The Town Council's work to date - and how you can be part of this
Published: 11 March 2022
YOU can stand for Town Council elections - Make YOUR NORTHSTOWE an even better place to live, work and visit!
Yes, that’s right: You can stand for the Town Council elections this year!
Elections will take place on 5th May 2022. These elections will be for a full 4-year term, following the initial 1-year term current Councillors have served since the formation of the brand-new Northstowe Town Council in spring 2021.
The deadline to nominate yourself for these elections is 5th April at 4PM.
Interested? Then read on.
You may perhaps wonder what it is you could get involved in as Councillor. In order to answer this, let’s look at some of the many things the Town Council has achieved since it was formed only nine months ago – in each case, Councillors have been actively involved in the work that led to these activities:
TOWN COUNCIL - ITS ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE:
1. The Town Council has been scrutinising planning applications and has been a key statutory voice through the planning process. In doing so, the Council has helped improve the outcomes for community, environment and traffic impacts of key applications for, for example, the Sports Pavilion in Phase 1 and the outline applications for Phase 3A and 3B with its total of circa 5,000 homes, community and business centre and other key facilities.
2. The Town Council has been actively discussing emerging issues with planning authorities, statutory bodies, developers and community groups, to ensure these were resolved in a timely and appropriate manner. This approach has helped speed up and improve the outcomes for issues such as the drainage problems at the phase 1 allotments and the relocation of the table tennis tables.
3. The Town Council has regularly raised residents’ concerns about the state of the roads, foot- and cycle paths and greenspaces with the developers and other landowners, leading to speeding up of repairs to lamp posts and improvements to road signage, road cleaning schedules, and grass cutting regimes alongside paths.
4. The Town Council has held developers to account over unauthorised piling, which has resulted in a renewed application for a less intrusive piling method with significantly better communications from the developer to the affected school and residents.
5. The Town Council has instigated an evidence-based Hydrology Working Group, working with a number of stakeholders including the Local Planning Authority, Environment Agency, neighbouring Parish Councils and concerned residents, to collate and understand the data, and investigate the causes of water table issues reported.
6. The Town Council has started discussions about future town developments including with Homes England, South Cambridgeshire District Council and partner organisations such as the Cambridgeshire Football Association, to ensure key community facilities are to be delivered in time and their usage secured for Northstowe residents.
7. The Town Council has been actively feeding into key partnerships focused on: Health and Wellbeing (Northstowe Support Partnership); Green Space developments (Phase 1 Open Spaces Steering Group); Youth Provision (Northstowe Youth Partnership); Community Interaction (Northstowe Community Networkers); New Heritage Centre development (Heritage Building Steering Group); Faith Land allocation (Northstowe Faith Strategy Group); and held discussions with the police, transport providers and others.
8. The Town Council took the lead in ordering a Christmas tree for the town and managed to bring in substantial sponsorship from several Northstowe developers to help finance this and its associated events for the community.
9. The Town Council has been organising and supporting events: the Mayor opened the first, very successful Northstowe Running Festival, held in September 2021, was a key partner in the first Remembrance Sunday Service in Northstowe held in November 2021 where some 150 people came together, and the Town Council took the lead in organising the Christmas Light-Switch-on event in December, attended by over 450 residents.
Act of Remembrance, Sun. 14th November 2021. Left: Act of Remembrance organiser Revd Beth Cope with the Town Mayor, Cllr Richard Owen. Right: Wreaths laid near the water side. Images: Cllr Firouz Thompson.
Are YOU convinced you can make a difference as a Town Councillor?
Want to find out more? Here are some things you can do;· Check if you are eligible to stand for Town Council elections – detailed eligibility criteria and a nomination form can be found on the South Cambridgeshire District Council’s website and can also be found through links the Town Council’s website.
· Come to one of the Town Council meetings to see the Councillors in action: all Full Council and Committee meetings are accessible to the public, and we welcome residents making use of the public participation session at each meeting.
· Come to the Annual Town Meeting, where you can hear about the Town Council and its partners’ work, and where you can ask us any question you may have: this will take place on the evening of 16th March 2022 at Northstowe Secondary College.
· Contact your Clerk: email me at townclerk@northstowetowncouncil.gov.uk, call me on 07724588949, or contact me via our contacts webpage, our Facebook or our Twitter accounts.