Steve Tierney's Blog

Thanks for your comment! I full agree with you that people do speed Queens Road dangerously. I have taken SpeedWatch to Queens Road a couple of times to try and slow people down a bit, but its obviously only a sticking plaster for a larger problem. I also agree that some of the parking is silly and very unhelpful. In regards to new Double Yellow lines, I will raise your suggestion with the County Councillor, Sam Hoy (It’s a County Council issue) and get some feedback about it. In regards to the staff in the homes, as long as the places they park are legal parking spaces they are as entitled to use them as anybody else, within the law. But I appreciate it is frustrating for residents and am happy to speak to the care homes and ask if they’d have a polite and friendly word with their staff to encourage them to be more considerate of people who live nearby.

Hi Richard,

People should not drop litter, whether they are 17 or 70. If anything, an older person should have learnt not to do it. I have no problem with tickets being issues to a Seventy year old, unless there is some medical reason why they didn’t understand that dropping a cigarette end is unacceptable.

I don’t think the lady you are referring to was angry. Maybe you misread the expression? It happens.

Sorry about your Dad, but please to hear that the send off went well.

Hi Richard, Yes, we hope to open the Castle up for adventure activities like you suggest.

Sat Navs do take a while to catch up with road changes, and its a particular problem if the Sat Nav owner doesn’t regularly update their maps. I’ll email your message to County Council highways and see if they can offer any suggestions of what might help.

Hi Colin. It’s County Council that need to adopt the roads, rather than Fenland. County Council will not adopt them until the developers have completed all works, and the developers (as you know) have many ways to drag out the completion and avoid doing bits and pieces. I’ve spent the last couple of years pressing them to get things completed and each time it has some effect; they usually turn up and do some more work, but they never seem to quite finish. There is always a reason why, and its frustrating, but all I can do is keep pressing them. Which I am, and do.

The problem is that they are within the law. At the moment, the dispute is “technically” a private dispute between the home owners and the developers. I suspect the reason the Council wont adopt is because the works are not complete and if they adopt at this point they become responsible for a situation which is presently a private dispute, which as you can imagine is not ideal. My efforts have been to encourage the company to get the work done and to encourage the Council Officers to press them to do the same. But all I can do is apply soft pressure because they know the law and the system and are not breaching it. I absolutely agree that its gone on too long and its become a joke. If it were within my power I’d read them the riot act. But I have to operate within my limited influence, which I continue to try and do. I’m not aware of them having any “problems with planning” and they have not contacted me to ask for help with any issue. As far as I am aware they are holding off because they are not ready to proceed, not because there is a planning issue that is slowing them up. If they think otherwise, they certainly haven’t told me so.

Thanks for your question. Basically, I never take anything on unless I think (a) I can do it and (b) it wont affect other things I do. I like to be busy and I do a lot of hours, but I am still keeping up with all my present responsibilities. My attendance at meetings is very good. I still do my litter picks several times a month (I list them in my newsletter). I still do Councillor Surgeries and a (nearly) monthly newsletter. I try to respond to questions and resolve peoples casework problems as quickly as possible. Speedwatch is on hold at the moment as we are waiting for a spare part on the equipment, but they will resume soon. I don’t post to my blog as often as I used to – primarily because the local opposition and local press use my blog to attack me and my colleagues, mainly by spinning/misquoting/cherry picking what it says or using it out of context. In order to have time for the Castle (a voluntary job) I dropped the Area Champion role (a paid job) – as I felt I could do more good with my time in the Castle than as the Area Champion. Finally – while I don’t think I’m doing less of anything I used to do, its worth pointing out that there are a very large number of Town, District and County Councillors as well as volunteers and colleagues who can pitch in to do any of this stuff (and many do).