The International Food Supermarket on East Road has failed to gain a licence to sell alcohol. Provided with evidence by the Police, councillors took the view that the location was just too susceptible to public nuisance from begging and congegation of street people, which are drawn to sources of alcohol.

“The Council’s “cumulative impact policy” is designed to enable the rejection of license applications in these situations,” says Cllr Tim Bick who also spoke at the hearing. “Proximity to Jimmy’s Nightshelter and St Matthew’s school, together with the history of behaviour and incidents, make this a sensitive spot. Many people have noted a small improvement since the previous shop selling alcohol there closed. It would be regrettable to go back.”

Cambridge City Council Strategy and Resources committee yesterday approved more than £30,000 of Sustainable City Grants to seven local environmental groups for projects ranging from maintaining wildlife habitats to recycled fashion.

Cllr Sian Reid, Leader of Cambridge City Council said, “It is very encouraging to see how many enthusiastic and dedicated groups we have working to protect and enhance our local environment for the benefit of us all. I am so pleased the Council is able to provide this extra support to projects that echo our commitment to climate change reduction and sustainable living.”

Sustainable City Project Grant funding will be awarded after the Council’s budget is confirmed on 23rd February. There is still money available from the grants budget for 2011/12 for a few more projects – and it is not too late for local groups to apply for funding for 2012/13 projects.

Successful applicants include:

• The Cambridge City Greenways project, run by the Wildlife Trust, received £17,000 as part of a 3-year funding agreement to maintain the City’s local nature reserves.
• Cambridge University Botanic Garden – to host a striking climate change sculpture by artist Marcos Lutyens entitled ‘CO2morrow’ at the Hills Road entrance to the Garden. The sculpture, inspired by a carbon molecule, will highlight the important role of carbon dioxide in the environment. It will record CO2 levels in the Gardens, which should drop as a crop of sunflowers planted around the sculpture grows. The sculpture will be the centrepiece of an outreach programme for schools and resident groups on how climate science informs the climate change agenda.
• Cyclestreets – for improvements to a web-based toolkit and layered map for cyclists to plan journeys, look for amenities along their route and make them aware of potential hazards and examples of good practice, for example wide cycle paths. The toolkit will also make it easier for cycle groups to gather and share information, for example on collisions and cycle theft, planning applications and promoting safer cycling.
• Transition Cambridge – the ‘Growing Spaces’ urban food project will transform underused and unloved spaces across Cambridge into community food-growing spaces. These spaces could be a garden of any size or shape, but they could also include the creative use of space, such as containers, raised beds, or fruit trees. The project aims to inspire residents to grow their own food, reduce waste and become less reliant on imported food.

Continues…

• Mill Road Winter Fair HATS! – Mill Road Winter Fair 2012 will again include in its programme the very popular HATS! competition and parade, where people can design and create a hat for themselves reusing materials that might otherwise have been thrown away. A professional milliner will be on hand to offer advice and design tips, and hopefully many people, both participants and spectators, will be inspired to see ‘waste’ in a different light.
• Cambridge Past, Present & Future – to provide environmental education activities in Wandlebury Country Park for children, young people and families from the Easter Holidays onwards. The activities will increase awareness and understanding of local wildlife and the environment and will include nature discovery sessions for the under 5’s, a birdbox day, tree identification, and an apple and orchard day.
• Oblique Arts – to create recycled clothing in a series of public workshops. The clothes will include stylish screen prints incorporating waste or recycling facts and advice on how to reduce waste. These items will then be displayed at a community event such as the Strawberry Fair to generate awareness about environmental issues.

MP Julian Huppert is backing a national campaign to bring empty homes in Cambridge back into use.

Figures released by the Empty Homes Agency show that there were 1,172 empty homes in the city in 2010 and 364 of these were long term vacant. The figure has fallen, however, from 1,428 in 2004.

Cambridge City Council has over 7,000 people on its waiting list for homes and works with private landlords to try to make empty homes available.  Most of the empty houses need renovation work and the city council can arrange for the work to be done and managed by a housing association if the landlord doesn’t want to do it.

As a last resort, it can compulsorily purchase the house and sell it to someone who will do the work and put it on the rental market.

Julian said: “In Cambridge and across the country as a whole we have properties which are standing empty and decaying. This is a scandal when we have thousands of families who need homes.

“We have to act now to turn this around. It makes no sense to have empty properties which could be lived in by families who in turn could pay rent to the landlords. This is a win win situation for everyone, and yet across the country it is just not happening.”

The campaign, backed by architect and Channel 4 presenter, George Clarke has already gained support from over 100,000 people and 5,399 people have reported an empty house.

Recently the government announced it was to top up its £100 million grant fund for bringing empty homes back into use by a further £50 million.

Local Market ward residents are urged to support the campaign by reporting empty houses across the city through the website www.reportemptyhomes.com and reporting those vacant for more than six months directly to Cambridge City Council.

Cambridge City Council Executive Councillor for Housing, Catherine Smart: “Most of the privately owned empty properties in the city cannot be let because they need renovation work. We work with landlords to find a way forward. But the most difficult cases are where the landlord has been taken ill.”

Work is also underway to reduce the amount of time it takes to turn round empty council homes.  And work is progressing to renovate and update Brandon Court and Seymour Court to provide sheltered housing. A further project at Roman Court will provide specialist housing.

Cllr Smart added: “We have around 7,500 council owned homes in the city and, when tenants move out it might take a month or so to turn them round if work is needed; but we are working to reduce the time.”

This week the Council is initiating a consultation exercise about two of the four trees in Fitzroy Street:

http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/ccm/content/consultations/fitzroy-street-tree-replacement-consultation.en

We are disappointed that this uninvited problem has arisen because trees along Fitzroy and Burleigh Streets are a valued part of the streetscape. However we have explored the situation along with representatives of both neighbouring residents’ associations – BruNK and Christs Pieces (who have given very helpful input) – before reluctantly proceeding to this stage.

This situation has highlighted how challenging the street environment is for tree growth, because of the intensity of underground services, the proximity of buildings and the importance of accommodating normal street activity. This both explains why no new spots could be identified for additional trees in Fitzroy Street (and only two have been found in Burleigh Street) and why the two trees in question have struggled.

We are persuaded that in these circumstances some degree of active management is vital to maintain the ongoing presence of trees. Heartwrenching in the short term but, taking account of the context, probably unavoidable to safeguard the long term. It is some comfort that the new “root cell” technology and careful selection of specie will improve the sustainability of the replacement trees.

We hope you will give your view, using the link above. You will see that we have arranged an on-site drop-in session to ask questions and get an explanation. This session will be held on Tuesday 11th October between 5.30 and 7.00pm.