Police Priorities Changed to Tackle Fen Road Bullies

We need to stop Fen Road from being a race track

At Thursday night’s North Area Committee Meeting there were a number of proposed priorities for our local police officers. The committee was challenged to choose 3 from a shortlist of about seven for the Police to take forward.

Your local lib dem councillors, Roman Znajek, Susannah Kerr and Ian Manning ensured that one of those was policing targetting anti social driving on Fen Road.

Commenting Cllr Znajek: “It is important that all relevant authorities can follow up on this important meeting: setting a police priority in the area is the first step in this process and I hope we see real change for residents.”

Campaigner Clare Blair was pleased with the action as part of the work that she and Cllr Manning put into their discussion paper: “We put a lot of effort that resulted in a packed public meeting, so I’m looking forward to seeing things improve.”

“We need to ensure people can see tangible results from such a good turn out at Thursday night’s meeting” said Cllr Kerr “and we’ll only get that by setting priorities like this and getting results, so we hope the Police will be able to report back positive action soon.”

Proposal to reduce Milton Road Library hours

The County Council is proposing to reduce the opening hours at Milton Road Library by a total of two hours each week, from 29 hours to 27 hours.

Day Proposed Current Change Detail
Monday 9-5 2-6 4 hours more Morning opening moves to 9am. Earlier closing.
Tuesday closed closed No change –
Wednesday 2-5 9-6 5 hours fewer No morning opening. Earlier closing
Thursday 9-5 10-6 Same number of hours Morning opening moves to 9am. Earlier closing
Friday 9-1 2-6 Same number of hours Morning opening instead of afternoon
Saturday 9-1 10-3 1 hour fewer Morning opening moves to 9am. Earlier closing

Full details of the proposed changes can be found in the online consultation, here.

East Chesterton ward CountyCouncillor Ian Manning is keen that residents submit their views to the County Council before the consultation closes on the 18th June 2011. He commented:

The Liberal Democrats have consistently opposed cuts to the Library Service.  Indeed, as a County Group we proposed an alternative budget which would have seen the Library service saved.

Unforrtunately the Conservative Administration at the County Council refused to listen.

This makes it very important that as many residents as possible complete this survey to let the County know how much we all value the library service, and want funding for it to be maintained.

Moreover it is important to know if any of the changes will particularly affect any library users.

I, along with West Chesterton County Councillor Kevin Wilkins, are actively investigating ways in which the service can be saved.

A petition has been organised against the cuts to the service which can also be signed online here.

County Council Libraries consultation meeting – Milton Road

County Cllr Kevin Wilkins, Cllr Damien Tunacliffe (West Chesterton) and County Councillor Ian Manning (East Chesterton) tonight all attended the latest County Council consultation meeting on the future of the library service.

Presentations were given by Christine May, acting head of the service, followe d by a Q&A session with Rod Craig, Director for communities and adult services.

There were a varied range of informed questions from a packed St Laurence’s Church audience.  It was clear that that suspicion lies with the choice of a County-wide trust to run the service and with the idea of volunteers – Cllr Manning commented “I was impressed to see such a range of passionate and informed views from our local community:  it must be clear now to the Tory controlled County Council that they can’t get away with the current rather ill-thought out proposals – so badly thought out that they managed to get the location of Shire Hall and the Central Library confused on a map!”.

Your local Lib Dem Councillors will be working with community groups to help save your local libaries.

Public Meeting on Milton Road Library on 4 March

Have your say on the future of Milton Road Library

Chesterton Community Association has arranged a public meeting about the future of  Milton Road Library. It will be in St Andrew’s Hall, St Andrew’s Road, on Friday 4th March, at 7.15 pm  for a 7.45 pm start.

Michael Bond from the Old Chesterton Residents’ Association, and Richard Robertson from the Friends of Milton Road Library will present their groups’ plans for the future of the library, then Cllr Sir Peter Brown, Executive County Councillor for Community and Adult Services and Christine May (the head of the library service) will respond on behalf of the County Council. The meeting will be chaired by East Chesterton County Councillor Ian Manning.

Afterwards there will be time for public questions and then informal networking.

Please do come, as libraries in the City are under threat from the County Council budget – the more people who turn up the more chance we have of saving this vital service. Any queries please contact the CCA on enquiries@mycca.org.uk