QE Lib Dem News November 2023

Welcome from your Liberal Democrat councillors and campaigners in Queen Edith’s ward and division.  We intend to regularly post this blog on our website and email it out to local people as a newsletter regularly.   

Please feel free to forward this message on to anyone who would be interested.  To sign up please visit https://www.cambridgelibdems.org.uk/in-your-area/queen-ediths. 

Please do let us know what you think as we would welcome feedback. To contact us about anything in this newsletter, please email  
alex.beckett@cambridgeshire.gov.uk, daniel.lee@cambridge.gov.uk,  karenyoung.libdems@gmail.com or iblackburnhorgan@yahoo.co.uk. 

Best wishes 

Alex Beckett - County Councillor Queen Edith’s Division 

Karen Young - City Councillor Queen Edith's Ward 

Daniel Lee - City Councillor Queen Edith's Ward 

Immy Blackburn-Horgan – City Councillor Queen Edith’s Ward 

In this edition: 

• By-election win - 23 November 

• New developments – Forvie Site on the Biomedical Campus 

• Consultation on Newbury Farm Development 30 November 

• Addenbrookes Roundabout  

• Anti-social behaviour – ward walk 

• Mould and housing repairs 

• Registration Services 

• Local Highways Improvements 

• Residents Parking 

• England’s Economic Heartlands (EEH): 

• Donate toys for Christmas hamper appeal 

• Webinar on Statement of Community Involvement  

• Community Grit Volunteers 

Queen Edith’s Lib Dems Celebrate By-Election Win 

Liberal Democrats are celebrating their latest win on Cambridge City Council last night. Immy Blackburn Horgan’s election as city councillor for Queen Edith’s ward was the second Liberal Democrat gain on the council this year. 

Immy is already known to manylocally due to her 5 years volunteering on the ground in Queen Ediths. This included setting up her own Skip Day and helping at the QECF ones too, volunteering at the food bank, church and Rock Road cafes, Nightingale Community Garden all alongside jointly establishing her communities Residents Association with its own Children’s Committee and a Red Cross Area Neighbourhood Watch Scheme.

Immy on her first week post-election has attended the Areas South Committee addressing with the Neighbourhood Police Team noisy and dangerous mopeds and motorbikes blighting the life of the elderly, less mobile and families with young children. Drawing on lessons learnt from the success of multi-agency work to reduce speeding mopeds and motorbikes on Greenlands and Red Cross Lane.

She also attended her first full Council Committee where she hoped to put forward a question on when will the Nightingale community pavilion be open, will it be accessible and how will it be protected linking in CCTV with it and the community garden, important issues you raised directly with her.

New Councillor Immy says: “I’m delighted and a little overwhelmed with the confidence expressed in me. I’d like to thank all those who voted for me yesterday as well as those who worked so hard for our win. I feel I have a lot to learn – but I’m really looking forward to the new role, working for the whole community and thinking of the future, as well as the present of Queen Edith’s and the city as a whole.” 

New developments – Forvie Site on the Biomedical Campus 

There was a pre-application presentation at the Joint Development Control Committee on 15 November on the high-level plans for the Forvie Site on the Biomedical Campus.  This is the site to the West of Greenlands and North of Nine Elms which currently contains several very old buildings that need re-development. This item is the first one on the agenda so you can start at about 10.07 i.e. 7 minutes in and you can get an idea of what is being planned in a 10-15 minutes. The presentation goes on until 10.46 after which there are questions. You can watch and listen here: youtube.com/watch?v=wE6EOhzwVm0. 

Consultation on Newbury Farm Development 30 November 

This will be held at the Nightingale Park Sports Pavilion from 2 to 8pm. Please drop by and have a look at the plans. The developers plan to submit the planning application in Q1 next year. 

Addenbrookes Roundabout  

Alex met with residents of Fendon Road Residents association and reps of GCP, County Council, Camcycle and the Biomedical campus this week to discus the Addenbrookes Roundabout proposals. While concerns still exist around the design, it was good to bring interested parties together to find a way forwards. One very interesting point raised at the meeting was the desire of the Biomedical Campus to open up a Southern Access Road reducing traffic load on Babraham road and the Addenbrookes Roundabout.  

Anti-social behaviour – ward walk 

Karen met with officers from the Antisocial behaviour team and had a discussion about actions that are being taken with regard to anti-social behaviour in the ward, of which there has been quite a bit over the summer. We walked around the area in front of the shops and the churches in Wulfstan Way.  Please note the officers have issued a plea to residents to report any such behaviour as otherwise they do not know about it and nothing can be done.  See the contact details below on how to report. 

Mould and housing repairs 

Karen is dealing with several cases of problems with housing repairs.  If you have a similar problem or know of someone having problems, please do get in touch. 

Registration Services 

Alex met with officers at the County Council to discuss registration services and the quality of provision in the county. In particular the buildings we use for civil weddings are often far below the standards used elsewhere in the country. 

Local Highways Improvements 

Bids are now open for local highways improvements within Queen Edith’s. Alex has been working with local residents to put in bids for Litchfield Road, Cowper Road, Limekiln Road, Hills Avenue and Hinton Avenue. While we are limited to 5 bids within this area if other residents have ideas for other schemes they think would rank highly, please do get in touch. More details can be found here: 

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/travel-roads-and-parking/roads-and-pathways/improving-the-local-highway/local-highway-improvement-funding 

Residents Parking 

Parking continues to be a hot button topic across the ward. While we don’t currently have many areas of paid residents parking in QE at the moment Alex met officers recently to discus the situation and how residents permits could work better for locals.  

England’s Economic Heartlands (EEH) 

The EEH conference was held in Cambridge this year at the start of November. A regional event looking at transport in the area, Alex lead a panel event on Active Travel and some of the strategies we’re using within Cambridgeshire to unlock potential. Side note here, Cambridge actually has the highest rates of cycling in the entire country. 

Donate toys for Christmas hamper appeal 

The council is calling on local businesses to support its Christmas toy appeal, which has been set up in partnership with Cambridge City Food Bank and Cambridge Sustainable Food to ensure that each family receiving an essential Christmas food hamper will also receive a suitable toy or family game to leave under the tree. 

Webinar on Statement of Community Involvement  

Greater Cambridge Shared Planning is holding an online webinar to talk about the Statement of Community Involvement where you can participate in a question and answer session with officers. The webinar will take place on Microsoft Teams: 6pm to 7pm on Thursday 16 October. Sign up to register for the webinar: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/e513c899-0860-47ce-9e22-b55b762e8a44@ce6ebe62-557b-4436-a19c-767eca2cd451. The Statement of Community Involvement sets out how the South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridge City Council will involve communities on a wide range of planning matters throughout the planning process. You can read the document and make your comments here: https://greatercambridgeplanning.org/about-us/statement-of-community-involvement/?fbclid=IwAR09bRQF0qwg2FFjJZz2wmYlb87CdzFPS_PSOWJ3-CxwOUlN3txxQAQ9KWA 

Community Grit Volunteers 

The county council is currently recruiting volunteers to keep grit local footpaths. If you’d like to volunteer you can find out more here: 
https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/travel-roads-and-parking/roads-and-pathways/gritting-roads-cycleways-and-paths/help-with-gritting-and-clearing-snow 

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