Organisers of the Cambridge Strawbery Fair have cancelled this year’s event after police challenged the granting of a licence the city council. (Read the BBC article here.)

I am appalled that police interference in the democratic process has resulted in the Fair’s cancellation.

The city council took all of the evidence into account and decided to allow Strawberry Fair to have its own licence.  For the police to throw a spanner in the works at this late stage is deeply unhelpful.   Strawberry Fair is one of the annual local outings which makes Cambridge Cambridge, and is attended by all sections of the community.  Last year’s event was a great success.

A recent letter I wrote in the Cambridge News (below) summed up my feelings in terms much politer than those I would use now.  I didn’t think for a minute the event would actually be cancelled.

If Sergeant Rob Needle is really so surprised by the cancellation of this popular public event due to the police’s decision to appeal the license, and if he is so supportive of it “in principle”, perhaps he will listen to the public he is supposed to serve, which overwhelmingly wants the Fair to go ahead, and withdraw the Constabulary’s appeal.

This is the text of a letter I wrote to CEN last week.

I am writing to express my concern that Cambridgeshire Constabulary is appealing the city council’s decision to grant Strawberry Fair a license, subject to an extensive list of conditions, including better provision of toilet facilities and a reduction in the number of main stages.

No-one who attends Strawberry Fair can fail to appreciate the important role the police perform at it.   The officers I have spoken to at the event have always been genial and polite, and maintained a safe and hospitable public atmosphere by intervening - with a delicate and discriminating touch - when troublemakers threaten to disrupt it.

But in appealing the council’s decision the Constabulary is somewhat overstepping its role.  It is the politicians’ job to make licensing decisions.  The council took the evidence presented to it into account and came to its decision.  It is for the police to enforce such decisions, not attempt to rewrite them.  If members of the constabulary wish to be involved in policy-making they should consider standing for election.

I look forward to this year’s event being even better than last year’s, thanks to the continued co-operation of the council, the organizers and the police.

Kilian Bourke

Liberal Democrat councillor for Romsey

Tesco will not be selling alcohol on Mill Road, under a ruling today from Cambridge Magistrate’s Court.  

It took the City Council to court over its decision not to allow its Mill Road branch a license to sell alcohol.

The key ground on which the appeal was dismissed was the conflict there would have been with the cumulative alcohol impact zone, which was introduced in order to reduce alcohol-related anti-social behaviour in the area.

City Councillor Catherine Smart was a witness at the hearing, and spoke in support of the Council’s decision.

That the cumulative impact zone stood up in court is very good news for other parts of the city which have already introduced, or are considering introducing, an impact zone.

There has been some progress on Mill Road’s accident reduction scheme in recent months; in particular, it looks likely that the broadway will finally receive new streetlights.   At last!  Catherine Smart and Sarah Ellis-Miller have been campaigning for these for many years.

Less welcome is news that the Conservatives are only planning to spend £200,000 of the allocated £400,000 on Mill Road this year.  This wouldn’t be a problem in itself, but they have refused to guarantee that the remainder of Mill Road’s funding will be made available next year.

My concern is that, given the mess the County’s finances are in, budgetary pressures will result in this money being siphoned off to pay for other accident schemes or deficits.   With a £5m overspend in adult care, the soaring cost of the Guided Busway to the taxpayer and the crisis in primary school places requiring emergency funding, I am worried that this money will quietly disappear.

Mill Road has one of the worst accident records in the county—127 accidents in the last four years.   Moreover, the worst accident black spots, like the junctions at Devonshire Road and Argyle Street, have not been addressed by the initial improvements.

It needs every penny of the £400,000 it was promised.

Kilian

Your Romsey councillors were furious when the resurfacing work in Romsey this Summer didn’t include the cycle-friendly gullies that we were promised, and we have been lobbying the County Council hard to deliver on its promise.

Finally, the Council has agreed to replace the existing gullies, which are often sunk into the ground, and can cause bicycles to slip in wet conditions, with cycle-friendly versions. These are carefully tailored and seamlessly integrated into the road surface, so that it is possible to cycle straight over them without noticing the difference from the regular road surface.

This is particularly helpful on a road like Mill Road, where space is at a premium, and cyclists often find themselves kerb-hugging, even though this shouldn’t be necessary.

The County Tories have been giving the City a bad deal on Highways improvements for the last dozen years or so, but I’d like to thank the officers for putting necessity above politics on this occasion. Their decency deserves recognition.

After a long, arduous and, all told, pretty tedious campaign, the County Council has kindly given in to pressure from your local Lib Dem team to have the pavements on Mill Road repaired.

They are in an awful state. On one occasion I witnessed an old lady using a zimmerframe trip up outside the post office and fall flat on her face, because of a protruding slab.

The Council has allocated £9,000 to repairing the worst parts of our pavements from Perne Road to East Road. In particular, I have requested them to sort out the areas surrounding the old persons’ home by the Post Office, the stretch around the Black Cat Cafe, and some patches in Brookfields as well.

If you have any suggestions for other parts of Mill Road where the pavements need resurfacing, please email me at: kilian.bourke@gmail.com

Please contribute to the consultation on Mill Road’s accident reduction scheme by filling in the online questionairre. You can access it by clicking on this link.

The main points I put in the “comments” section were:

1/ I want the 20mph speed limit to encompass ALL of Mill Road, not just part of it.

2/ I support cycle-and-bus-friendly “raised crossings” (which pedestrianise the space) but not ugly speed cushions.

3/ The materials used need to be both attractive - to enhance, not degrade, the environment - and durable - so as not to collapse over time, as on Catharine Street.

4/ Removing the lines in the middle of the road is a good idea, but double yellow lines should be placed between lanes on the railway bridge, to prevent overtaking.

Kilian

The Liberal Democrats have revealed that Cambridgeshire taxpayers have paid out £2.9 million in compensation payouts for accidents on the county’s pavements over the last five years.

Cambridgeshire’s Conservative run County Council is ranked 94th highest out of 99 English councils for the amount paid out on pavement compensation claims over the last five years, according to information gathered by the Liberal Democrats under the Freedom of Information Act. Indeed, this year’s figure of £707,000 in pavement compensation is the third worst of the councils surveyed.

Neighbouring county councils have fared better: Essex, with twice the population of Cambridgeshire paid out only £1.5 million; the figure for Hertfordshire was £1.3 million and for Suffolk a mere £267,000.

These figures are extremely worrying. It’s ridiculous that we are all paying out on compensation instead of investing money in the maintenance of our highways. This is just the tip of the iceberg - the state of cycle lanes, footpaths and road surfaces is often very poor as well.

Read the rest of this entry.

It’s been a busy couple of months for me, especially with the County Council election approaching,  but apart from campaigning I’ve been working hard on other fronts: 

Read the rest of this entry.

Good news.  At last night’s East Area Committee it was decided that funding would be made available to plant two large London Plane trees (see picture right) on the expanded grass verges on Cromwell Road.

We have been pushing for this for nearly six months now, so we are very happy it is going to happen.  “Trial holes” to assess the potential for additional tree planting on Cromwell Road will also be going ahead, although this will be part of the Accident Reduction Scheme road-works.

Our other bids for environmental improvements in the ward have not been unsuccesful, but have been put on a waiting list on the East Area Committee.  (Each of the four wards was allowed to select one scheme to go ahead, with further ones being postponed until the next such meeting.)

Mill Road’s “hanging baskets” of flowers are also on their way, hopefully in the coming weeks.

Good news.  Having secured the extensive resurfacing of Mill Road, Cllr Nichola Harrison (Petersfield) and I have been pressing the County Council Highways Authority to accelerate the process.  Although the exact date has yet to be confirmed Senior Officers have assured me that the works will now be commencing this summer - possibly as early as June.

This is another significant win, although I am still pushing for the scheme to be extended to encompass the junction of Mill Road and Vinery Road, much of Brookfields, and the junction with Brooks/Perne Road, where there is considerable disintegration and sinkage.

Read the rest of this entry.

The Tory-run County Council has finally caved in to Lib Dem pressure to reverse its policy on 20mph speed limits, which made it extremely difficult to introduce them to areas where they were needed.  It was only possible to introduce this limit if the average speed was already less than 20mph.   Now they have reverted to Government guidelines, so that the limit can be introduced where the average speed is 24mph or less.  Cllrs Nichola Harrison of Petersfield and I have been pushing for this for as long as I can remember. You can read a letter I wrote to the CEN on this subject six months ago here.

At the same time, it is amusing to hear Conservative Cabinet member Cllr Bradney taking credit for making our roads safer, when he is in fact reversing a policy he introduced last year, which made those same roads more dangerous. The U-turn manoeuvre has rarely been more perfectly executed!

Read the rest of this entry.

The Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrat group have now launched their manifesto for the forthcoming elections on June 5.

We have also put together a much shorter Action Plan which covers our ten main campaign points, available on the Lib Dem Future website.

I believe these tally well with our aims in Romsey, of which the Local Issues section of this site gives an overview.

The destruction of the trees along the Guided Bus route continues. I attended a site visit in Trumpington yesterday at which outraged local residents complained the County Council had failed to consult them on the plans for cutting as promised.

Read the rest of this entry.

We recently published a survey on the desirability of Residents’ Parking in the Romsey Reporter, which should now have been delivered to every home in the ward.  However, if it slipped past you or ended up in the dustbin, you can reply to it online, by replying to kilian.bourke@gmail.com.  Alternately you could drop the answers and your details in my letterbox at 14 Natal Road.

Click here to see the survey questions.

Over the past year many of you have impressed on me the need to improve the bus services along Coldham’s Lane. You have complained that they start too late in the morning, end too early in the evening, and are not always on time. I promised to communicate these concerns to the appropriate individuals, and to agitate for improvements.

Today Catherine Smart and I met with Stagecoach Managing Director Andy Campbell and the County Council’s Transport Manager Paul Nelson. We explained these concerns to them in detail, pressing for a more punctual service which begins earlier and ends later. Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats offered to promote any improvements in the service along the entire route.

Read the rest of this entry.

One thing I have been working on these past few weeks has been a plan for East Mill Road. Mill Road Future encompasses the whole of Mill Road, but it is perhaps the last stretch, as you approach the junction with Brooks Road, which needs improvement most.  My first step was to write to Senior County officers in advance of the developments taking place on the old Robert Sayle site, to ask that the Section 106 money from this development is kept in the area, not siphoned off to the Eastern Corridor fund. Normally this is not possible, but this particular part of Mill Road urgently needs these funds. If necessary we will campaign on this.

The money would need to be primarily invested in highways infrastructure. One possibility is having the Brooks Road junction revamped, so that it is more cyclist and pedestrian friendly. This junction actually links Mill Road to the two cycle paths to Cherry Hinton: it is crazy that the junction should be designed in such a way as to deter people from accessing these. Some of the money might also be spent on improving the pavements and planting some trees in the area.

I have also been working with the City and County Councils, and the Cycle Demonstration City staff, to think about how we might develop the area to the East of the junction. The County is already looking into developing the Tin’s cycle path into something much more impressive, but this is contingent on their acquiring the land adjacent to it. We hope we can hurry up this process.

I said I would give an update on what I was up to every couple of months, so here is the latest instalment.

Read the rest of this entry.

Last night Mill Road Liberal Democrats presented the results of six months’ research and consultation to the people of Romsey and Petersfield, in the Salvation Army Community Centre. 

Some details of the presentation are contained in the document Mill Road Future.

David Howarth MP spoke first, talking about how Mill Road’s sense of identity and community had grown stronger in recent years, and expressing his determination to find solid legal grounds to make our ideas enforceable. Nichola Harrison then gave an in-depth description of the Independent Business Zone idea and its ramifications. And then I talked about traffic and environmental issues in the area.

We then opened the floor to discussion, which was vigorous and produced some original ideas. The one thing which attracted almost universal support was the idea of the Independent Business Zone. Local people think this way of supporting our shops and enhancing the area is a good one, and some have already committed to becoming involved.

Read the rest of this entry.

Mill Road Lib-Dems are proposing to make the area the first Independent Business Zone in the country.

We will be holding a public meeting soon to discuss this possibility, as well as other ways in which the area could be improved, and invite all those with an interest in Mill Road’s future to attend. 

MP David Howarth will be speaking.

The meeting - Mill Road Future - will be held on Thursday 5 March at 7:30pm, in the Salvation Army Community Hall, Mill Road. 

Some more detail is provided in Mill Road Future (click on the link to access it), a copy of which is being delivered to every home in Romsey and Petersfield.

I went for a walk in Romsey this weekend to see if there were any new issues with the roads and pavements, apart from the perennial problem of the County refusing to upgrade them. (I should add that this is the case County-wide, the Conservative administration having frozen all spending on Highways in summer.) Some of the ruinous landscapes I came across on my expedition were pretty shocking, with stretches of cracked tarmac on the Broadway bearing a striking resemblance to the high street in Fallujah - not the “international image” we are looking to promote!  I have posted my findings on Flickr in the hope of shaming the County Council into action.  You can access these photos by clicking on this link. I will be following up these specific problem spots but if you are aware of more do send me a photo, with location and a brief description, and we will add it to the list.  My hope is to get this done out of existing funding for general wear and tear, before the Accident Reduction Scheme happens.  The last thing we want is for our funding to be used to make things the way they were a few years ago.  We want it to be spent on substantially improving the area.

The County Council, peculiarly, has a policy of not gritting cycle routes.  When I was cycling in to town today I took the cycle bridge over the Coldham’s Lane railway tracks (above).  To my surprise there had been no gritting here whatsoever, even though the adjacent roads were fine.  It was extremely dangerous in places and I was forced to get off and walk.

This sits extremely awkwardly with Cambridge’s recent accreditation as a Cycle Demonstration City and shows where the Conservative administration’s priorities really lie.  The County is supposed to be promoting our cycle facilities and making them exemplary, not ignoring them.

The Cambridge Cycle Campaign reports that the other major cycle bridge in Romsey (the railway bridge, which connects to Devonshire Road) is also very slippery and dangerous in places.  The heating facility designed to prevent this does not seem to be working. 

I have contacted the County to request that these cycle bridges and routes be gritted in future, but was told that as well as there being no funding available these routes are decided upon annually, so we will just have to wait.  It is extraordinary that bureacratic procedure precedes safety in the County Council’s order of priorities.

I would encourage anyone who feels the same way to pressure the County by signing this petition.

Cambridgeshire Lib Dems have proposed a 2.9% Council Tax increase, compared to the Conservative plan for a 4.7% hike, one of the highest in the country. We are also proposing to invest an extra £10.5 million in priority services.

Councillor Nichola Harrison of Petersfield said, ‘These proposals can be afforded because we have identified ‘fat’ in the Council’s budget - and cut it out! Reserves are 27% higher than forecast a year ago, yet during the same period highway repairs have been halted and more bus services lost.’

Aside from the Council Tax reduction, our proposals include a £10.5 million 2 year spending package which will fund:

- A new policy to put more police officers into our local communities to beat anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood crime.
- Delivery of lower speed limits and better enforcement where requested.
- A major £7 million package to transform our neglected roads and pavements.
- Practical projects to give young people something to do in the evening.
- Help that enables local volunteers and charities to achieve the best they can for their communities.
- Practical projects in schools that reduce energy consumption and teach children how to care for their world.
- Much needed improvements for bus and rail travel.

This Tory administration is a shambles.  It has frozen highways repairs while spending a small fortune on glossy publications that are shamelessly political; it is cutting back already substandard care for Adults and Children (i.e., everyone) and is now proposing one of the highest council tax increases in the country, in a time of deepening recession.  They call their leaflets “In Touch”, but has any budget ever been quite so out of touch?

I thought I would write a short note about what I am working on at present. If you would like more detail, do have a look at the latest Romsey Forum, where you are welcome to contribute, ask questions, or (more often) wittily mock my humourless attempts at community spirit.

Read the rest of this entry.

…was a great success. It is only four years old, but already it has established itself as a fixture on the calendar. This year’s fair was particularly notable for its laidback, leisurely atmosphere, as compared to last year’s slightly more frenetic high-wire act.

Read the rest of this entry.

I was very pleased to learn this week that the Planning Inspectorate decided to reject Tesco’s appeal for an extension.

It is a rare victory for local democracy, and a lesson to those who think planning decisions should be taken by officers alone, without any democratic involvement in the process. If this had been the case Tesco would have set up shop a year ago.

The grounds for the Inspectorate’s decision were exclusively transport related, focusing on the inadequacy of the existing infrastructure to any of Tesco’s proposed delivery systems, explaining that these would “pose unacceptable risks to highway safety”. I made this point repeatedly at the appeal, as did numerous other campaigners, including Nichola Harrison of Petersfield.

It is a relief that Mill Road’s traffic problems are not going to be worsened, and small independent retailers can breathe a sigh of relief too. I am already working hard on a plan that would not only conserve but enhance the independent nature of Mill Road’s shops.

Some of you may have read in the papers this week comments about closing access to Mill Road using bollards on the railway bridge.  Only public transport would have access.  I want to make it clear that this idea has no political endorsement whatever. 

Moreover, if such a proposal were to be put forward I would have serious reservations about it, including: its impact on the shops in Romsey (city shoppers would only have direct access to Petersfield), the way in which it would reinforce existing social divisions between Romsey and Petersfield, and the fact that taxis and buses would actually be able to travel much more quickly, making the area  more dangerous for pedestrians. 

I am a keen cyclist, I do not drive or even have a license, and am all in favour of radical changes to Mill Road; indeed, they are urgently needed.  However, it is extremely disappointing that having failed to deliver us any alternatives to the cameras, the Councils should start spreading controversial rumours instead of engaging in the serious business of consultation. 

Above all what I want to see happen in Romsey is for the Council to allocate us our October List accident-reduction money, and for it to consider a range of different possibilities - which the public should be allowed to comment on - as a matter of urgency.  This is what our petition is intended to achieve.

I would also urge readers to look at the the Mill Road Masterplan we are working on which offers a positive and realistic way forward.  This program promises to integrate three key requirements:

1/ Promoting Mill Road’s independent shops.
2/ Making the area safer for cyclists, pedestrians and motorists.
3/ Making environmental improvements.

Kilian

Kilian recently visited Brighton to learn more about Shared Space, which is one of the schemes being considered as part of the Mill Road Masterplan.

“New Road in Brighton is one of the only fully implemented shared spaces in the country, and it has been a great success” said Cllr Bourke.  “I wanted to see exactly how it worked, and how it might map on to Mill Road.”

He met with Liberal Democrat Councillor Paul Elgood, who explained how shared space functions and what the benefits are.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tesco’s appeal against the East Area Committee’s decision to reject their applications for planning permission recently took place at the Guild Hall.

Councillor Bourke spoke against both applications.

 He explained “my principal objection to a Tesco on Mill Road is that it is totally unsuited to the existing infrastructure; Mill Road is not capable of absorbing the impact it would have without causing problems for the community.”

He expressed concern about two particular aspects of Tesco’s proposal: the consequences of their delivery system, and the impact on parking in the area. “A large number of spaces would be lost from the site and its surroundings, in a ward whose parking facilities are already being placed under severe strain, because of a high-ratio of car ownership as well as Mill Road’s proximity to the train station.”

He also expressed concern about the proposal that Tesco delivery lorries simply park on Mill Road for up to forty minutes while unloading: “This would result in the current, chronic congestion problems being replaced with a sheer, immobile chaos.”

Councillor Bourke then travelled cross-country to look at the Shared Space on New Road, Brighton which is one possible option being looked into as part of the Mill Road Masterplan. This plan would not only preserve but enhance the independent character of Mill Road’s shops.

After months of hard campaigning Cllr Bourke has finally convinced the County Council to make improvements to a dangerous stretch of pavement at the junction of Hemingford Road and St. Philip’s Road.

“The slope of the pavement is particularly steep at this intersection,” explained Cllr Bourke, “and there is a slippery drain which protrudes from the pavement as well. This has caused problems for elderly residents, two of whom have incurred serious injuries as a consequence.”

Following Councillor Bourke’s intervention the council agreed to lower the drain to the level of the pavement and re-coat it with a non-slip surface.

“These days one has to fight tooth and nail to get money for highways maintenance,” added Cllr Bourke, “because the Tories who run the County are refusing to finance the department properly.”

“It is not acceptable to be ferreting away surplus revenue when basic services are decaying like this, making our environment dangerous for the elderly.”

He added “I am glad they have seen the light of day on this occasion.”

Kilian recently submitted an application to the City Council for a “Suburbs and Approaches Character Study” to be made of Mill Road.

A large number of gateways to the city are on the shortlist and the Petersfield part of Mill Road is already a Conservation Area. Consequently it would be very strange if the other half of Mill Road were not strongly considered for this status.

Unfortunately the present boundaries of the Conservation Area are socially divisive, especially when they are reinforced by the fact that the city-centre officially ends at the railway bridge as well. The submission explains: “The railway bridge should be seen as a link between communities with shared interests and a shared focus on Mill Road, which runs as a spine through the area, not the opposite. The murals on the bridge are a sign of this link.”

Other reasons for this part of Mill Road’s designation as a Conservation Area include its importance as a gateway to the city, which will only increase with the Marshall’s development; its historic interest as the first major expansion of the city after the medieval period; its unique social character in the city; and its planted landscape, which includes many ginko trees.

Kilian would like to thank Allan Brigham for helping to put together a strong submission for Mill Road.

The County Council has secured £57m in Government funding for a Private Finance Initiative scheme to replace and improve 44,000 existing street lights across Cambridgeshire which have reached the end of their design life.

This means that, if the County Council proceeds to accept the Government’s offer, all streetlights over 25 years old will be replaced.  As the vast majority of those in Romsey and on Mill Road (Romsey) meet this criteria,  they stand to be replaced - at last!  Your councillors have been campaigning for new lights on the Broadway for over ten years now.

In addition, the Liberal Democrats are pressing for the new streetlighting to be done in the most energy efficient way.

Read the rest of this entry »

This letter was printed in CEN on August 13, 2008:

John Hodgson in his letter concerning the Tesco planning application (”It’s the councillors’ job”, 8 August) makes the very salient point that of the 12 councillors who were in a position to cast a vote, only two voted against it, and the rest either didn’t turn up or abstained. This is correct.

However, he then proceeds to lament “the performance of the Mill Road councillors”.

This is not entirely fair. Of the four Liberal Democrat councillors for Romsey, Cllr Raj Shah was not permitted to participate or vote because of “a prejudicial interest”, and Cllr Ellis-Miller had booked her family holiday long before she learned the application would come before the committee on this date.

Meanwhile, not only was Cllr Smart one of only two councillors who voted against the application, but it is thanks to her calling in the planning decision in the first place that the public have had a chance to express their feelings. And although I, as a county councillor, am not entitled to vote on planning decisions, I was allowed to speak and took this opportunity to give a sustained critical account of Tesco’s shambolic acoustic report and the unworkable delivery system being proposed.

I hope this clarifies any confusion about the Liberal Democrats’ participation in this process.

Kilian Bourke
County Councillor for Romsey

This letter of mine was published in the Cambridge Evening News on 02.08.08:

Your readers have been kept well informed of the furore that surrounds the County Council’s absurd decision not to allow 20mph speed limits to be introduced on roads where the average speed is above 20mph. This goes against government guidance, which states that 20mph limits may be imposed on roads where the average speed is 24mph or less.

At last Tuesday’s council meeting in Shire Hall this farce reached new heights of absurdity. When challenged to explain why the Conservatives have ignored government guidance on this issue, Cllr McGuire said that it was for reasons of “numerical consistency”. He then explained that the government advises that speed limits on bigger roads must always be higher than the average speed on those same roads; consequently, Cllr McGuire believes, it would be more coherent to have the same policy for smaller roads.

What this myopic argument overlooks is the fact that there is a fundamental qualitative difference between roads which are candidates for 20mph speed limits and all others. These are densely populated areas which are heavily used by pedestrians, cyclists and schoolchildren. What are the chances of a child unexpectedly stepping out on to the A14? Zero. But on to a busy town street?   

Moreover, only 5% of accidents at 20mph are fatal, whereas 50% of those at 30mph result in mortalities. As such we must do everything possible to drag down speeds in these areas. Justifying their decision by reference to an abstraction like “numerical consistency” is an embarrassment.

The bottom line is that the Conservatives are more concerned about economizing on the new signs and speed cameras that would be needed to enforce these measures than about protecting the vulnerable people on our streets.   

I call on them to revoke this ill-informed decision which will have quite literally fatal consequences for our local communities.

Kilian Bourke
County Councillor for Romsey