A very serious act of vandalism took place of Friday 21 April at the Moor Play Park. The Chairman of the Parish Council personally received a report of an incident and immediately visited the Moor Play Park to find that dog faeces had been smeared throughout the central green tube slide. The slide was immediately roped off with a sign informing users of the park not to use the equipment. On Saturday morning Village Warden, Steve Pitman, thoroughly cleaned the slide with the appropriate cleaning products to ensure the equipment was safe to use and could be reopened. Many thanks to Steve for quickly putting things right.
This is a serious act of vandalism. Dog faeces in contact with children’s eyes causes blindness (toxocariasis). This is a grave matter and has been reported to the police along with images taken at the time. If anyone has any information about the incident, please inform the police (crime reference 35/30452/23/23).
The Parish Council undertakes regular detailed and recorded weekly inspections of the play parks to help to ensure safety, but we ask members of the public to always report any issues that they identify to the Parish Council.
Melbourn Parish Council is inviting organisations, charities or groups in Melbourn to apply for Community Benefit Grants. The deadline for applications is Monday 24 April 2023.
Please note, unlike previous years, the meeting where decisions on grants are made will be separate to the monthly Parish Council Meeting. There meeting will be an additional Parish Council meeting held on Wednesday 3 May 2023 at 7:30pm, where the grant applications will be considered by council.
Major rail projects to improve the railway infrastructure in the Cambridgeshire area are planned to be carried out between Saturday 11 March and the late May bank holiday. The work will affect passenger services via Cambridge station on most weekends in the period.
Passengers should allow extra time when travelling via Cambridge at weekends as bus replacement services will be operating along some routes to allow Network Rail engineers to carry out important renewals and upgrades to the railway.
Passengers using Greater Anglia, Great Northern, Thameslink and Cross Country services via Cambridge are likely to experience longer weekend journey times. The affected weekend dates are:
Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 March 2023
Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 March 2023
Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 March 2023
(Good) Friday 6 to (Easter) Monday 9 April 2023 (Bank holidays)
Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 April 2023
Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 April 2023
Saturday 29 April to Monday 1 May 2023 (Bank holiday)
Sunday 7 and Monday 8 May 2023
Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 May 2023
Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 May 2023
Saturday 27 to Monday 29 May 2023 (Bank holiday)
Work to replace ageing signalling equipment is under way as part of a huge scheme to update the signalling systems in the wider Cambridge area. The Cambridge Re-signalling project is delivering state-of-the-art signalling technology which means better reliability and reduced maintenance, while providing a platform ready for digital technologies such as the European Train Control System (ETCS).
Other planned work will also take place at the same time to make best use of the access to the railway while trains are not running to reduce overall disruption to passengers. These additional works include early enabling work and site set-up for the Cambridge South station project, vital track renewals, drainage, surveys and structures.
This is the first phase of closures required to allow this major improvement work to progress. Further closures will be needed later this year and will continue into 2024.
Impact on train services
In order to undertake the planned engineering work there will be various weekend closures of the mainline that will affect Greater Anglia services (between London and Peterborough via Cambridge and Ely), Great Northern and Thameslink services (between Kings Cross / St Pancras and King’s Lynn via Cambridge) and also Cross Country services (between Birmingham and Stansted Airport via Cambridge) at certain times.
Passengers are advised to check all their weekend journey plans before travelling by visiting nationalrail.co.uk, or by via your train operator, greateranglia.co.uk, greatnorthernrail.com, thameslinkrailway.com and crosscountrytrains.co.uk
