Guided Bus – news, and news

News to the Cambridge News is that BAM Nuttalls are being charged £14,000 a day for late delivery. This was published on 29th January – but the same information was in a BBC Cambridgeshire interview with Brian Smith, Director at Cambridgeshire County Council,  on 4th January.

That’s £4.7M – but Nuttalls aren’t yet paying that, they’re merely being charged – and the council will deduct the amount from the sum it pays BAM Nuttall once the busway has been finished and handed over.

Meanwhile, the Hunts Post takes a different tack – in the article Cambridge to St Ives guided bus disagreements will affect council’s cash flow – highlights from this appear to be such gems as Talks over the costs of building the busway remain unresolved and “this resolution process is likely to be protracted, having cash flow implications for the council” and The project was to cost £118m, including buying land, but The Hunts Post understands that costs have increased by about £40m

And, courtesy District Councillor Mike Mason, SCDC appear to have lost patience as well – they passed a motion that formally requests the County Council to issue a comprehensive public statement concerning the future operation and likely cost of the Cambridgeshire Guided Bus Scheme.

Who gets there first with the news, and whether the £40m figure is right will be interesting to see!

Steaming through Milton

Did you ever want to be a train driver? Did Jeremy Clarkson’s escapade capture your imagination? Or did you (or do you still) have a train set?

The steam train may be inefficient, it may no longer be right for our 21st century, globally warming world, but it is a magnificent sight, and I, for one, would be saddened if we never saw one again. And, we can see them on a regular basis – and just at Milton.

On Saturday the A4 60019 “Bittern” came through Milton hauling the “Cathedrals Express Xmas Carol Concert Special” service from London to Norwich. Nat Johnson took a wonderful photo – this reduced version doesn’t do it justice.

Paul Oldham publishes details of what’s expected when in Milton News

Impingham – what’s in a name?

What is in a name? Well, Impington’s been called many things – here are a few (with the relevant dates): 1066, EPINTONE; 1082, EMPINTON; 1199, YMPITON; 120l, IMPINTON; 1269, HINPINTON; 1272, IMPYNTON. We know that Samuel Pepys (the Samuel Pepys, whose uncle lived in the Parish) wrote in his diary on July 15th 1661, “Rode to Impington”.

So, you’d think that that was that. It’s Impington.

Well, that would be nice …

There are those, of course, who call us Histon. Usually because its shorter than “Histon & Impington” – they never say “Impington” instead. Shame for the 4,000 or so people who live in the village.

However, there are people who invent a totally different name – how about Impingham? Google’s search shows 84 hits for Impingham – some re Chaucer, but some who, for example, “passed through Impingham, Cottenham, Wilburton and Witchford” or (English Heritage, writing about village colleges) “including Impingham, 1939 by Walter Gropius”.

The latest misnaming is from the Guided Bus team, where bridleway signs on the Kings Hedges/CRC junction point to Impingham. Lets hope that the bus doesn’t get lost trying to find Impingham!

Holiday?

Half term week – great – decent weather forecast, I’m under pressure to take my leave allocation – lets go for it. Take it easy, do some jobs in the garden, catch up on the email backlog ….

Nice idea! The Citi 7 issues really knocked that all for six – a couple of meetings, several trips to the Parish Office, 136 mails sent, 365 received (OK, not quite all of them community issues), articles for the Courier – where did the time go?

Yes, one bag of “Denise’s delight” from Madingley Mulch duly transferred to the raised beds in the back garden (and a few other odd jobs done there). A very pleasant meal with family at the Crown, Girton to celebrate my birthday – but where did the rest of it go? Email backlog – there’s more of it!

Next week – back to work, and a meeting every evening, and the annual service at the War Memorial on Sunday – I need a holiday!

Flu

We’re all focused on swine flu – and its real, of course. Numbers of reported cases are rising, and there have been a very small number of deaths. For most people, though, its still a mild illness.

Have we taken our eyes off the ball though? Swine flu is this year’s special – but there’s still ordinary flu – and there are some deaths from that each year. So, have you been vaccinated?

For the last few years I have – and I’ve been fine. Of course, I might have been fine without – but since this year’s jab cost me a mere £8 at Asda I’ll go with that. Asda aren’t the only people doing it – and will only be doing it on Saturday’s in October – but get the jab – don’t get ordinary (or swine) flu.

Roman Impington

Site (Unwin’s, Impington Lane) director Chris Thatcher said: “We did not expect to find such important Iron Age and Roman remains here at Impington, we can now see the origins of the village going back over 2,000 years.”

We’ve known of the history of the village – its certainly in the Domesday Book, and Arbury Camp (now part of the Orchard Park development) is thought to be Iron Age. But real Iron Age, and Roman, artefacts and features – that’s different.

The report in the Cambridge News talks about an Iron Age roundhouse (familiar to anyone who watches “Time Team“) and also Samian Ware.

Village historian Eleanor Whitehead was able to visit the site on the last day of the dig (apparently an “open day” would fall foul of health and safety concerns), and we’ve been promised copies of reports and photos. A display of finds at the Library is also being considered.

Guided Bus – late again

We never believed “late summer” – well, have you see the state of the works in Orchard Park? But do you believe October 31st or November 30th once the County has finished everything it needs to do?

There seems to be a lot still to do – stations (stops) to finish, “maintenance track” to complete (let alone the track at Orchard Park).  The Hunts Post is sceptical – the track is one thing, but then there’s control equipment, closed circuit TV etc.

The holdup has been (or at least the latest holdup) noise barriers for Impington and Histon residents. As to why this has been a holdup, that’s another question. Yes, there’s care needed over the design – and yes, residents have real concerns – well would you want a 4m (or higher) barrier at the end of your garden? Particularly if that garden is short?

At least one delay was the ability to test. The Inspector at the planning inquiry agreed to the need to meet WHO noise guidelines. That was a small victory – those are tougher than UK planning regulations. In order to be sure that the barriers being built we high enough – but no higher – it was necessary to test with proper vehicles once enough track was in place.

In order to speed completion the Parishes have agreed to construction vehicle access via Histon Station – with tight constraints on route and timing. BAM Nuttalls still reckon the end of October will be a “tall order”.

Whatever, we need this finished, and in operation – or else it will really turn into a very large white elephant!

Altruism – the control group

Have you ever wondered about medical testing, about how the tests prove (or otherwise) whether something is working?

The answer, of course, is the control group – people who don’t get the medication, treatment or whatever is being tested. At the end of the testing period comparison between the controls and the treatment groups gives a measure of the effectiveness of the treatment.

But have you ever wondered about the people in the control group? They’re chosen at random – and if the treatment is effective they miss out. If treatment of some life threatening condition is being tested – that’s the ultimate in altruism. In some cases, of course, the treatment is seen to be so effective that the tests are ended early, and everyone treated – but that can be too late for some.

Why? Well, having struggled to lose weight, I signed up for a MRC “Web Weight” study – there are four groups – group A gets the least support – group D the combination that’s thought to have most to offer. And I got “randomised” into group A. I’m still going to be aiming to lose weight – but all on my own!

A14 Noise

A14 widening is coming – not sure when, or where the money is to come from, but it is coming. Noise is already a problem – and a wider road, faster traffic …

The Parish Councils are members of JAG – a Joint Action Group of Parish Councils concerned about, for example: HGV traffic, Northstowe development, A14 widening. We come together to share knowledge, challenge District and County Councils (and others) and make more of a difference by working together.

Last night the subject was noise, and noise barriers. We know about those!

Impington residents have been concerned ever since this one, to protect residents at Orchard Park, was built.

We learned a few things last night from Giles Parker, MD of Sound Barrier Solutions talked to us about sound barriers and what could, and couldn’t, be done.

About the Orchard Park barrier:

• its reflective (so it bounces noise back) – absorptive is better
• its wooden, so may not reach the 40 year target life that the Highways Agency have – and closing the road to maintain it may cost more than doing it better to begin with!
• its wooden, so its not safe to allow plants to grow up it – they’ll grow through it and accelerate damage
• its probably not high enough – the sound from HGVs (almost 19% of traffic on the A14 last year were HGVs) will bounce back and forth and come over the top

We learned that other countries (eg Poland) take a completely different approach to protecting their communities – they have noise barriers, not 2 or 3 m high, but 10m high. Ireland are doing better than we are, as are many of the countries in Europe.

Of course, to provide proper barriers for all the roads in the UK will cost a lot of money, but lets hope the Highways Agency are prepared to start doing it right, and to start doing it right here.

There’s work to do making this happen – but at least we know now that its possible!

Work of the Councils

What do you know about what the Parish Councils get up to?

We’ve got 23 Parish Councillors in the two Parishes working for the community – as unpaid volunteers. Do you know what they’re doing?

This is the first of several polls about the work of the Councils, please do try it!