Caldecote Parish Council

“When are we getting superfast broadband in Caldecote?” is a question I have been asked quite often lately. And with good reason. After all, it was over a year ago now that Madingley Exchange became one of the six winners of the BT Race to Infinity, for the prize of an upgrade to the exchange [...]

A new service to give local communities advance warning of 1.7 million local road works was launched on Thurday 16 February 2012. Roadworks Alerts is free to users and provides details of local road works direct to mobile phones or as automated feeds to websites. It is a new service from the ELGIN roadworks.org website [...]

Christmas is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas. Dale Evans ♦ Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone. Charles Schulz ♦ God grant you the light in Christmas, which is faith; the warmth of Christmas, which is love; the radiance of Christmas, which is purity; the [...]

  Cambridgeshire County Council decided last municipal year, to remove rural bus service subsidies from all rural routes in the county, a decision that was bound to disturb the lives of those who depend on bus services to get out and about. The decision was taken without any consultation whatsoever with residents, and without due [...]

In an apparent contradiction of its aim of being a voice for rural  life and playing its part improving rural services including transport links, South Cambridgeshire District Council Cabinet has said it has no plans to make a corporate response to the ongoing consultation on the County Council cuts to rural bus subsidy. The statement [...]

Under new rules laid down by Parliament, there is a Parliamentary constituency boundaries review being undertaken by the Boundary Commission for England (BCE). The results of the review must be reported to Parliament by 2013, but the deadline for responding to the consultation is Monday 5th December 2011. The BCE has undertaken a study of [...]

Following on from the very cold winter of 2010/11, the government is keen to assist everyone to keep warm this winter by offering insulation grants.  It is common knowledge that a lot of heat is lost through walls and the loft of houses, 25% through badly insulated lofts, and 35% through un-insulated walls. This is [...]

As I mentioned in my previous post on the 25 per cent pay increase that the County Councillors voted for last week, the game is not over yet. Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats in a motion to Cambridgeshire County Council on December 7, will call for the increase in members’ allowances to be rescinded and the previous scheme [...]

County councillors in Cambridgeshire on Tuesday voted to give themselves a 25% rise in pay and allowances starting with immediate effect. The vote was carried by 33 to 29, with all but four of the Conservative Councillors voting for it, and all but one of the Liberal Democrat Councillors voting against it. The pay award [...]

As the weather begins to turn colder, for some of us, our minds begin to turn to preparing our heating systems for some vigorous use in the next 6 months. It is particularly important for those in rural areas who have oil fired heating systems.   Oil is the most commonly used off-grid energy source [...]

Dismissed as a fad in its infancy, there seems no doubting now that social media is here to stay, says a recent headline on the Sustainable Gov website. The article is repeated in its entirety here. The current leading lights of social media, Facebook and Twitter, are seen as indispensible tools by millions of users [...]

As always, I looked forward to the full council meeting of South Cambridgeshire District Council with a mixture of anticipation and dread. Anticipation at what drama may likely unfold, as there’s always something, and dread as to what questionable tactics would be unleashed by the majority. The last meeting did not disappoint on both counts. [...]

Paul Knight, Senior Policy and Performance Officer at South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC), has won the final of the Local Government Challenge 2011. . Paul’s prize in the Local Government Challenge was a £10k scholarship, which he’ll use on a project to benefit the residents of South Cambridgeshire, along with additional funding he has managed [...]

South Cambridgeshire District Council’s (SCDC) recently announced the launch of the Business Step Up competition, which is being run again following the success it enjoyed last year. This is in recognition of the important role that businesses play in creating and maintaining the prosperity of South Cambridgeshire. Business Step Up seeks to encourage local people [...]

Local communities, land owners and developers are being asked to suggest sites for possible new housing development in South Cambridgeshire.   This comes as the Planning Policy team starts work on the next stage for the new South Cambridgeshire Development Plan that will set the strategy for, and locations of, new development in the district [...]

President Barack Obama was in fine form at the weekend when he gave his audience a good dose of his own brand of comedy.   The speech which lasted just under 19 minutes started off with what the President jokingly claimed was a video of his birth. It turned out to be a clip of [...]