latest news features adverts ECOLN info
Latest: Feedback: Features: Events: Ads: Info sources: Local history: Photo index: About ECOLN

News from February 1996

[archive index] Soham to host arts festival - (29/2/96)

St. Andrew's Church in Soham is set to host a major new festival of local Music and Art this October.
The festival, to be opened by a celebrity, will run from October 2nd. to the 6th. It will feature events and exhibitions including a mammoth firework display.

based on a story in the Soham and Ely Journal of 22/2/96.

[archive index] Fens straw burning power plant to go ahead - (28/2/96)

Norweb's plans to build a straw burning power station at the Elean Business Park in Sutton were voted against by 11 votes to 4 by the East Cambridgeshire District Council Planning Committee but the full council voted in favour of the plans by 18 votes to 11 with 4 abstentions.
Villagers from Sutton, Mepal and Witcham have campaigned vigorously against the plant because of the effect they expect it to have on the landscape - raising levels of noise, traffic and polution.
Waste heat from the plant will be pumped into an adjoining greenhouse which will grow up to 8,000 tonnes of tomatoes a year creating 215 full time and 110 casual jobs.

- based on a story in the Cambridge Evening News of 23/2/96

- see Power company defend plans for straw burning plant - (21/2/96)

[archive index] The Bishop of Ely speaks out after the Scott Report - (27/2/96)

Since the publishing of the Scott Report, the Rt. Rev. Steven Sykes has spoken out for standards in public life and commented on the morality of arms-related industries.
He said. 'Loss of respect for the integrity of Members of Parliament and for the machinery of government would in the end undermine our society.'
'The future of our arms-related industries is also at stake. We cannot endlessly recycle the arguments about the loss of British jobs, or the impossibility of controlling the arms trade, while innocent men, women and children are blown to pieces. The killing fields of the dictators are an affront to the civilized world and potential blasphemy against God. Our trading interests cannot be the final word. We have a clear moral duty to be discriminating about what we supply and to whom we supply it. We should not allow ourselves to become, through ignorance or the habit of secrecy, accessories to murder.'

More of his comments in the wake of the Scott Report can be read at on page at the Diocese of Ely Web site: The Bishop of Ely on the Scott Report

.

[archive index] New Labour Parliamentary candidate for North East Cambridgeshire - (25/2/96)

Virginia Bucknor has become Labour's hope to unseat Conservative Northern Ireland minister Malcolm Moss.
Mrs. Bucknor of Wisbech has worked for the Voluntary Service Overseas in India and helped set up site offices for Utah Construction in Australia in the Sixties. She has worked as a court reporter for Hansard in New Guinea as well as having been a technical administrator for Texaco. She has also worked for the world's largest bank, Daiwa Investment.
She has worked as group personnel administrator with HL Foods at Long Sutton and run her own consultancy business. She currently devotes her time to her duties as a councillor - which she does full time with the support of her husband, Mike.
Mrs. Bucknor plans to use her experience working abroad to encourage businesses to look towards Fenland.
She is quoted as saying, 'North East Cambridgeshire is now the sixth poorest area in the country and you have to question why that is.'
'Other areas have successfully attracted foreign businesses but nothing seems to be being done to bring them here.'
Mrs Bucknor is chairman of the FenRail Millennium Project.

- based on an article in the Soham Advertiser of 22/2/96

[archive index] Cambridge pioneers create worlds most powerful optical telescope - for just £800,000 - (21/2/96)

The Cambridge University Radio Astronomy Group has succeeded in obtaining images of the Capella star system with five times more detail than could be produced by the Hubble Space Telescope.
The Cambridge Optical Aperture Synthesis Telescope (COAST) compiles images gathered from an array of three or four small telescopes (the main one has a mirror of just 2.4 metres) to produce a single image. The technology is expected to eventually produce images that could have only been produced by a theoretical conventional optical telescope with a mirror of a massive 100 metres.
Whereas the Hubble telescope cost £2 billion, COAST cost just £800,000.

- Based on a story in the 'Cambridge Evening News' of 16/2/96.

[archive index] Power company defend plans for straw burning plant - (21/2/96)

Norweb are holding an exhibition today in attempt to attract public support for their contraversial plans to build a straw burning power plant at Elean near Sutton.
The exhibition is supported by straw suppliers Banks of Sandy; English Village Nurseries who plan to utilise the plant in the running of a major glass house food production operation and Mowlem Engineering who will build the plant.

The exhibition will be held between 1pm and 8pm at the British Legion Hall, Sutton.

- see Residents canvassed on straw burning power plant in the fens- (18/12/95)

[archive index] Soham North Chapel benefits from Lottery - (21/2/96)

The Soham North Chapel Trust Company has secured £30,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to restore the derelict and vandalised Victorian Grade II listed building.
The chapel which dates from 1855 is one of a unique pair in Soham built in the Gothic revival style.
The Trust is currently negotiating to buy the Chapel from East Cambridgeshire County Council.

- based on a story in the Soham Advertiser of 15/2/96.

[archive index] Progress of radio stations - (21/2/96)

The Ely Town Crier of 17/2/96 said that 'stalwart' BBC disk Jockey John Peel was supporting Cambridge Community Radio (CCR)'s application for a full license. He is quoted as saying 'Such a service can be invaluable in informing the community and creating links with it'. The station also has the official patronage of city MP Anne Campbell.
Midsummer Radio are also applying for a permanent license.

In Littleport, fen radio station X-Cel Radio plans to be on the air for at least another four weeks this year - said the Soham Advertiser of 15/2/95.

- see Fen radio station gets 28 day license - (18/10/95)
- see New radio stations - (3/9/95)

[archive index] Spending - County v. Government - (19/2/96)

Cambridgeshire County Council were stood up by Local Government Minister David Curry at a meeting where they were to set a budget of £408 million - £6 million above Whitehall's limit. The purpose of the meeting on 13th February was to establish spending cuts to meet Government guidelines on spending. Cuts proposed include turning off one in eight street lamps.
A Conservative traffic spokesman was concerned at proposals to save £90,000 by cutting the number of roads that get gritted. The Labour transport spokesman said that the Conservative should address his comments to the Government which has forced these cuts on the council.
The Ely Town Crier of 17th February quoted Labour leader Janet Jones as saying 'The Government claims to have provided an extra £11.2 million for our schools and £1.1 million for social services and £670,000 for the fire service and is exhorting us to pass on these increases to these services.'
'We're happy to do that but it takes our budget nearly £6 million above our spending limit'
Also quoted is Liberal Democrat Peter Lee, 'We will still be forced to close four libraries and reduce opening hours at other libraries. Our transport budget will face a cut of nearly £2 million, cuts to community education will still go ahead'.
The Ely Standard of 15th February said that the council's budget of £5.8 million above Government spending guidelines will have to be ratified by environment secretary John Gummer but is in line with the Treasury's prediction of of an average of nine per cent.
The Ely Standard quotes Liberal Democrat councillor Sal Brinton as saying that [the capping system] 'denies local choice, confuses accountability, is centralist and inefficient'.

See - Local government spending for '96 (from archives)

[archive index] Proposed business/retail parks for Cambridge - access requirements - (15/2/96)

Monday's 'Cambridge Evening News' had a story about how a row has erupted over plans to build a road and new bridge across the river Cam close to Fen Ditton. The story describes how this and previous plans to build access routes to a proposed massive retail development at the Chesterton Sidings site have all caused alarm amongst people from the area. The A14 and Milton Rd. which are close to the site to the north and to the west are both extremely busy roads. 18,000 vehicles a day are said to come off the existing A14 slip road and go through Fen Ditton already. The site owned by Railtrack, Anglian Water and Cambridge City Council can be seen at the bottom right-hand corner of this map.
Tuesday's 'Cambridge Evening News' said that Sainsbury's has asked district planners to postpone making a decision about whether to give permission for its proposed shopping centre at Arbury Park [on the A14 not far from the Chesterton Sidings site]. The decision was due to be made next month but the Highways Agency has recommended that South Cambridgeshire District Council refuse planning permission on the grounds of access.

See - Councillors oppose Arbury Park Sainsbury's development - (24/7/95)

[archive index] Water prices go up - (15/2/96)

Anglian Water has announced an average price rise of 4.6 per cent from April 1st.

[archive index] Teacher killed on A10 - (13/2/96)

Ely primary school teacher Helen Tomlinson was killed in a car crash in Stretham at 7.55pm on Friday 2nd. February. Her Citroen collided with a Ford Mondeo driven by a 29 year old man from Downham Market. The police are appealing for witnesses.

- based on a story in the Soham Advertiser of 8/2/96.

[archive index] Possibility of armed intervention to free Irian Jaya hostages - (9/2/96)

Indonesian General Feisal Tanjung has warned, 'We will continue with our persuasive efforts, but there is always the possiblity of launching military operations' concerning the recovery of 13 hostages including four recent Cambridge graduates held by the Free Papua Movement in the Irian Jaya region of Indonesia.
Apparently the military lost radio contact with the captors over a week ago.

- based on a story in the Cambridge Evening News of 8/2/96.

See - Irian Jaya hostages - (28/1/96)

[archive index] Massive Media Merger includes Anglia Television - (9/2/96)

United News and Media, publishers of the Daily and Sunday Express are to merge with Anglia and Meridian TV licence holders, MAI.

- based on Ceefax article of 8/2/96.

[archive index] Eastern renamed - (9/2/96)

Reorganisation of the Hanson Group means that supplier of electricity and gas, Eastern Group (acquired by Hanson last September) will be absorbed into an organisation called 'Energy Resources' together with the mining company, Peabody.

- based on a story in the Cambridge Evening News of 2/2/96

[archive index] Plans to turn allotments into playing fields for private school - (9/2/96)

Allotment holders from Ely are angry about plans by the King's School to convert their allotments into playing fields.The land in question has been used for allotments since 1924.
The school's plan for the land, which it acquired in 1972, has been approved by the city council on some conditions but has yet to be approved by the district council.

- based on a story in the Cambridge Evevning News of 1/2/96.

[archive index] Planned improvements to Cambridge University Library - (6/2/96)

The Cambridge Evening News of 26th January said 'University Dons are set to approve the first stages of a £20 million library project which will house five million books'.
The huge collection of books at the library, which increases by around 100,000 titles each year, gets increasingly difficult to house. Part of the project is aimed at countering this problem. Also it is hoped that funds will be found to build a £500,000 exhibition centre to show off some of the library's treasures to the public.
Funding exists for the first two stages of the project:
- based on a story in the Cambridge Evening News of 26/1/96.

Navigator: Latest: Feedback: Features: Events: Ads: Info sources: Local history: Photo index: About ECOLN
Click here to go back to the ECOLN home page.

Send your comments (any you don't mind having published) to ecoln_editor

If you have something you would like to say but don't want to be quoted in this Web page or anywhere else by ECOLN, then use the 'Kane' email address.

Please email either of these boxes if there is anything that you would like to see in ECOLN or anything that you would like to contribute. ECOLN wants to put as many interesting html www links in that it can get hold of - so please write and tell about your web site. ECOLN is a commercial project and as such will have to charge for all commercial advertising material included.