Folly to give up on our church hall


All Saints' Church in St Ives wants to convert its historic parish hall into dwellings. It has made a new planning application to Huntingdonshire District Council.

 

The deadline for comments to HDC is Monday, August 7. The application reference is 23/01212/FUL.

 

As a major consultee, St Ives Town Council decided unanimously to recommend ‘refusal’ at its planning committee meeting on July 26.

 

The reasons for the refusal are that the church council has neglected the parish hall, having done little work on the building for more than 30 years.

 

They are also not engaged in fund-raising or applying for grants and have not conducted any consultation of the views of the congregation and wider community about renovating this historic building and much valued and cherished asset in St Ives. 

 

The church council's first planning application was to demolish the parish hall. The second one was to convert it into four dwellings. Both applications were refused by HDC.

 

If, like me, your readers agree with the opinion of the town council, they should contact HDC via the planning portal on their website, or by email or letter, using the reference above.

 

It would be a folly, plain and simple, for the church to be permitted to give up on our parish hall.

 

Ian Dobson

 

St Ives

 

 

Gruesome details at history meeting!

For its July meeting, Brampton Historical Society listened to a talk entitled ‘what they did not teach you about history at school which was given by Stuart Orme who is curator of the Cromwell Museum in Huntingdon.

His start was not what I anticipated. I expected facts, figures and long-held impressions which may have been misconstrued or changed throughout the passage of time.

His opening screen images, however, consisted of a photo of a skull with a hole in it as brain surgery consisted of drilling a hole in the skull to diagnose the problem and then filling the gap with a silver disc!

The medieval generation was not prone to throwing anything away and this included urine.

Not something we consider of use today, but it was found to be very useful for softening leather and even a constituent component for gunpowder.

The talk progressed with informational about the use of communal toilets; the duties of the ‘night soil man’; prostitution, 18th Century Covent Garden and even ancient drawings of a circumcision.

Stuart told us the general population was smaller than today as the average height of a medieval skeleton was 5ft 7” now it is 5ft 9”.

Beds were smaller but most people slept with their chest ‘propped up’ due to the prevalence of chest infections.

Doors appeared smaller, but this was due to the road layers being added over time, so our impressions are misguided.

Stuart also emphasised that we could be under the impression that medieval society thought that the Earth was flat – not so. According to Stuart that was their way of

Stuart’s talk was interesting, down-to- earth, and humorous and was confirmation that none of his facts were taught at school – certainly not mine, nevertheless it amused us and proved very entertaining.

The next meeting of the BHS is on Wednesday, September 27 when a talk entitled ‘eating on the ration’ will be given by Chris Carr.

The BHS meets on the fourth Wednesday of every odd month.

Membership is £10 per annum and visitors are most welcome at a modest fee of £2.

Brian Gebbels

Chairman BHS

 

We need enforcement for pavement parking

I am in total agreement with story about enforcing parking on pavements (which is especially detrimental to disabled scooter and pram users.

The problem area for me is Wisbech where I work, especially The Crescent and main High Street.

This has worsened over the last year or so to now be a daily occurrence. It's just another sign of anti-social behaviour which is rife in Wisbech and March.

This is because there are no police or parking officers around to stop it, so people think they can and they DO get away with it.

This could be solved very easily in my opinion with fines of £100/200 and employing a parking/ASB officer to patrol the streets and ticket all culprits.

Surely they would earn their pay in 10 minutes?  The proceeds could be spent on the many underfunded projects in the local area.

By Email

 

Who will pay to educate future generations?

In his/her letter about the proposal to charge for the collection of green bins D G Johns says it would be ‘logical’, given that residents who don’t use green bins won’t have to pay for them, for him/her to stop paying the proportion of Council Tax spent on the education of our children on the grounds that he/she has no dependent children of school age.

I suggest D G Johns thinks about who would be available to provide health and social care services if no money was spent on educating our children to do so.  

How does D G Johns think doctors, nurses, carers and all manner of health and social care professionals learn to dedicate their working lives to their professions if money isn’t allocated to educating them in the first place?

Pat Treasure
St Neots
 

 

 

Centre Theatre Players to support Breast Cancer Now

The Centre Theatre Players are busy preparing for their forthcoming annual charity cabaret called Make This a Night to Remember.

The show is being staged in the Burgess Hall of One Leisure, in St Ives, on Friday and Saturday, September 8/9 and the show starts at 7.30pm.

The show is a variety of music comedy and dance featuring several of the Players’ regular performers, some surprise guests and as always, the Vicky Grant dancers.

This year, the Players have nominated Breast Cancer Now as their chosen charity.

This charity helps people affected by breast cancer with support for today and hope for the future.

To date, the Players have raised more than £90,000 from their charity work with 40  different charities benefitting from their efforts.

Tickets for the show are £10 and can be purchased online from: www.starliteroadshow.com or by phoning: 07555 394697 between 6pm and 9pm on weekdays.

Dick Chalkey

Centre Theatre Players


 

Does HDC not have its own ideas?

 

I am dismayed and object at HDC plans to charge for green bin collection.

 

The coloured system for the refuse bins was introduced to encourage recycling which was a good idea.

 

I believe the green bin waste is recycled and deposited in licenced tips and is converted into compost which is then sold.

 

If HDC do not get any share of the revenue from the sale of compost, why not?

 

HDC are following what other local authorities are doing or wish to. Is this because they can’t come up with any ideas of their own? Perhaps we should let our gardens go wild like the grass on our roadside.

 

Yes people can compost their own green waste, however, in my own experience compost heaps in the garden attract rats which numbers are already far too high especially within built up areas.

 

Ray Brown

St Ives