Councillor talks double talk in double measure
EAST Cambridgeshire Council is quite right to be concerned regarding the National Trust's so-called 'Wicken Vision' but one of the councillors supposedly representing the area is a naughty boy.
Cllr Robert Stevens says things at Ely meetings that are in sharp contrast to much of what he says to me. He is reported to have said that "the vision is a marvellous opportunity ... the vast majority of (the residents) like this vision and welcome it".
However, Cllr Stevens wrote to me in March saying, among other less than complimentary comments on the National Trust: "My worries about cars are already having a big impact on Lode. Saturday, February 21, (in their Snowdrop Season) was dreadful and just as bad as last year.
The Anglesey Abbey car park was full, so too their paddock opposite the church. Then cars parked all the way down Lode Road and both sides of Quy Road. Also in the High Street and Mill Road. All the police could do was to ticket illegally-parked cars.
The NT withdrew its car park application for the field opposite the visitors' centre, presumably on account of a damning appraisal by county highways (it didn't like the traffic light pedestrian crossing or the two car park entrances). The NT may now be looking at further extending the existing car park.
All this is at odds with the statement I see in the February 2009 Wicken Fen Vision 'News From The Fen' that states that, nationally, the NT has set a target that by 2020 only 60% of its visitors should arrive by car, as opposed to the current 90%.
They could make a start by having a regular excursion coach service from Cambridge.
However, the most pressing problem is car parkers in the village from near and afar.
The NT Wicken Fen Vision website says that visitors are welcome to park in the Anglesey or Wicken car parks for walking or cycling therefrom, yet the property manager at Anglesey has confirmed to me that he doesn't want anyone parking in the Abbey car park unless they are visiting the Abbey.
Anyway, it's only open five days a week whereas the Wicken one is open at all times. No co-ordination here.
The poor old parish council is now trying to find some parking space near the old station.
It's already having to try to improve the car park by the cemetery (actually owned by the NT) as it is building a new sports pavilion and the NT also wants more allotments nearby.
The trouble is the NT is so lamentably slow at responding to the situation on the ground. When the 'spine route' is completed we can only expect more problems. Anyway, enough of my moaning for now.
Regards, Bob Stevens."
I have heard double-talk before, but this is double-talk in double measure!
Geoffrey Woollard
Chapel Farm
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Friday 25 May 2012
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