East Area Committee

East Area Committee is back this Thursday, 14th April at 7pm, Cherry Trees Day Centre, St Matthew's Street.

Neighbourhood policing is on the agenda. None of the policing priorities for the last period covered Coleridge and all are recommended for discharge and there are no recommended priorities for the next period so councillors will be working from a blank sheet.

Without Conservative Chris Howell to push the case for the speeding priority that was dropped a while ago although it's worth reading about the traffic policing session that the policy undertook in Coleridge as part of their 'beat sweep' across the east area.

Friday also saw 4 officers from the Roads Policing Unit (RPU) assist us. Their task was to deal with speeding through Coleridge, the anti social use of vehicles and other road traffic related matters. The following is a breakdown of their results:

• 1 driver reported for speeding
• 13 drivers prosecuted for driving whilst using a mobile phone
• 4 drivers prosecuted for not wearing seat belts
• 1 driver reported for not having current road tax
• 2 drivers reported for the condition of their vehicles
• 2 drivers reported for no insurance
• 1 vehicle seized as there was no insurance policy in place
• 2 drivers reported for vehicle defects
• 1 driver reported for driving through a red light
• 1 person arrested for the offence of going equipped to steal
• 1 vehicle stopped in relation to rogue trading intelligence

A lot of work on drugs was also reported - it is good to see the police following leads from the local community - often residents feel that they are being ignored on this sort of thing.

The controversial item on the agenda will be libraries, when fervently ideological opposition (to the Conservative cabinet on the county council) councillors will whip up outrage over plans to make the library service viable in a tough fiscal environment. I hope that they will engage with trying to save the libraries instead, otherwise it'll just be a waste of time - I could write out the script right now if that's the case.

Elsewhere in Coleridge the 28th Cambridge Scout Group and St Martin's Church look set to receive significant capital grants towards the scout hut and hall respectively. These are worthwhile causes.

There are no planning applications up for decision at this meeting in Coleridge.

Debating the Alternative Vote

Coleridge Conservative Branch Chairman Richard Normington will be putting the case for First Past The Post in a public debate on the AV referendum on Monday evening, 7.30pm at St Luke's Church, Victoria Road.

Say no to mediocracy—rule by the mediocre!

Don't let Labour do to your council what they did to the country

David Cameron's party political broadcast for the local elections: