South Cambridgeshire District Council – Histon & Impington Ward District Councillors’ Monthly Report – March 2025 

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us using the details below.  

Martin Cahn: Cllr.Cahn@scambs.gov.uk 07826 748407
Sunita Hansraj: Cllr.hansraj@scambs.gov.uk 07584 671322
James Rixon: Cllr.rixon@scambs.gov.uk 07815 186507 

Upcoming Extraordinary Meeting on Council reorganisation  

An additional Extraordinary Meeting of South Cambridgeshire District Council has been scheduled for 6pm on 19th March. This will discuss local government reorganisation, with the hope to set out  the direction of travel and options that are under early consideration and propose the criteria we  will use to assess those options as we develop them further. This is a collaborative piece of work  across Cambridgeshire (and Peterborough which is already a unitary council). The Council (and your  councillors) are looking forward to hearing the residents’ and Parish Councils’ views. 

Motorcycle disturbance 

Nuisance from motorcycles on the field next to the Holiday Inn has recurred over the last couple of  months after a period of relative calm. Your councillors are hoping to reduce this problem and are  looking at alternative approaches. In addition to the significant noise nuisance, aggravated by the  fact that following ploughing of the field, the motorcyclists have moved nearer to housing, there is  the problem of risk to those accessing the field since it is accessed by motorcyclists illegally following  the busway path and crossing the busway track at considerable danger to themselves. (We are  waiting to see if a recent accident involving a pedestrian was related to this.) We are trying to bring  together a group of councillors and those interested to look at potential solutions, including the  County Council which owns the busway and has its own responsibilities as landowner in relation to  the access used to get to the field.  

Envirocrime 

Cllr. Rixon met with officers from the growing Environmental Crime Team. The team deals with littering, fly tipping, dumped cars and other envirocrimes. They take a positive and proactive approach and are really keen to meet directly with community and parish councils to introduce themselves, discuss the work they do and how they can offer direct support. Please ask us if you would like to be put in touch with the lead officer to arrange this. 

Four-Day Week consultation 

The consultation on the four-day week is still open until Sunday 23rd March. All parish councils and residents are encouraged to submit their views.  

https://engage.scambs.gov.uk/en-GB/folders/four-day-week

Helping older people stay in their homes for longer in South Cambridgeshire  

A total of £345,000 has been pledged to Mobile Warden Schemes in South Cambridgeshire for the  next three years to help more elderly people stay living in their own homes for longer. The pledge  comes after the District Council partnered with Rose Regeneration to undertake an in-depth review  of local schemes to understand more about how much it costs to run them and help them become  more sustainable in the future. The resulting funding package is affordable and fair for all and will  target the funds where they are needed the most. The deadline for these schemes is March 2025.  You can find out more at: https://www.scambs.gov.uk/news/helping-older-peoplestay-in-their homes-for-longer-in-south-cambridgeshire

Cost-of-living information. 

Visit https://www.scambs.gov.uk/cost-of-living-support/ for information on benefits

Update from Cambridgeshire County Council on the Household Support Fund  

The Household Support Fund Scheme is running until end of March and thousands of  households can claim cost of living support potentially worth hundreds of pounds. Over the next few  weeks, Cambridgeshire County Council are raising awareness to those who may be eligible for this  support but have either never claimed, or have not put in an application this round. You can help  share Cambridgeshire County Council’s social media posts over the next few weeks – all the graphics  will be titled “Are you struggling to pay for food or bills?” with the following text:  

“Are you experiencing financial hardship? There’s still time to sign up to receive financial  support from the Household Support Fund before 31 March 2025. Find out whether you’re eligible here: https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/communities/support-with-the-costof living/household-support-fund”  

Waste Disposal Contract 

Due to the widespread concern expressed about the new waste disposal contract and the  distance to the proposed waste sorting facility in Northern Ireland, Cambridge City Council and  South Cambridgeshire District Council, which share the Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service, have issued the following statement to explain why they consider the new contract an improvement  on the old one. Due to the importance of the details in the information, it is repeated here:  

New contract set to boost recycling for items put in blue bins  

A new contract to process recycling collected from Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire  residents’ blue bins comes into effect in March – and will see even more of what’s collected re processed into high-quality new products. Residents are being reassured there are no changes to  what can be put into their blue bins and reminded to check the councils’ websites or residents’  magazines for information about what goes in which bin. The new contract has been awarded to Re Gen, whose Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) is one of Europe’s most advanced facilities. It runs on 100% renewable energy and features specialist machinery designed by Re-Gen’s experienced engineers. Re-Gen were named both Paper Recycling Business of The Year and Recycling Business of  The Year at last year’s Awards for Excellence in Recycling and Waste Management. The new MRF will  be able to correctly sort and recycle 19% more of the material from residents’ blue bins than  currently. This includes very small fragments which are currently difficult to sort and can end up as  waste. More effective sorting also means better recycling options – for example it will be possible  for 95% of glass to be remelted and used for new bottles and jars, rather than most being used in  road construction. 

Executive Councillor for Climate Action and Environment at Cambridge City Council, Cllr Rosy  Moore, said: “I want to thank residents for continuing to diligently recycle, and to reassure you that  the new contract doesn’t affect what you put in your blue bin. There are no new rules to learn about  what can be recycled, so please keep doing what you’re doing. The good news is that by working  with a modern Materials Recycling Facility, we are going to be able to guarantee an even higher  proportion of what’s collected can be re-processed into even higher quality materials.” South  Cambridgeshire District Council’s Lead Cabinet Member for Environmental Services, Cllr Natalie  Warren-Green, commented: “Residents I’ve spoken to generally appreciate that materials collected  for recycling are a valuable resource, and part of a global economy. People can be reassured and  confident that what they are carefully rinsing and squashing before recycling will be re-processed at  a high quality facility before being made into new products.” The Re-Gen MRF is based in Newry,  Northern Ireland, so initially this is where the blue bin recycling waste will be taken for sorting.  However, Re-Gen say that, within the first half of this year, it will take over an MRF on the UK  mainland. This will negate the need to transport the recycling to Northern Ireland. Re-Gen Chief  Executive, Joseph Doherty comments: “We are delighted that Re-Gen will be working with  Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council from early March. Initially, the  blue bin recyclate will be brought to our state-of-the-art facility in Newry. Over recent years there  has been significant technological investment, particularly in AI and high precision optical sorters  using high-resolution cameras and near-infrared sensors. This enables our industry-leading MRF to  identify plastics, metals, glass, and paper, ensuring that we deliver the highest quality of recyclate to  be made into new products. Re-Gen operate their own haulage fleet and logistics service. Their fleet  is already travelling from Newry, Northern Ireland to England with materials and products.  Therefore, the collection of recyclables from Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire  District Council will take advantage of back haul arrangements, ensuring that HGVs already on the  road do not return to Newry empty.” 

In recent years, Greater Cambridge residents’ blue bin recycling has been sorted at an MRF  off the A10 at Waterbeach. …. The contract with the company that runs the MRF at Waterbeach expired, and following a procurement process bound by public sector rules, Re-Gen was appointed.  The company that ran the Waterbeach site was not successful, so the Waste Service was not able to  continue the current arrangements. Cllr Moore continued: “The new contract does involve further haulage than the current operation – whether initially to Newry or, soon, to a facility closer to Cambridge. However, Re-Gen already have an extensive haulage operation transporting both  unsorted recycling from 16 councils in England to their MRF as well as sorted materials from the MRF to recycling companies around the UK. They will be able to make use of space in lorries  returning to them to transport much of our material. Like our own waste service, Re-Gen has begun transitioning its fleet of vehicles to more sustainable fuels like Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil and is  trialling electric HGVs” 

Cllr Warren-Green continued: “It’s pleasing to hear Re-Gen is quickly advancing its plans for  an MRF closer to us – which will minimise the amount of time that our blue bin recycling goes to  Northern Ireland for sorting. There are carbon emissions at every stage of the process. With the  change of contract, the impacts of transport changes will be monitored and considered in the round  with the wider impacts of recycling your plastics, cans, glass, paper and cardboard.” Images of Re Gen’s MRF are available upon request. For photos, or for further information, please get in touch  with one of the Council Communications Teams on communications@cambridge.gov.uk or  communications@scambs.gov.uk 

Note from the CPCA Environment and Sustainable Communities Committee  

All the CPCA’s partner councils have been awarded £50k towards staffing costs to do an  audit of their nature assets. It had been feared that SCDC could not use all of this money because we  only had Milton Country Park. Obviously, however, we have parish councils with assets and so we  will be taking all of the money and using it for a more thorough audit of all our district’s assets. Our  local Parish Councils may therefore be asked for more information on this. 

The committee received an excellent presentation from Action on Energy who are our partnership  body leading on all the housing retrofit work (HUG2). They have been rather more successful than the Net Zero Hub which covers most of the rest of the East of England.  

A very interesting presentation was made by Bryony Rothwell from the RECAP Waste team. The  recent Commission on Waste made 127 recommendations and called for a 37% reduction in residual  waste and for 70% of municipal waste to be recycled. Cambridgeshire currently recycles 55.8% of  domestic waste and Peterborough 42% but the target in the commission report is 65%. Food waste  will be separately collected from 2026 and the Government is now proposing that paper and card  also be separated at source. Waste per head has decreased from 418kg to 250kg due to reductions  in packaging weights. Regarding the carbon cost of collecting waste, Peterborough has 53% of their  emissions due to their waste fleet and for SCDC its closer to 66%. Peterborough has an Energy from  Waste facility which is going really well whereas we are seeing an increase in waste to landfill.  Huntingdonshire purchased an HVO tank for the benefit of their fleet but also for Fire and Police.  Bryony said that there is an infrastructure deficit which is holding progress back – particularly  Transfer Stations. The CPCA agreed to do an audit of the infrastructure and to work with them to  overcome these problems.