BOTTISHAM PARISH COUNCIL’S MEETING WITH OUR MP

The Parish Council was pleased to accept an invitation from our MP, Lucy Frazer, to meet with her and to have a tour of the Houses of Parliament; the Chair Cllr Jon Ogborn and Vice-Chair Cllr John Wilson met with Lucy on October 17th in Westminster.

The main items discussed were the threatened removal of the Stagecoach Bus Services from Bottisham to Cambridge and Newmarket, the importance of maintaining the Green Belt protection in East Cambridgeshire and the Government’s strategy on solar farms with reference to the Sunnica application and the impending more local application by Ridge Clean Energy.

On the bus route issue, Lucy expressed her strong support for the argument to retain the current services despite Stagecoach’s assertion that the routes were not economically viable. She stressed that this matter is devolved to the Mayor with whom she is having regular meetings to resolve the issue: but she emphasised that there is already a very substantial subsidy from central government for local transport. Hopefully, a positive outcome will have been achieved by the time this article is published.

Lucy agreed with our argument that the Green Belt should be protected and stressed that there was no pending legislation to alter that view. We pointed out that the new Cambridge Science Park North, currently at consultation level, will be on Green Belt land owned by Trinity College.

While being opposed to the Sunnica development on the basis of scale, Lucy felt that individual, smaller solar farm applications such as the Ridge Clean Energy site between the A14 and A11 should be left largely to the opinions and decisions of the appropriate Parish and District Councils. Parish Council met with the developers on October 26 and the issue was discussed at Parish Council on November 7th.

This was followed by a full 90-minute tour of Parliament followed by seats in the Visitors Gallery when the Commons was packed to review the Budget changes.

Overall, it was a very informative and worthwhile day.

John Wilson

Vice-Chair of Bottisham Parish Council

Notice Date: 17/10/2022