The ongoing Community Governance Review for Longstanton, Oakington and Westwick is currently in the second round of consultation, which was extended by three months owing to COVID 19.
This review is to decide how Northstowe is governed in future. There are several options, one of which will see the area of Longstanton north of the Guided Busway become part of Willingham.
The Parish Council has commented on earlier consultations. Our main concern is that Northstowe does not encroach any further north than the Busway, which was an initial constraint of the planning permission.
There are several consultation events coming up and these, along with full details of all the options, are available on the South Cambs website:
South Cambridgeshire District Council are working hard to support local small and medium customer facing businesses in our district. They have created a survey so that they can gather as much information about local businesses as possible, to find out about how they are faring during Covid19 and their plans on reopening.
You can take part in the survey via any of the platforms below.
Greater Cambridge phased return to green bin collections from 4 May
Residents in Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire are being asked to put their green bins out on their normal days from Monday 4 May as part of a phased reintroduction of garden waste collections.
Households would usually have two green bin collections between 4 and 30 May but, due to the impact of national social distancing measures, only one collection will be guaranteed. Crews will try to empty more bins on each occasion if they can.
For clarity, households can check their online bin collection calendar to find out their guaranteed green bin collection date. In addition, Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service crews may be able to collect some green bins more frequently than this – when there are enough staff and vehicles. Putting your green bin out with your blue bin every fortnight will mean it is available for them to empty if they are able to.
The national social distancing measures outlined for waste collection services mean that each collection vehicle currently has a driver and only one loader (the crew member who loads the bins onto the lorry), rather than the usual driver plus two loaders. This is in order to ensure enough space is left between staff when travelling, which means what would normally be one week’s work could be spread across two weeks.
Councils in other parts the country are making similar arrangements for their green waste collections as the recycling and waste industry deals with the impacts of this global health emergency.
The decision to suspend green bin collections in March was taken to ensure black bin (general rubbish) and blue bin (recycling) collections could be maintained despite crew members becoming ill or needing to isolate. At one point, around a third of operatives at the Shared Waste Service were absent for one of these reasons.
While the service runs with only one loader per truck, in line with Government guidance on avoiding spreading the virus, it takes longer and is much more physically demanding to complete each round.
Although crews will do their best to collect as many green bins as possible during the first fortnight, only half of residents will have a guaranteed collection in these first two weeks of May. As well as finding out when their scheduled collection is via the councils’ websites, residents will be able to report any accidentally missed bins online, on their guaranteed collection date, as usual. It will not be possible to report a missed green bin collection on non-guaranteed days. Residents are being asked to continue home composting as much of their garden waste as possible until collections return to normal.
Cllr Bill Handley, Lead Cabinet Member for Environmental Services and Licensing at South Cambridgeshire District Council, said: “Most residents have been very supportive in the last few difficult weeks, sending messages and pictures of thanks and this is very much appreciated. We are very pleased to be able to reintroduce the green waste collection service, albeit in a phased way and we hope residents will remain patient while the service ‘beds in’ again. Our crews will be working flat-out to catch up and it would be a big help if residents could avoid the temptation to over-fill their green bins or maybe even wait a little bit longer before they put them out for collection. I suggest that residents continue to put food waste into their black bins for the next few weeks, until we are again able to guarantee a fortnightly green bin collection for everyone.”
Cllr Rosy Moore, Executive Councillor for Climate Change, Environment and City Centre at Cambridge City Council, said: “I would really like to thank all of our waste crews for their continued hard work throughout this difficult time and also thank residents for their understanding of the changes to their service without the normal information campaign. We have made these changes to ensure the safety of our staff so it is really positive that we are now able to bring back a green bin collection whilst continuing social distancing measures. We are confident that going forward we can maintain, at a minimum, a monthly green bin collection. This also means that as soon as the social distancing restrictions are lifted we will be ready to return to our normal fortnightly collection using one driver with two loaders. Please watch this space, check our websites and sign up for our online portal for the latest information.”
Kevin Roberts, Branch Secretary for the Cambridge 2 Branch of the GMB, said: “During the COVID-19 emergency we have worked closely with the Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service to ensure that our members in the workplace have everything in place to ensure they remain safe and informed at work. Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service have consistently communicated with us and have supported the national published guidance by Waste Industry Safety And Health Forum and Public Health England to ensure their staff are socially distanced and provided with all the necessary additional PPE as well as adjusting working arrangements.
“We support all the efforts that our members are putting in to support the new driver plus one loader arrangements and the management team continue to work with us to support the return of the green collections on 4 May by upholding their existing safety measures.”
Gordon White, GMB Regional Organiser, said: “This is a great example of union and employer partnership where an employer puts health and safety standards for its staff to the forefront whilst also managing to maintain an excellent service provision to its residents and customers, and we hope that other employers follow the same collaborative model.”
You can find information about bin collection services or your usual collection date plus answers to Frequently Asked Questions related to green bin collections. These include information on how to help avoid spreading Coronavirus via your bins; how to store your green bin to avoid pests if it contains food waste; how to set up a home composter; and why the green bin collections were suspended as opposed to the blue or black bin collections. These services remain unaffected and residents should continue to put their black and blue bins out as normal.
The Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service is a partnership between Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire District Councils.
Supporting local businesses – guidance for parish councils and community
groups
As part of the Council’s Covid-19 response, we are trying to
urgently support businesses in the district who are struggling during this
difficult period. We don’t have a single database for all businesses in the
district, as not all businesses are registered for business rates. To help us
get a list together as quickly as possible, could you help by sharing with
us any mailing lists or databases you have on this including:
Sole
traders
Home
based businesses
Community
enterprises and charities including CICs
We want to ensure that we can put in place, as quickly as
possible, appropriate support to help businesses through the next few months,
and fill the gaps around the central government support offer where we can. We
will be proactively contacting businesses to find out what they need, so any help
you can give in providing details for our emerging database would be very
helpful.
Please also use whatever communications channels you have
(social media, websites etc) to spread the word about this appeal, and
encourage any businesses of these types to flag themselves to us by emailing greatercambridge.business@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Due to Coronavirus the Parish Council is not holding planning committee meetings for the time being. Any applications received will be posted on our website with a date for residents to send any representations to us by.
The following application has been received:
Proposal: Approval of matters reserved for appearance landscaping layout and scale following outline planning permission S/2456/15/OL for residential development of up to 64 units estate road open space and associated works. Site address: Land To The South Haden Way Willingham Reference: S/4441/18/RM Public Access link: https://applications.greatercambridgeplanning.org/online-applications/PLAN/S/4441/18/RM All representations must be received by the Parish Council no later than Monday 6th April 2020. The Council will then consider the application remotely and make their recommendation to SCDC
Due to the impacts of the virus and restrictions on
movement, many of the operators who empty clothing and other recycling banks at
our recycling points are unable to collect from them. To avoid them overflowing
and making a mess, and the items being wasted, please can you help us to
discourage residents from taking their items to the banks at this time. Some of
you have already shared our social media posts relating to service updates,
which is really helpful. You can find them all at:
Green bin collections across
Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire will not take place between Monday 23
March and Monday 4 May.
The Greater Cambridge Shared Waste
Service, a partnership between Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire District
Councils, has made the decision in order to support staff and the recycling and
waste service as a whole during the Coronavirus outbreak.
The suspension of green bin
collections will allow crews to concentrate on emptying blue and black bins
during the coming weeks. It will also assist with any future staff sickness or
self-isolation issues.
As always, residents are being
encouraged to waste as little food as possible, so they minimise the amount
they need to throw away. For this period only, the advice to residents who do
have food waste will be to put it into the black bin.
Residents who enjoy spending time
in the garden and growing their own food are also being asked to consider home
composting as much of their garden waste as possible.
Residents who are subscribed to the
additional green bin collection scheme, and therefore pay for more than one
green bin to be collected, will see a reduced fee for their permit upon renewal
in the October.
The bulky waste collection service,
which collects large items from residents’ homes, will also be suspended during
this period.
Head of the Greater Cambridge
Shared Waste Service, Trevor Nicoll, said: “Our priority is to try and maintain
a regular waste collection service throughout the difficult months ahead and to
do what we can to support the health and wellbeing of all our staff and
residents. We’re making this change now to make sure we can focus on collecting
blue and black bins as normal for as long as we possibly can. Our bin
collection crews are trying their very best and deserve all the help we can
give them. Suspending green bin collections will take some of this burden off
them – they each walk the equivalent of a half marathon every shift. Residents
can help by trying their very best to absolutely minimise the amount of food
that they are throwing out and trying not to generate garden waste for now.
Finally, it would also be a big help to our hardworking crews if residents
whose bins don’t have much waste inside can wait until it is full before
putting it out – if they think they can manage until their next collection.”
Double bag black
bin waste if suffering symptoms
The Greater Cambridge Shared Waste
Service has also published advice on handling waste if your household is
displaying symptoms of Coronavirus.
If you’re experiencing the main
symptoms – a new, continuous cough and/or a high temperature – please be very
careful when disposing of your personal waste (including used tissues and
disposable cleaning cloths/wipes) at home. The advice for disposal of this
waste is as follows:
It should be put in a plastic
rubbish bag and tied when full
The plastic
bag should then be placed in a second bin bag and tied
It should be kept separate from
other waste in suitable secure place on your property for 72 hours before
being placed in the black bin as normal
The principle behind this method is
that after 72 hours outside the body, the virus is no longer viable. This approach
will help keep bin collection crews as safe as possible.
Other household rubbish and
recycling should be treated as normal.
If you or anyone in your home is
self-isolating or is confirmed as having Coronvirus, Cambridgeshire County
Council are politely asking that you do not go to any of their Household
Recycling Centres.
Residents who experience any
waste-related difficulties during this period are asked to email waste@scambs.gov.uk or call 03450 450
063. Please note that it may take longer than usual to receive a response as
the service adapts to different working practices.
Due to unforeseen circumstances to Parish and District Council drop in session 11am to 1pm on Saturday 29th February 2020 has been cancelled. We apologise for any inconvenience.
If you wish to contact the Parish Council our contact details can be found here on our website.
