The Willingham Parish Council Office will be closed over the Christmas Period. It will be closing at 1pm on Wednesday 22nd December 2021 and reopening on Tuesday 4th January 2022 from 10am.

If over the Christmas period you have an urgent enquiry Councillors’ details can be found in the Willingham News and on the Parish Council website.

As part of our ongoing efforts to support local businesses to work through the challenges of COVID-19, please find below and attached information regarding recent legislation and guidance changes that may affect your business. This is all aimed at preventing the further spread of the pandemic.

Coronavirus: Enhanced Response Area

From 1st November 2021 Cambridgeshire and Peterborough have moved into an “Enhanced Response Area” (ERA) due to the rising rate of COVID-19 infections particularly in our older population. This increase, coupled with low vaccination rates in some parts of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough means pressure is building on our local health services. This is exacerbated by increased levels of COVID-19 infections in the general population, and staff being unable to work because they are infected or isolating. If unchecked, this will also impact on health care for other non-Covid needs.

The Enhanced Response Area was originally due to end on 5 December 2021 but this has now been extended until 24 December 2021, when it will be reviewed again. Information regarding the Enhanced Response Area status can be found on our website.

A message from the Director of Public Health, Cambridgeshire & Peterborough

Attached to this email is a message from Jyoti Atri, Director of Public Health, Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, which provides an update on the current COVID-19 situation facing Cambridgeshire, as well as an overview of recent COVID-19 legislation changes. The message highlights key measures that can help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in your workplace and also provides advice regarding Christmas events.

Prime Minister Briefing

As you may be aware, the Prime Minister held a press conference on 27 November 2021 in response to the news of a new COVID-19 variant (Omicron Variant). The announcement highlighted that additional COVID-19 controls were to be introduced, including changes to travel restrictions, face coverings and self-isolation. Details of the announcement can be found on the Government’s website.

Face coverings – legislation update

From Tuesday 30 November, new regulations require staff and customers to wear face coverings in certain types of businesses such as shops, banks, premises providing personal care and beauty treatments, takeaways without space for consumption of food or drink on the premises, public transport, etc. There are a number of exemptions to these requirements. For further details regarding which business types are affected by this change, the exemptions and advice about face coverings, please see the Government guidance Face coverings: when to wear one, exemptions, and how to make your own.

Settings in which face coverings are required must also display signage or take other measures to ensure customers are aware of the requirement to wear a face covering on their premises where there is no applicable exemption or reasonable excuse. To assist businesses with this requirement, the Government has designed template signage that can be used, available on the face coverings poster website or on the Omicron Social Media and Posters resources website.

Omicron Self-Isolation – legislation update

Changes have been made to self-isolation requirements. Anyone in England who is notified by NHS Test and Trace (or other specified bodies) that they are a close contact of a suspected, or confirmed, case of the Omicron variant will be legally required to self-isolate regardless of age or vaccination status. Guidance regarding self-isolation requirements can be found on the Government website.

Travel restrictions

From 7 December 2021, anyone aged 12 and over must show a negative PCR or lateral flow test result before travelling to England from abroad. The person must take the test in the two days before they travel to England. The person must also take a PCR test within two days of arriving and self-isolate until a negative test result is received, even if fully vaccinated. Check what you need to do to travel to England from another Country.

A number of countries and territories have been added to the Government’s red travel list, which places strict travel restrictions upon those who enter England from the affected areas. Information regarding the countries and territories can be found on the Government website.  

For further updates regarding changes to legislation and guidance, COVID-19 and workplace controls see the Government’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) website. Our South Cambridgeshire District Council website also provides useful information for businesses regarding COVID-19.

Willingham misses out in multi-million pound bus network proposal for Greater Cambridge – make your views known

The Greater Cambridge Partnership is running a survey on its proposals for “major improvements to our bus network through more frequent, more reliable services”, which actually leave Willingham worse off. We urge residents to complete the survey, available at www.greatercambridge.org.uk/making-connections-2021 before 20 December. The Parish Council has agreed the following statement:

The grand promises of a radically improved bus network do not appear to apply to Willingham. We are deemed worthy of only a rural hourly bus, on a loop connecting Swavesey, Papworth Everard, Bar Hill, Longstanton and villages in between. We lose our current direct bus service to Cambridge. There are no direct links to any urban centre or Cottenham, or to the sixth form colleges in Cambridge. Cottenham by contrast has a service to Cambridge every 10 minutes, with an express bus once an hour.

Willingham is one of the larger villages in South Cambridgeshire with a population approaching 5000, yet the consultant’s report, on which the proposal is based, almost completely disregards it. It is missing from the map showing the existing bus network and from the majority of the maps showing details of the new proposals. It is mentioned only in passing a few times as one of the stops on the rural loop. Willingham deserves better.  We propose that to provide an adequate service, buses (say two an hour) are diverted from the Busway, as originally promised, to provide direct links to Cambridge and St Ives. Alternatively, we need a 10 minute feeder service to the Busway.

The full proposals are set out in the Consultation Brochure available at www.greatercambridge.org.uk/making-connections-2021. In his foreword the mayor states that ‘offering everyone in the county better choices for getting about is one of my foremost ambitions’.

The current 5 service is to be replaced by the circular hourly ‘rural’ route shown on the attached map that takes in Bar Hill, Boxworth, Papworth Everard, Fenstanton and Swavesey with no direct bus to Cambridge, and no link to Cottenham. We also lose the direct buses to and from the Cambridge Sixth Form Colleges. No ‘greener travel’ for Willingham residents.

The plans split the region into five areas, and Willingham falls under the Northstowe, St Ives and Bar Hill corridor.

The document states that improvements in this corridor would include:

• Between 7 am and 7 pm the following high-frequency services to Cambridge: every 5 mins or less from St Ives, every 10 mins from Huntingdon, every 10 mins from Bar Hill.
• Hourly rural services would include a loop covering villages between Swavesey, Longastanton (sic), Bar Hill and Papworth Everard.
• Lower fares
• Smaller villages will have opportunities to ‘plug into’ this network, whether through a regular connecting bus service, a demand responsive bus service, or access to a travel hub.

There is no mention of Willingham at all!

If we compare this to the Waterbeach, Ely and Cottenham corridor we find that their high-frequency services include the following buses to Cambridge: every 15 minutes from Ely (which has a station), every 15 minutes from Waterbeach (which also has a station), and every 10 minutes from Cottenham, including an hourly express. If an aim is reducing pollution and carbon, duplicating a train route with a frequent bus service makes no sense.

So Cottenham will have a 10 minute service direct to Cambridge and Willingham an hourly indirect one, either with a change onto the busway at Longstanton, or change at Bar Hill.  The most important destination is Cambridge, so we need a frequent link to the busway.

We propose that some buses are diverted off the busway to Willingham, as originally promised when the Busway was built. Alternatively a 10 or 15 minute feeder service should be provided.

There is also mention of services connecting rural areas, and if car journeys are to be reduced there is also a real need for a connection between Willingham and Cottenham, where there is a Village College that serves Willingham.

While the promise of lower fares is welcome, without better access to buses, it is meaningless.

The consultation also asks about how transport improvements should be funded, with three options, with pros and cons set out:

• a pollution-based road use charge
• a flexible road use charge than can be varied at different times of the day
• increased parking charges and a workplace charging levy.

Again, if we do not have access to a good bus service, being charged to drive into Cambridge is extremely unfair.

Please find attachedroad closures information for w/c6 December in relation to the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme.

A14C2H-closures-w.c-06.12.21

The planned extended closure of the B1514 Brampton Road on Sunday 5 has been delayed by one week and will now take place on Sunday 12 00:01 to 20:00. There will now be a closure on Saturday 4 between 8pm and 5am.

Our closures of the A14 eastbound between Ellington and Brampton Interchange are ‘tagging on’ to the end of another planned closure by our Operational colleagues which will start at Thrapston junction 13.

For the closures on the A1 northbound from Buckden roundabout, please note there will be an escort service available for those living in the properties on the A1 between Buckden roundabout and the Brampton village slip road.

For all queries relating to the scheme, please email: A14CambridgeHuntingdon@highwaysengland.co.uk

Government Guidance

Updated 30 November 2021

Please use the link below to access Government advice on face masks. Face coverings: when to wear one, exemptions, and how to make your own – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)