David Jenkins

I know it’s not really a Cambridgeshire story but I am away for a couple of weeks and unable to update my web-site with local stories so I thought I’d share this one with you.  I’m staying in Bandung, Indonesia which is perhaps this country’s equivalent of Cambridge in that it’s home to ITB, the Bandung Institute of Technology, which has a world-side reputation.

The picture is a view from our hotel out across Bandung. There’s an immediate stretch of semi-rural with developments dotted along the hillside similar to those you’d expect in Switzerland with some rice padi in the valley. What you can’t see in the photo is a 20 story block of flats at left of centre: completely out of place and an eye-sore. I’m told that the block has been underdevelopment for some years, it presumably got permission to build through some relationships which perhaps are now no longer in place. Hence the delayed completion, perhaps it’ll never be completed. It sort of makes you grateful for the exhaustive and exhausting way in which we put developments publicly through development control in the UK.

I’ll take a photo tomorrow and post that so that you can see it for yourselves if I can find a way to upload it.

Premier Foods is a major employer in Histon, probably the largest, and is a significant contributor to the local economy through employment and the spending of its employees at local businesses. It operates many of the businesses started up by Chivers in the middle of the 19th century and although most of the raw materials are now imported the products that go out today are little different to those which were shipped then.

What is different of course is public perception and tolerance of what it sees as irresponsible corporate behaviour and Premier Foods has had a run of bad news this year with the terrible smells from one of its effluent tanks making life a misery for residents of Histon who live close by and down wind.

To its credit Premier Foods has responded positively and has now submitted a planning application to erect a cover on the offending tank. It has already ordered the cover and if all goes well with the planning application it should be in place before Christmas.

County Councillor David Jenkins is pleased with this development. He commented: ‘I visited the site last month and was briefed by the general manager and the environment manager. I walked around the site and got a first hand experience of the smell of which local people complain.’

‘Whilst I was there I saw an aerial photograph of the Chivers site some 50 plus years ago. It covered a lot more than it does now; there was no B1049 and many of the houses in the village today just weren’t there. And of course there was the railway line and the station building which local people saved from demolition in 2007.

There’s more information about Chivers on the Histon and Impington community web-site.

Lib Dems at Cambridgeshire County Council voted against the Council’s Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy at the October 2008 council meeting. They did so on the grounds that it is insufficiently ambitious and does not address the carbon reduction targets recently reaffirmed by the government and agreed with the European Union. Read the rest of this entry »

Open letter to Jill Tuck, leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, from David Jenkins, Lib Dem group leader on the same council.

Dear Jill

I am writing to you in your role as Chair of Cambridgeshire Together and with the knowledge that you have a meeting early next month at which, I understand, the current economic situation is to be discussed. Read the rest of this entry »

Residents of Oakington initiated Cambridgeshire’s very first Community Call for Action regarding the County’s failure to follow though with the agreed closure of Longstanton Road in Oakington. The County’s Environmental and Community Services scrutiny committee addressed this at its meeting early this month and the minutes of the meeting  have just been published. The committee and the appropriate cabinet member both apologised for the County’s failure. Read the rest of this entry »

At the other end of the division from Orchard Park primary school is Cottenham Primary School. It’s loved by just about everybody, certainly the children who go there and the staff who work with them but also Ofsted and local estate agents! Read the rest of this entry »

Histon and Impington Parish Councils ran a 20s plenty action event on The Green in Histon this Monday 20 Oct 08 at 15.30. There were  refreshments and many attended and gave their support. Read the rest of this entry »

Following one of its ‘consultations’ the government has now decided that next year’s County Council elections should be held in June rather than May.  That is so that they fall on the same day as the European elections.  A cost-saving exercise. Read the rest of this entry »

County Councillor David Jenkins recently visited the new primary school at Arbury Park and met head Jenny Russon. The school has been open for a year now and currently has a capacity of 120 pupils. This will rise to 210 when it becomes established. This school is an important part of the local community and is one of the reasons that parents with young children chose to move to the development. Read the rest of this entry »

After person or persons unknown reversed a vehicle into a lamp post in Histon the council to its credit put a new one in along side the old, damaged one. This was done some time ago and at the beginning of this week (29 Sep 08) its contractor came along and dug a hole to switch the power from the old lamp post to the new one. All pretty good so far. Read the rest of this entry »