ECDC Corporate Plan
A new Corporate Plan covering the next four years has now been agreed by the ECDC Full Council. The document builds on the authority’s 100 Day commitment to bring more detail to how the Council will improve the district for residents and businesses in East Cambridgeshire through the following six priorities:
To deliver on these priorities, the authority will be working on a number of areas which include:
East Cambs Aiming for Gold Standard
With East Cambridgeshire setting a high standard in tackling 81homelessness, the District Council has been asked to host the National Practitioner for Department of Communities and Local Government’s (DCLG) Housing Gold Standard.
Steve Tong, the Practitioner for the East of England and Kent, will be based in the Housing Options team for three days a week where he will help authorities work towards the Gold Standard. He will also be assisting East Cambridgeshire with their goal of reaching Gold Standard status by September 2016 – a standard which is currently held by only two authorities in the UK.
The Gold Standard – funded by the DCLG – sets the bar for local homelessness services, protecting the country’s most vulnerable when they face losing their home.
Littleport Barclays Bank Closure
Despite all our efforts to encourage Barclays to rethink their decision to shut down our branch, the doors closed on 9th October for the last time. We would just like to thank all the Barclays customers who wrote to appeal against the decision, and also to the organisers and supporters of the protest in the Main Street on Saturday 15th August. We still believe that it is extremely important for our community to have a banking facility within the Village and are in the process of approaching other financial institutions regarding the viability of setting up a branch in Littleport.
Official Opening of G’s Growers Mushroom Farm
On 21st October we all attended the official opening of the recently completed May Farm Mushroom Facility which is situated approximately 3 miles out of Littleport along the Mildenhall Road. This impressive state-of-the art facility, was built by G’s Growers in supply partnership with Tesco, to increase the availability of UK grown fresh mushrooms. Construction of the farm started in 2012, with the building of 12 growing tunnels and associated facilities. The first mushrooms were picked in November of that year, and a further 12 tunnels were added in 2013. The most recent phase has just been completed, and the farm now comprises 48 tunnels, along with cold storage and packing facilities May Farm grows white button, closed cup and large flat mushrooms, which are hand-picked, 365 days per year. Mushrooms actually double in size every 24 hours, and even keep on growing once they are picked.
May Farm produces 165 tonnes of mushrooms each week for sale through Tesco stores across the UK, and has reduced food miles through bringing production to the UK for products that were previously sourced from Europe G’s is an incredibly exciting place to work, and being at the forefront of modern food production means it’s fast paced, stimulating and rewarding. They work with the biggest food retail brands in the UK and Europe and want people who will do what’s right for G’s and their customers. May Farm has created 300 new full time jobs, and G’s Growers are very keen to encourage applications for vacancies from members of the local community.
G’s offers all staff a place to learn and grow with careers and job opportunities in Food Manufacturing, Engineering, Farm and Harvest Management, Agronomy, Technical and Quality Assurance, Operations, Logistics, production, Supply Chain, Marketing, Innovation and Customer Insight, IT, Human Resources and Commercial to name but a few. G’s currently has a range of vacancies available across their various sites. For more information on vacancies available please visit their website at www.gs-fresh.com
We would like to take this opportunity to everyone in our Community a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Health, and Prosperous New Year
David Ambrose Smith
Jo Webber
Christine Ambrose Smith
Paul Cox