South Cambridgeshire District Council ARE THEIR PLANS RIGHT FOR YOU?

South Cambridgeshire District Council have published a draft plan for the next five years to make sure they’re focusing on what matters to South Cambridgeshire communities – but they need residents’ views to make sure we’re getting it right.

Please lets all complete the survey and tell them what we think.

You can find the corporate plan here:
http://www.scambs.gov.uk/documents/retrieve.htm?pk_document=910952

and the survey is here;
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ThreeAs2012

South Cambridgeshire District Council CONSULTATION PANEL – HAVE YOUR SAY!

The Consultation Panel, is your opportunity to give your opinion on council services and priorities.

They’re asking for your views to feed into our policies and decision-making. They’re looking for people of all ages and from all areas of South Cambs to tell them how it is. Rate their services, what you think about our current priorities and what you think we should focus on in the future.

Seems like a good opportunity for us to tell them what we think of their current planning proposals and adoption processes.

For more information, please contact the Policy and Performance Team on (01954) 713366 .

or visit their website

http://scambs.jdi-consult.net/conspanel/

Hopefully some good news for future developments!!!

here is an extract from a speech in the House of Commons.

New Roads (Adoption)

House of Commons debates, 10 June 2010, 5:42 pm

Norman Baker (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Regional and Local Transport), Transport; Lewes, Liberal Democrat)

In exploring solutions to this issue, I am happy to say that I have today asked my officials to consider, with their Department for Communities and Local Government colleagues, options for legislation, including empowering local authorities to require developers to enter into section 38 agreements.

Read the full question and reply here

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2010-06-10d.571.0

Adoption of new roads debated

At least one MP seems to have understood that we have a national issue that needs to be addressed.

By Richard Chidwick – 24th June 2010

Safety concerns about unadopted roads in Hertfordshire have been raised during a debate in Westminster Hall.

Anne Main (Con, St Albans) led the debate on Wednesday, focusing on the “tens of thousands” of unadopted roads in England and Wales built on new developments.

Once a new road is adopted it becomes “a highway maintainable at public expense”.

However new roads in new housing developments are under the ownership of the developer before being handed over to the county council.

She told MPs: “Worryingly, residents are frequently unaware of the status of their road until they try to consult their council about a problem.

“The people who live on them often struggle to access public services and to meet the maintenance costs for which they are personally liable.”

More importantly, these roads materially inconvenience residents, creating an unfair situation in which householders pay significant amounts of council tax for services that they do not receive.

Main drew attention to a Hertfordshire hospital whose staff disapprove with the number of patients who park in unadopted roads and avoid hospital car park charges.

Concerns include those children living on the roads are at risk from the increased volume of traffic.

Hertfordshire county council have advised that road adoption should be extended to all parties and ways to deal with the problem could include sign posts to identify unadopted roads.

Transport minister Norman Baker expressed sympathy for Main’s cause, but said that no national survey had been carried out to investigate whether residents wanted their roads to be adopted, and said that to do so would be costly.

He explained how some developers fail to bring roads up to a standard acceptable for adoption.

Baker advised how a survey would reveal a number of roads which would never be suitable for adoption.

The minister highlighted a specimen survey of 600 private streets, it revealed 63 roads were suitable for adoption and only 17 participants wanted their roads adopted.

Main responded by suggesting local authorities could be “the way forward”, to solve the problems and Baker agreed with this less costly approach.

Speaking after the debate, Main suggested there would be some form of legislation passed to address the issue of unadopted roads.

See the original article here; and please feel free to comment too:

http://www.epolitix.com/latestnews/article-detail/newsarticle/adoption-of-new-roads-debated/

Letters of complaint

Here are complaint letters to send to Wimpey, Barratt and Persimmon. We have drafted them out so that all you need to do is print them out and write your name and address in the top right hand corner and sign it.

If you could then send it and copies of it either electronically or physically to all of the people listed below that would be appreciated too. You will find all the address details in the contact area of this website.

Barratt_letter

Persimmon_letter

Wimpey_letter

Rt Hon Andrew Lansley, MP Secretary of State for Health

lansleya@parliament.uk

Councillor Shona Johnson, Cambridgeshire CC
shona.johnstone@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

Councillor Alex Riley, South Cambridgeshire DC
alex@alexrileywines.co.uk

Mrs Pauline Haywood, Clerk Longstanton PC
lpcclerk@btconnect.com

Anglian Water
custservice@anglianwater.co.uk

Your solicitor

Home farm forum
home@homefarmforum.co.uk

Information about Future Developments

In this section you will find information relating to future developments.

Twigden Homes development off Duddle Drive & Over Road
details can be found here:

http://scambs.jdi-consult.net/devcon/pa.php?paid=143923

Added 26 April 2010:

Also see: http://scambs.jdi-consult.net/devcon/afdownload.php?action=download&uploadid=713491

for the most recent plan of the new road layout.