DISTRICT COUNCILLOR REPORT
November 2025
Cllr Lucius Vellacott – Soham South and Wicken, Conservative
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Wicken Parish Council
The Bus Saga Is Still Ongoing (Surprise)
– At the time of writing I am due to meet the Mayor on Friday 7th to discuss improvements to/replacement of the Tiger on Demand. I will report our discussion to the meeting itself.
Planning Matters
– The grant funding for Neighbourhood Plans will come to ECDC’s 25th November Finance and Assets Committee for approval. After that, the fund will be open immediately as I understand it. It will be a freeform application, a letter which must be approved by a meeting of WPC – it must include a match funding commitment, reasons for use and a timescale and plan to finish the NP. It will be first-come, first-served from a pot of £50,000 (ie: 10 parishes). You must have completed the first step (designating the ‘Neighbourhood Area’) to apply.
– The Battery Storage is going on and on and on and on and also on. New technical documents are STILL being consulted on and it has had four extensions of time. I am expecting a December committee date. Nothing is materially changing – the biodiversity impact is high, fire response time is high, noise is higher than the report thought…
– There were no other planning matters of note. We decided not to judicially review the Chapel Lane applications. The chance of success against this Government is minimal and requires a lot of resources which sadly I could not justify pushing for.
Local Updates
– Please ensure local SVC students are aware of possible antisocial behaviour by adults on the recreation ground in Soham. I am working with the Police to ensure no crime is committed in this regard.
– I note the Maids Head has changed hands again and wish them well
Local Government Reorganisation and other such ridiculousness happening outside the comparative Garden of Eden that is Wicken
– The County Council narrowly supported Option A (East Cambs with Greater Cambridge). The vote was 31 in favour (30 LD, 1 IND), 26 against (10 CON, 7 REF, 5 Lab, 2 Grn, 2 IND), 2 abstaining (1 LD, 1 Grn).
– I continue to support Option B (us with Hunts, Peterborough and Fenland). Actually, I support an immediate General Election plus the abolition of Cambs County Council with their powers passed to ECDC and the CPCA respectively. But in the absence of this I (reluctantly) support Option B:
o It puts us with rural councils, in a large enough area to necessitate localised working (ie: we won’t be ruled by Peterborough, like we would with Cambridge) – allowing for local planning rules and local access to services like we have now
o It will raise Council Tax the least – we have frozen our portion for 12 years
o It will limit our housing growth to acceptable, rural levels
o It still allows us to work with Cambridge, which we love, but which has vastly different needs (72% of our residents felt a strong sense of community, more felt they would be overlooked in LGR, over 50% stay local for leisure etc.)
– I met the Secretary of State for Local Government (Steve Reed MP) who is not my favourite person. He gave a 20-minute speech about how he was empowering communities, took 3 questions (2 from Labour councillors) and then left before I got a chance to seek his commitment to localised working (ie: planning rules, access to Ely offices etc.) within the new councils. I have forwarded it to the Chair of the Local Government Association who is from Chester Council and looked at me like I was from Neptune when I said the word ‘rural’.
– Such fun.
Email: lucius.vellacott@eastcambs.gov.uk
(please make use of. I like to know what’s going on!)
