Parish Magazine November 2023
Community gritting volunteers wanted
The Community Gritting Scheme is a scheme where local volunteers can help to keep their community moving in freezing weather. Under this scheme, the parish council decides on specific routes in the area which are important to the local community and agrees them with the county council. The scheme is operated by the County Council Highways Department.
When do I grit?
Just like the gritters that clear the roads, the community gritting schedule is determined by the weather. Highways do not notify registered community gritting volunteers when to grit, they rely on the volunteers to grit the footpaths as and when it is required.
Where do I grit?
This scheme only applies to footways and footpaths. You are not insured or trained to grit the roads and should never place yourself in conflict with live traffic. You should not put yourself at any further risk from motor vehicles than you would as an untrained pedestrian.
Each parish decides which footways and paths should be gritted by volunteers and submits them to the County Council for approval. The routes are then discussed and an agreed route map is recorded. You are only covered by the County Council’s insurance for these agreed routes.
If you feel that a route should be changed or added to the agreed route map then please contact your parish council who can discuss the change and submit it to the County Council if appropriate.
Only volunteers that have completed the basic training and returned the registration form you will be covered by the County Council’s insurance. Highways will provide a spreader to enable the grit to be evenly spread on the footpath.
How do I volunteer?
If you would like to volunteer for this winter, please send an email with your details to John, the Parish Clerk at clerk@grantchester.org.uk. We will only participate if a sufficient number of volunteers register.
For more details of what is involved go to this website
GPC Minutes 16 10 2023
GPC Agenda 16 10 2023
Playground temporary closure
Recreation Ground Temporary Closure for 3 weeks
As you may already be aware, the Parish Council is refurbishing the Recreation Ground, and replacing two pieces of the older wooden play equipment, which are showing signs of age.
This work had been planned to commence in December, but an opportunity has arisen for the work to be done before the potential bad weather later in the year, so the work will start on Monday 9 October.
The contractors will be working on site for approximately 3 weeks, daily from 8.00am through to 4.30pm. During this time the Recreation Ground will be closed to the public for safety reasons. Whilst we appreciate that closing the playground during half-term is not ideal, we hope that you will understand the reasons for doing this work at this time.
Parish Magazine October 2023
Cambridge Congestion Charge
Update on Making Connections
The Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) Executive Board yesterday (Thursday 28 September) decided to stop the further development of the Sustainable Travel Zone (STZ) proposals as part of the Making Connections scheme.
The members discussed the results of last year’s consultation, the evidence gathered through the 24,000 responses, the amended proposals from officers and the feedback from the GCP Joint Assembly.
They collectively decided that while the aims of Making Connections to make travelling in and around Cambridge simpler and faster by saving time and money, would have eased congestion, and offered better, fairer, and greener travel choices, the STZ is not able to progress to Full Business Case due to a lack of political consensus.
Officers will now focus on other areas of the City Access programme looking at issues such as resident parking, road hierarchy and freight consolidation. This is in addition to the other infrastructure projects which include: 150km of Greenways, innovative busway schemes from Waterbeach to Cambridge and Cambourne to Cambridge as well as the significant improvements to Milton Road and Newmarket Road.