As the Government’s cautious road-map out of lockdown continues, people’s health, safety and wellbeing remain of paramount importance. While infection and death rates are decreasing, transmission of Coronavirus is still an extremely serious threat and we all have a role to play in doing our utmost to stop its spread.

This can best be done by continuing to take precautions against catching or transmitting the virus and closely following the Government’s rules for each step of its COVID-19 Response Spring 2021 roadmap out of the current lockdown for England.

This means continuing to abide by the guidelines for social distancing by:

• Washing your hands regularly and for at least 20 seconds;
• Covering your face in enclosed spaces (especially where social distancing may be difficult and where you come into contact with people you do not normally meet);
• Staying two metres apart where possible, or one metre with extra precautions in place.
• It is also essential to stick to the rules around travel and holidaying.

Our Council team continues to provide essential services and support to the residents most in need in our district. They are working in conjunction with many dedicated volunteers who have played a crucial role in helping this work and we are immensely grateful to them.

Residents who need to carry on self-isolating during this time can rest assured that all the support previously available will continue, including financial help.

Our Reopening the High Street team is supporting local small to medium businesses as they reopen and work towards recovery. This includes helping them to carry out comprehensive COVID-19 risk assessments to keep customers and their workers safe; providing signage and aiding the implementation of the two-metre rule in the workplace; and advising on cleaning, handwashing and hygiene procedures in line with current guidance.

As more Government financial packages are announced for the business sector, our Business Support Team is also there to support the recovery and help struggling firms to access much-needed Government grants to address some of the financial impact of the lockdown and to fund recovery activities. We are also offering support and grant aid to local communities to get voluntary projects and services back on track after months of lockdown. 

Everyone across the district is working extremely hard to put plans into place for when affected services are able to gradually and safely welcome everyone back. Until then, please continue follow the guidelines to help protect the NHS and our families, friends and colleagues. By keeping infection rates low, we will all be able to get back to doing the things we love sooner. 

To access advice and support see https://www.scambs.gov.uk/coronavirus/

For more information on the Government guidelines in the COVID-19 Response Spring 2021 roadmap, see https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus

Useful links:

Government Coronavirus restrictions: www.gov.uk/coronavirus

South Cambridgeshire District Council Coronavirus information: www.scambs.gov.uk/coronavirus

Information on financial support to self-isolate: www.scambs.gov.uk/isolation

South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Reopening High Streets Safely Team: www.scambs.gov.uk/business/coronavirus-information-for-businesses/reopening-the-high-street

Support for local businesses: www.scambs.gov.uk/business/coronavirus-information-for-businesses

On Thursday 6 May 2021 elections will be taking place across South Cambridgeshire. Many of SCDC staff and regular polling station workers will once again be working, but we are looking for people who may be interested in working. In particular we are in need of poll clerks and overnight verification assistants. Please see below for details on the jobs available and email elections@scambs.gov.uk to apply or for further information

• Poll Clerks (ref: PC) (no experience needed) & Safety Marshall Poll Clerks (ref. SMPC) (no experience needed)

When: 6.30 until 22.30, Thursday 6 May 2021

Where: Polling Stations across South Cambs

Pay: £225.00 (including all travel and expenses)

Note: All Poll Clerks must attend a training session

• Thursday Night Verification Assistant (ref: VA)

When: 21.30, Thursday 6 May 2021

Where: Imperial War Museum, Duxford (TBC)

Pay: £55.00, plus £15.00 per hour after midnight

Note: Staff that have worked on polling day cannot be considered for this role. Staff must be able to stay until the session is complete.

Covid-19 Safety

We will endeavour to make working at these polls as safe as possible:

• All staff will be required to wear masks (to be supplied) for all roles
• Routine hand hygiene processes will be in place throughout
• All attendees at all election processes will also be required to wear masks
• Distancing measures will be adopted in all locations
• Busy polling stations will have extra staff (marshalls) to manage throughput of voters
• We will be adopting one way systems in polling stations wherever possible and will be asking voters to queue outside where necessary

All safety measures are subject to change based on the prevailing Covid-19 outlook

Notes

• All staff must be eligible to work in the UK and will be expected to prove their eligibility if they have not previously done so
• By working at this election, you will be committing to not working for any party or candidate at these elections

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:

 Longstanton and Oakington CGR

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.

Facebook; Facebook

Twitter; Twitter

LinkedIn LinkedIn

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.

South Cambridgeshire District Council have just published an online survey on residents opinion on the A14 Cambridge-Huntingdon Upgrade.

To take part please follow the links below

Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/SouthCambridgeshireDistrictCouncil/photos/a.155464601178391/2914286735296150/?type=3

Twitter; https://twitter.com/SouthCambs/status/1247432342731403265

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 could you send any lists to our colleagues at the Greater Cambridge Partnership who are helping us with this work via greatercambridge.business@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

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

Additionally, information for businesses is being updated frequently on the Coronavirus section of our website at www.scambs.gov.uk/business/coronavirus-information-for-businesses

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

Recycling points closed

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:

South Cambridgeshire District Council:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SouthCambridgeshireDistrictCouncil/

Twitter: @SouthCambs

Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GtrCamRecycles/

Twitter: @GtrCamRecycles

News release

Thursday 19 February 2020

Green bin collections suspended

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:

1. It should be put in a plastic rubbish bag and tied when full
2. The plastic bag should then be placed in a second bin bag and tied
3. 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.

Find out more about your local bin collection services at www.cambridge.gov.uk/recycling or www.scambs.gov.uk/recycling

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.