Welcome to the Longstanton Ward page, covering the parishes of Longstanton and Oakington & Westwick.
Local contacts
Sarah Cheung Johnson (District Councillor)
scjlibdem@gmail.com 
@scjlibdem 
/sarahcheungjohnson
Alex Malyon (District Councillor)
You can also get in touch with any of our main South Cambs contacts found here.
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Our villages to remain separate Parishes
Longstanton and Oakington & Westwick will remain separate Parishes, and Northstowe will form its own Parish, under proposals put forward by the District Council following consultation with residents. Oakington & Westwick will keep the green separation between them and Northstowe. A second round of consultation will now start, with three options chosen by the Council’s committee. See full details and maps at:http://bit.ly/LOWCGR
The options are:
A) - All phases of Northstowe form a new Parish. Oakington & Westwick remains its own Parish with the boundaries advocated by Oakington Parish Council, to include the green separation land. Longstanton Parish remains the same up to the roundabout separating Station Rd and the B1050 towards Willingham. Land north of the Guided Busway goes to Willingham Parish.
B - As above, but land north of the Guided Busway goes to Northstowe.
C - Only Northstowe Phases east of the B1050 form a Northstowe Parish; Longstanton retains all land to the west of the B1050, including Northstowe Phase 3b and the Bloor homes.
Whilst we are not in favour of option C, as this could eventually double the number of homes and add more than 2000 Northstowe residents to Longstanton Parish, we were keen for it to be included as it has support among a group of residents.
These initial options were rejected:
- Over Parish Council ceding some land to create a more natural boundary.
- A late submission from Homes England to extend Phase 3 land over the green separation for Oakington.
As district councillors we were happy with the committee’s recommendations and supported the rejection of the above two options. Thank you to Oakington Parish Chair Stephen Moore for speaking about preserving the green separation for Oakington. We note and share Oakington Parish Council’s disappointment at Homes England’s lack of engagement and late response to this issue. We will be working to bring them to the table for better engagement in the future.
We are keen for residents north of the Guided Busway to have every opportunity to express their preference if either A or B is selected, and will support that preference.
We would like to thank all residents who took the time to fill out the consultation questionnaire. We know that many of you found it confusing, and we are working with the Council to ensure the next one is clearer to complete. This will be launching on 15th March 2020.
There will be a series of consultation events and presentations at Longstanton, Oakington and Northstowe - details can be found at: http://bit.ly/LOWCGR
Please feel free to email us at the below addresses if you have any questions.
Northstowe planning update
Fiona Hunter, our new planning officer dedicated to Northstowe Phase 1, is pursuing pre-enforcement actions with L&Q, concerning the Community Building and outstanding infrastructure. She is also seeking legal advice on pursuing breaches of condition. These relate to the green routes, street lights and the fountain in Local Centre Square among other matters.
Potholes, potholes, everywhere!
Potholes are now worse than ever in our villages and we are sorry to hear that many residents have spent hundreds of pounds fixing cars damaged by them. Potholes are filled by the County Council, which is cash-strapped from having its funding cut by central government – it now gets zero contribution from the government, where it once got over £300 million! At the same time demand for its services has risen, as legally it must fund Adult Social Care. The Tory government has promised a £2 billion pothole fund so we have written to our new MP to ask him where this money is and when we might see improvements to our roads in South Cambs. We have yet to receive a reply but in the meantime the underinvestment in our roads over decades will continue to impact on us all!
Girton to Oakington shared use path
An update on the Girton to Oakington shared use path from the County Council:
“We are still working hard to get a design for this cycling and walking scheme; it has taken a long time due to the complexity of widening a path alongside a ditch, and the many surveys required to input to the design.
The scope of the initial planned work remains the same; to widen the shared use path to 3m between Manor Farm Road and the New Road junction, to modify the New Road junction to improve visibility, and to carry out minor improvements at the Oakington end, such as dropped kerbs, line painting and street furniture relocation. We are now progressing a ‘swale and pipe’ design for the ditch, creating a swale where possible and piping where not. This hopefully means we won’t have to use any sheet piling, which would have been more expensive and disruptive.
Skanska are close to finishing the design. So after going through all the statutory processes, we are hoping to be able to start work on site later this summer. In preparation for this we need to trim back the hawthorn hedge between Beck’s Brook and the New Road junction before the bird-nesting season at the end of March. The County Council’s Arboriculture Officer has inspected the site and doesn’t have any problems with this, and in addition has recommended we remove two young trees from the hedge line: a field maple and an ash close to Beck’s Brook. Both of these have roots which stand adjacent to the hedge line and would prevent the path-widening.
If you have any concerns about this vegetation work please let us know as soon as possible.”
Northstowe Forum updates
Thanks to the work of Jon London, the Northstowe community forum updates and videos have been clipped in short videos so you can watch only the parts you’re interested in.
Catch up on the most recent forum
The next forum is on 1st April 2020 at the Community Wing.
Please don't hesitate to email us if you would like to discuss the above matters or anything else:
Sarah Cheung Johnson cllr.cheungjohnson@scambs.gov.uk
Alex Malyon cllr.malyon@scambs.gov.uk
District Councillors for Longstanton, Oakington and Northstowe
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