Jesus Green HLF Bid

As many residents know, Cambridge City Council submitted two successive applications for HLF funding for Jesus Green. Unfortunately both applications were rejected. Today the City Council has released the following press release:

Jesus Green – Parks for People, Lottery Application

Statement
Cambridge City Council and the Jesus Green Association with support from the Conservators of the River Cam submitted a stage one application to the ‘Parks for People’ programme, which is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and the Big Lottery Fund (BIG), at the end of February 2012.

The project included work to regenerate the Rouse Ball Pavilion to create a community facility and café, improvements to the path network, drainage and community and training activities.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and Big Lottery Fund (BIG) have assessed a £1m application to their joint parks programme from Cambridge City Council for plans to improve Jesus Green. After careful consideration in a competitive round, it was decided they were unable to support the project.

Carole Souter, Chief Executive of HLF, said on behalf of both HLF and BIG:

“This was a hard decision, particularly as we recognise that Jesus Green is both historically important and popular in Cambridge. There was much to commend in the Council’s application and we appreciate their disappointment at not receiving our support for this project. The HLF/BIG joint parks budget continues to be very over-subscribed with strong competition for funding; this unfortunately means we are unable to support every good project that comes to us.”

Rod Cantril, Executive Councillor for Arts, Sports & Public Places commented;
We are disappointed that the bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund was not supported but it is our intention to continue to work closely with the Jesus Green Association in order to bring forward further improvements to Jesus Green.
Even as we are, things are not standing still. We have recently refurbished Jesus Green’s tennis courts and will shortly be renovating its children’s play area. It’s unfortunate that we will lack the boost from the Lottery Fund that could have helped us go further and faster, but we will now be looking hard to identify other sources of funding.

Jesus Green Association, Chair, Peter Constable said;
Jesus Green Association fully supported the third bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund under the Parks for People grants. It is therefore a great disappointment to learn that the door has been closed on this opportunity. The main elements of the bid included a community cafe, reconstruction of the paths/cycle paths and drainage to a large part of the Green which is unusable in winter. We appreciate that HLF rejected the bid due to high demand from many other organisations and not because of the nature of the bid.

Jesus Green Association does not feel it appropriate to continue to seek funding from HLF and thanks them for the great consideration they have afforded this project. We will however continue to negotiate with Cambridge City Council in order to ensure that the work described in the bid is carried out.

Area Committee Thursday 23/8

Dear Market Ward Resident

The next meeting of the West Central Area Committee is on Thursday 23 August.
The meeting will be at Selwyn Diamond (Corner of Grange Road and Cranmer Road)
CB3 9DQ.

The meeting will begin at 7 pm, with planning matters attended to first. All
other agenda items will begin no earlier than 8 pm.

In addition to the usual open forum, the following items are on the agenda:
· Consideration of planning applications for Radcliffe Court, Rose Crescent
and 108 Barton Road;
· Consideration of measures to deal with emergency vehicle obstruction,
proposed by the Community Fire Safety Officer;
· Policing and Safer Neighbourhoods Report; and
– Environmental Improvement Programme proposal for traffic calming in
Canterbury Street.

We hope to see you there.

With kind regards,

Your City Centre LibDem Team

St Andrew’s Street Taxi Rank

As many residents know, there are proposals to move the city centre taxi rank from St. Andrew’s Street. Cllr Colin Rosenstiel recently published a letter in the Cambridge Evening News, where he responded to an earlier letter on the subject:

I am sorry to read that Professor Roger Carpenter is misdirecting his fire against the city council when the idea of moving the St. Andrew’s Street taxi rank emanates entirely from the county council.

The county Tories have already shown their contempt for the needs of those of limited mobility to access the city centre by scrapping the shuttle bus service.

I hope Professor Carpenter will join me and fellow city councillors in campaigning against further removal of access for all to our city centre and to restore the bus as well as keeping a taxi rank at St. Andrew’s Street in the city centre.

A sad fact is that the taxi trade does little to help the case for the St. Andrew’s Street rank by persistently over-ranking illegally there and barely using the rank at Drummer Street which allows many people a cheaper ride to the station and southern parts of the city.

Cllr Colin Rosenstiel
Guildhall
Cambridge

Use your City Rangers

The City Council’s City Rangers are a fast response team that deals with litter, small graffiti and other items that blight our public spaces. Do you know of an alley that needs some attention? Visited a playground that has litter strewn about it? If so, contact the City Rangers and ask them to help.

Amongst other things, the city rangers investigate and remove small-scale graffiti, small-scale fly-tipping, illegal advertising including banners, estate agent board and flyposters, abandoned bicycles, and abandoned shopping trolleys.

For a full list of the rangers’ remit, visit the city council website.

Email the City Rangers at cityrangers@cambridge.gov.uk or telephone 01223 458282 for more information, or contact one of the members of your City Centre team and we would be happy to help.