in South Cambridgeshire are invited to apply to the 7th May Birthday Lunch – TBA Community Chest Grant Scheme for funding up to £1000 to support their activities. st Meetings held 1 Thursday of every month at For the financial year ending in March, the Steeple Morden Village Hall from 2pm total fund was increased to £20,000 so many more groups could be in with a chance of All visitors welcome receiving funding than in previous years. But Chairman – Mrs A Thorpe 852848 time is running out before the 31st March [email protected] deadline. 2 NEWS FROM YOUR PARISH COUNCIL The Full PC meets on the second Monday in the in the Cricket Pavilion (Village Hall in winter) at 7.30pm. The meeting is listed every month in the Village Post Office window, on the Notice Board at the Recreation Ground, and in Odsey near the station. A copy of the full minutes from the Council Meetings may be obtained by contacting the Parish Clerk, Sally Walmesley, Redwood Lodge, South Street, Litlington, Royston SG8 0QR. Telephone 01763 852137 or e-mail [email protected]. Minutes can also be viewed on the Steeple Morden Village Website www.steeplemorden.org and the Village Post Office. Brief notes on agenda items from the Parish Council Meeting on March 9th 2020 are included below. Litterpick –Cllr Ginny Belson – reported that the first Litterpick of 2020 was very successful with 18 people involved, who collected 23 bags of rubbish between them. Recreation Ground Maintenance – following the Tree survey, work is continuing in making various trees safe. Two trees in the conservation area are awaiting planning permission for work to be carried out. There is a fallen tree on the recreation ground anyone needing logs or kindling, please help yourselves. Traffic – Cllr Keith Austin the MVAS placed in Station Road is still tagging the odd few who obsessively speed past the camera. The latest data will be forward to the Police. Village Website. Work on the new website is proceeding. School Parents’ Car park – a meeting with the School has been arranged for March 25th to try to resolve this problem. Community Tree Planting – the Village has been given a voucher of £50 pounds to purchase either 1 or 3 trees for planting in and around the Village. Also the Village is keen to support the South Cambridgeshire Tree Planting Scheme. £3000 has been put aside to start this project. Co-ordinators are Nettie Travers-Healey, [email protected] and Sacha Wheatley [email protected]. Further information will be forthcoming. More details are on page 4. There will be no Parish Council Meeting in April. The next Parish and AGM meeting will be on May 11th. The Annual Parish Meeting will be Thursday May 28th. Committee Meetings for the rest of the year are 13th July, 14th September, 2nd November, 11th Jan 21, and 8th Mar 21 Community Help Line Hope you do not mind me contacting you - but as I know you have a social conscious I am sure you will forgive me.... I have set up an email address to allow people to volunteer to help those who will needing help over the next few months...we may all need some help at some point so be good to have a broad range of people on the list - as well as hopefully ensuring those most vulnerable are being looked after as much as possible.... If you are able to share this email address more widely so people can get in touch so we can co- ordinate the effort somewhat: [email protected] I am going to leaflet my closest neighbours and give them my telephone numbers - I am sure many of them will not have access to FB and the like... If people can let me know what they are doing in the village / can do / need I will try to link people up as best I can.... GINNY BELSON 3 More trees for Steeple – and Guilden Morden Steeple Morden Parish Council have enthusiastically endorsed and agreed to fund a project to add more trees in and around the village. Plans are also afoot in Guilden Morden to run a similar project. Trees are beautiful, provide a much needed habitat for wildlife under severe pressure, help to reduce air pollution, improve mental health and wellbeing, and mitigate the worst effects of climate change - because trees remove and store carbon from the atmosphere. The best trees for supporting wildlife are generally those that are native to the UK and will thrive on our local soils. We’ll aim to source trees of varying sizes, suitable for different situations, and have been raised from native UK bred stock - with advice from the Woodland Trust and Tree Council. Everyone in our villages will be invited to get involved in some way to add more trees to our local landscape. This could be by: Offering a space for a tree in your garden – especially front gardens or with public paths alongside so they can be enjoyed by all.