Consultation on more housing sites in and around St Neots.

HDC is carrying out a consultation on the designation of land for future housing in the District. Link here. This finishes on 26/02/10. I've found some items of interest whilst looking through these documents:

Peter Rowley has loads more land to sell for mixed housing.

Mr R S Farrer owns land off Huntingdon St. Is this the same R S Farrer who is a District and County Councillor?

St Neots Town Council put land off Sandfields Road up for development back in 2007. This has been discounted.

Alfred Hall Memorial Field Trust is also discounted. Will this trust become part of SNTC on 1/4?

Cambridgeshire County Council wants to build on the artificial pitch next to the Leisure Centre.

Planning Appeal Allowed over homes in Eynesbury

I see the Planning Inspector has gone against the decision of HDC supported by SNTC to refuse the planning application behind Tesco. Another blow to SNTC Planning!

Planning Inspector's Decision
Original Planning Decision
Planning and the Town Council

Fenstanton By-election UPDATE - Candidates list

List of candidates for the by-election on 25th February 2010. Link to summary file.

Previous result.

HDC Councillor Personal Websites

Whilst researching a piece on Andrew Gilbert I found he had a Council provided personal website. I see other Councillors have the same facility. So I thought I would take a look through and see how up to date they all are. This is what I found. I started with a St Neots District Councillor.

Cllr Andrew Gilbert Page updated: 01/10/2008 - 1 year 3 months ago

I then moved onto other District Councillors

Cllr Keith Morton Baker Page updated: 07/11/2008 - 1 year 2 months ago

Cllr Ian Bates Page updated: 24/05/2006 - 3 year 8 months

Cllr Peter Bucknell Page updated: 06/01/2010 - THIS MONTH

Cllr Peter Mitchell Page updated: 16/01/2007 - 2 years ago

Cllr David Priestman Page updated: 06/04/2009 - 9 months ago

Cllr Peter Reeve Page updated: 08/01/2010 - THIS MONTH

Cllr Michael Shellens Page updated: 09/10/2009 - 3 months ago

Cllr Mike Simpson Page updated: 10/07/2006 - 3 years 6 months ago

Cllr John Watt Page updated: 12/05/2006 - 3 years 8 months ago

Cllr Richard West Page updated: 23/12/2009 - 1 month ago

Out of 51 Councillors 11 have these Personal websites. Of these 2 have updated this month. 1 just over a month ago. 1 has updated 3 months ago. The other 7 haven't updated there sites for over 6 months.

This just shows how badly our Councillors are communicating with their electors. I feel this needs to change. I feel it is time to withdraw this facility and allow the councillors to use their own initiative in communicating with their electors. With some notable exceptions (Cllrs Bucknell, Reeve and West) this facility is not being used by the vast majority of councillors and should be closed down.

Martin Land in a glass house shouldn't throw stones!

"that the Tories remain a coalition between the blatantly self-interested, closet racists, and homophobes.."

So what about Kilian Bourke? I saw this on a website about the Liberal Democrat Cambridgeshire County Councillor having a go at "Gays". The Cambs 24 report is here. A copy of the Facebook frontpage of the "Romsey 27 – The Legacy" which Kilian ran is here.

The trouble is when you make a statement as highlighted in yellow this tends to rebound on you when a colleague is found to use homophobic language. It leads me to feel that Martin doesn't understand neither Conservative or Liberal Democrats supporters. It seems to me to be one rule for Martin's colleague and a far different rule for the Conservatives.

Town Council meeting 3/2/10

I see from the agenda for this meeting there are a few items of interest. These are:

Items 7 and 8 deal with a resignation from the Planning and the Grants Committees. Don't know who has resigned.

Item 11 deals with the following:

"Notification of Tax
To approve signage of HM Revenue and Custom form on notification of an option to tax land and buildings for the Eatons Community Centre and that the Responsible Finance Officer give authority to act on the Town Council behalf."

They are getting hit for rates.

Item 12 deals with the following:

"Eatons Community Centre Pre-School
The Acting Town CIerk to update members on the current situation and for members to consider the options for this facility."

Probably means there are no tenants for the pre-school. Wait to see on this one.

Under Part 2 - In secret.

Item 16. Staff Structure Report. Finally, decisions can be taken on the future shape of the Town Council. Does this mean SNTC will finally get a Town Clerk?

Is fighting Huntingdon at the General Election the best use of time and resources?

One reason the General Election will pass the Huntingdon constituency by as there are far better opportunities for electoral gains around the Huntingdon constituency. I'll be using figures from UKpollingreport.co.uk.

The Conservatives: Whilst Djanogly has problems with expenses, the problems could arise in the constituency of Cambridgeshire North West. Conservative MP Shailesh Vara is now facing a problem with an organised UKIP which did rather well at the County/Euro elections.

The Bedford Constituency is a Conservative target seat 67. Whilst the Liberal Democrats did well and won the Mayoral race last year, the constituency boundaries are within the Bedford Borough Council boundary.

Cambridgeshire North East looks very safe for the Conservatives. Cambridgeshire South is less safe and is number 60 on the Liberal Democrats target list of seats. Peterborough is Labour Target seat number 48. With  Labour finding it hard to hold onto safe seats this target list can be disregarded.

Mid Bedfordshire is also an outside possibility of not being safe as Nadine Dorries is getting into trouble over her second home allowance claims. North East Bedfordshire looks safe for the Conservatives.

The Liberal Democrats: The Cambridge Constituency is the premier seat the Liberal Democrats need to keep. As there are better prospects in Cambridgeshire North West, Cambridgeshire South  and Bedford it is unlikely the Liberal Democrats will flock to campaign in Huntingdon.

Labour: Won't be fighting much here. On the Labour website I find the Huntingdon CLP is twinned with Bedford CLP. In all likelihood Labour activists will be encouraged to go and fight to save Bedford for Labour.

Apart from a long trek to Buckingham where could UKIP campaign effectively for Nigel Farage, UKIP coudl campaign locally. I see Peter Reeve is UKIP candidate for North East Cambridgeshire. With a basic organisation in North West Cambridgeshire it would be easier to campaign there rather than anywhere else.

In conclusion: If I was in charge of each party I would be looking to maximise my resources by aiming activists to where the numbers say they should go. The Conservatives should be looking at North West Cambridgeshire and Bedford constituencies. The Liberal Democrats should be aiming for Cambridgeshire South and Bedford. Labour activists should be travelling to Bedford. UKIP should be fighting in North West Cambridgeshire. Whatever happens it is likely the General Election will pass Huntingdon by and the political parties have already decided this.