Report for Parish Councils – October 2022.
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South Cambs District Council Visit South Cambs The tourism website for South Cambridgeshire – created by the District Council – has welcomed thousands of visitors and highlighted hundreds of venues and events in its first year. www.visitsouthcambs.co.uk launched in September 2021, with local residents and visitors encouraged to use the website to explore, discover and enjoy what South Cambridgeshire has to offer in terms of activities, places to eat, cultural attractions and green spaces. The website also provides B&B, camping, hotel and self-catering listings, making it easier for visitors to the area to find a place to stay to make the most of the district. A South Cambridgeshire District Council creation, the website was the first site dedicated to promoting the district’s tourist sector businesses, making it easier for people to have more fun and discover hidden gems closer to home and, by doing so, support local jobs and economies. During the past 12 months, around 200 local venues have enjoyed free listings and more than 230 local events have been promoted, from village fetes to art exhibitions. The site now has had more than 8,000 unique visitors from around the world, reaching countries including America, Australia, and Japan. Cost of living support A reminder of all the information available on Cost of Living Support. This will be regularly updated. https://www.scambs.gov.uk/cost-of-living-support/ Wellcome Genome Campus There was the first substantive meeting of the Community Liaison Forum on Sep 7th followed by a meeting with Ickleton PC on Sep 26th. Biofuels in Bin Lorries A trial to power eight of South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge City’s bin lorries using biofuels has taken place – cutting their net carbon emissions by 90%. During the past two months, Greater Cambridge Shared Waste, a partnership between South Cambridgeshire District and Cambridge City Councils, ran the eight vehicles on hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) instead of diesel. The Councils are transitioning their fleet of around 50 bin lorries to electric and alternative fuel vehicles to reduce net carbon emissions. Currently, a significant proportion of the waste service’s, and therefore the councils’, carbon emissions originate from diesel bin lorries. Two fully electric bin lorries are already being used in the city of Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire and a solar farm is planned at the service depot to be able to charge more of them in future. Depending on the analysis and results of the HVO trial, and once a sustainable fuel source is secured, the Councils could purchase further vehicles which could be powered by HVO. This would be an interim solution ahead of more electric or hydrogen trucks joining the fleet as and when they become available from manufacturers, and in-line with the depot charging facilities becoming operational. Using HVO results in a 90% reduction in net CO2 emissions when compared to running the same vehicles on normal diesel. HVO is an enhanced form of pure biodiesel, refined from more than 90% waste and residue oils, and the net CO2 emissions from HVO are rated near zero or “carbon neutral” by the Government, to account for the CO2 absorbed by the source of the HVO which is largely plant matter, before it is made into HVO. Each delivery is accompanied by a certified statement of bio sustainability in accordance with the UK’s Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation rules and EU RED II directive. No modifications are required to use HVO in the bin lorries; they can simply be filled with HVO rather than diesel.
This Land David Meek, appointed as Chair of This Land in May, and the company’s Chief executive David Lewis were on hand to answer questions from Members on its business plan. Key headlines from the 2022 plan include: · Building approximately 930 new homes over the next 10 years. · 396 of these houses to be affordable, with a minimum increase of 50 on last year’s plan. · Developing plans for a further pipeline of affordable homes across the county, including analysis of where County Council owned land can enable this. · Disposal of underperforming assets. or assets where This Land is not best place to develop · Commitment to deliver Environment, Social and Governance policies and to work closely with the housebuilding supply chain to reduce carbon footprint to net zero.
Food Delivery Robots A trial of food delivery robots in Cambridgeshire could soon be expanded after receiving a thumbs up from shoppers. Cambridgeshire County Council and Starship Technologies began a trial on 17 May which allowed more than 12,000 residents in Cambourne to order groceries from their local Co-op store.
And the overwhelmingly positive feedback has convinced both parties to seek to expand the service to Cherry Hinton, Romsey and Queen Ediths divisions in Cambridge, with a final decision to be made by the council’s Highways and Transport Committee at its meeting on 4 October. Ahead of the meeting, Starship will be carrying out feasibility work in the area to make sure it will be a viable location, particularly because of the narrow streets and pavement parking. Starship is also considering extending the trial to the Longstanton/Northstowe area to see how the service can integrate in a new community.
As of September, the autonomous robots have carried out nearly 12,000 deliveries in Cambourne with 5,735 people having downloaded the Starship app.
A customer survey from Starship following the first month of operation has shown huge support for the robots, with 97.2% positive with the service and 98.4% saying they would recommend the delivery robots to their friends.
Other benefits include: environmental (with people using a car less often), time saving and a reduction in food waste. The survey also showed a reduction of 7,798 miles driven by vehicles in the first month which led to a 1,670kg reduction in CO2 emissions.
The council also carried out a survey between 1 August and 12 September which showed nearly 95% of respondents were either supportive or very supportive of the trial. The vast majority of people taking part in the survey (around four-fifths) had used the food delivery robots with widespread support for expanding the trial further.
The Cambridgeshire pilot allows residents living in Lower and Upper Cambourne to order deliveries through the Starship food delivery app which are selected from the Co-op store at 29 Mosquito Road. The groceries are then delivered in one hour or less.
Cambourne residents can schedule their delivery and watch in real-time via an interactive map as the robot makes its journey to them. Once the robot arrives they receive an alert and can meet and unlock it through the app.
The robots, which are powered by zero carbon electricity, are lightweight and travel at the speed of a pedestrian (no faster than 4mph). They use a combination of sensors, artificial intelligence and machine learning to travel on pavements and navigate around any obstacles, while computer vision-based navigation helps them map their environment to the nearest inch.
Foxton Hub |
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| Im still waiting for an update from GCP and draft papers for the hub.
Peter McDonald Oct 2nd 2022 |