HDC not what it used to be!

My how things have changed with local councillors at county, town and district level.

When I did my spell at HDC, the philosophy was not to spend money we did not have and only on essential schemes. 

Now this has been superseded at most levels where councillors (and officers) actually look for ways to spend and increase our local taxes even in these difficult times.

HDC (via GCP) intends to introduce a 20 mph speed limit which has proved to increase pollution and not reduce accidents by any meaningful numbers.

Meantime cyclists and e-scooters completely ignore all road traffic rules without any sanctions (children who are noticeably under the age are riding two-up as well).

When have you seen someone stopped by the law? I live near a set of traffic lights and the numbers jumping red lights and pavement riding is astonishing.

Twice I have had to jump out of the way of these lunatic lawbreakers in the past 10 days.

The town council precept shows the highest percentage increase (apart from the county mayor’s office) and seems to be out of control.

As for the Mayor, zero precept until last year, rising by 200 per cent this year to fund functions, travel and events that could easily be carried out by the districts and counties, or not at all.

And where did Mayor Johnson state in his manifesto that he intended to impose such taxes on us?

As for the GCP, I predicted at the time it was a white elephant proposal and that it would grow exponentially to become a waste of money as has proved to be the case.

It has strangled Cambridge city retail prospects and caused huge traffic problems that the schemes will not solve. I no longer visit Cambridge.

I despair that we now have a large generation of councillors largely unaffected by inflation and not caring about the level of local taxation.

All the blame goes on the government which it should not and could be avoided by careful spending only what we can afford, not what we would like. If expenditure and budgets were tightly controlled by these officials, we would all pay less.

But at least HDC has banned the use of goldfish at fairgrounds- a major success!

 

Derek Holley

Huntingdon 

 

Nearest meeting is not that near!

East West Rail has announced the dates and locations for 'drop-in' meetings regarding its statuary consultation (1 of 2) due in June.

Read more here: https://eastwestrail.co.uk/news/latest-stories/community-conversation-events.

The meetings are being held in May and the nearest one to St Neots will be either Roxton Village Hall or Cambourne, with nothing in between which is typical of the EWRCo spin, twisted PR and so-called transparency.

The residents of St Neots and the surrounding area should be aware before this thing gets the go-ahead and swamps the area with thousands more residents, houses on floodplains, total lack of infrastructure and poor connectivity.

Gordon Johnston
Wyboston
 

Find out more about the U3A

St Neots & District U3A is currently in its 25th year with just under 1,100 members and around 50 activity groups.

Our annual showcase will take place at St Neots Priory Centre on Tuesday, April 16, from 2pm to 4pm. There will tables manned by members of our various groups where members and prospective members can get information on joining the groups and what their activities are all about.

There will also be performances by some of the musical, dancing and exercise groups.

Prospective members are also welcome at our monthly meetings held in the Priory Centre on the third Tuesday of every month, starting at 2pm.

Admission and refreshments are free of charge. There is also a monthly meet & greet session in The Cloisters at the Priory Centre on the last Friday of every month, from 10.30am till 11.30am.

This is also for existing and prospective members where committee members and group members will be on hand to give information on joining and participating in activities.

Our publicity team will be out and about this year with our gazebos at various events around the area. We have slots at the Farm & Craft Market, Eaton’s May Day event and Paxfest and hope to be at Bands in the Park and the St Neots Festival again.

St Neots & District U3A