SOUTH NEIGHBOURHOOD PANEL
If you are interested in making a difference on important matters that affect our village please read on.
PURPOSE
These panels are now in to their third year and have developed in that time to provide a platform for change in our area.
The role of the panel is to discuss the concerns in areas such as policing, health, housing, children and young people. The aim is to work with local people and other agencies to help tackle issues of concern in our community. The key tasks of the panel is to advise service providers in the district of local priorities, to discuss specific issues of mutual concern, and to agree a number of key actions to be completed between meetings and nominate responsible officers to take this action forward.
The meetings are open to anyone to attend and importantly give residents the opportunity to voice their concerns about matters that affect their village and surrounding area.
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF SOUTH NEIGHBOURHOOD PANEL
The South Neighbourhood consists of the following villages; Ashley, Bottisham, Brinkley, Burrough Green, Burwell, Cheveley, Dullingham, Kirtling, Lode, Reach, Stetchworth, Swaffham Bulbeck, Swaffham Prior, Wesley Waterless and Woodditton,.
WHO ATTENDS
The panel is made up of County, District and Parish Councillors in the South Neighbourhood. Burwell is represented by David Brown (County), Lavinia Edwards (District) and Michel Scarff (Parish).
Additionally any member of the public can attend and take part.
The panel can co-opt members of the public.
The police also attend the meeting and give a presentation regarding police matters in the neighbourhood, and are open to questions from all those present.
PANELS ACHIEVEMENTS
Anti Social Behaviour in Burwell - From the first meeting in January 2008 to date the problems with anti social behaviour (ASB) in Burwell has been one of the major priorities for the panel. At the time there were major problems with ASB in the areas of Westhorpe and Jubilee Green plus other isolated hotspots in the village. Through the actions of various agencies, including Burwell Parish Council, the number of Anti Social Behaviour incidents have been drastically reduced. As a direct result of the Neighbourhood Panel a public meeting for Burwell was held in November 2008 to discuss ASB. This resulted in the Burwell ASB Project Group being set up to provide the direction for ASB reduction. Representatives of Burwell Parish Council, Police, Youth Service and Hereward Sanctuary have regularly met since then and an action plan was formulated and acted upon.
For 2010 Burwell Parish Council is supporting the employment of a dedicated Youth Worker for Burwell to engage with the youngsters in the village. The Parish Council is also financially supporting the Youth Bus which is located on the Sports Hall Car Park each Tuesday evening.
The number of reported ASB incidents in Burwell have reduced from 83 (Sept 2008 Nov 2008) to 25 (Sept 2009 Nov 2009). This is an excellent improvement and highlights the work undertaken as a result of the Neighbourhood Panel process.
Speedwatch a Speedwatch group of volunteers have been monitoring the speed of motorists in various locations in Burwell since March 2009. To date speedwatch checks have been made in both directions of Swaffham Road, Newmarket Road, Ness Road, High Street, The Causeway & Toyse Lane.
The speedwatch results have been followed up by the police with enforcement and in locations and at times shown to be most at risk by speeding motorists by these Speedwatch results. For the first time police enforcement on speeding motorists was undertaken in Toyse Lane, and this is a direct result of the Speedwatch checks.
Quy traffic calming this has been highlighted as a problem in terms of the type of calming that has been introduced. The B1102 through Quy remains at 40mph even with the calming. Representations continue to be made with the County Council highway department to look at better ways of reducing traffic speed through this village such as 30mph and other formats of calming.
A142/A14 junctions this has been highlighted by Burwell through the panel as a problem junction which is difficult to exit and enter to and from the A14 both East & West. There are large delays at peak periods that cause traffic to rat run through the various villages via B1102 and B1103 with high volumes using these B roads rather than the more appropriate A roads. Burwell believe that these problems are causing inappropriate use of the B roads by HCV's. There are other problems that do not help such as the road from Quy roundabout to Teversham being clogged up every single morning and vice-versa in the evenings. Representations will continue to be made to the appropriate road authorities to seek a long term solution to this increasing problem.
Other matters discussed and acted upon at Neighbourhood Panels waste collections, dog fouling, Wicken Fen, fly tipping, parking issues, speed limits, flights paths and many other police matters.
REMAINING MEETINGS FOR 2010 ALL START AT 7pm
Wednesday 31st March 2010 Kirtling Village Hall
Tuesday 29th June 2010 Ellesmere Centre, Stetchworth
Wednesday 6th October 2010 Burwell Village College
If you would like to air your views on what is concerning you in the village or if you have any ideas on how to improve matters then come along to these meetings. We hope to see some of you.
For further information about Neighbourhood Panels go to: www.eastcambs.gov.uk In the A Z on Council Services click on N and scroll down to Neighbourhood Panels. |
