Little Thetford .net

Jamie McCullough
Photo: © Marilyn McCullough

Jamie, who has Usher Syndrome; is deaf and is losing his sight, has been Pa-Kua sword training since 2010. He also took up running this year and joined the runners in the Ely Standard Grunty Fen fun run in September. Rodolfo is encouraging Jamie to try a 5 km run next.

Rodolfo Oliva teaches Pa-Kua sword classes in Cambridge and Ely. See Where, when and fees for details.

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Ely Pa-Kua class: Jamie–far left; Rodolfo and Falco–middle; Gerry and Anne-Marie far right
Photo: © Marilyn McCullough

Cambs Times 24 reports that local entrepreneurs Jonathan and Rebecca James’ James Graven Group has leased the Witchford Road BP garage to BP Connect who will refurbish the forecourt, at a cost of £500,000, replacing the existing Budgeon’s store with a Marks and Spencer Simply Food outlet along with a Wild Bean Café.

In March 2012, Rebecca Smithers of the Guardian compared a John Lewis Partnership’s Little Waitrose and a Marks and Spencer Simply Food outlet giving the Wimbledon Simply Food store 8/10 compared with the Wimbledon Little Waitrose’s 5/10. Simply Food stores first opened in 2001 whilst Little Waitrose stores began operating from 2008.

See also Wild Bean Café

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Well. Not quite, but almost.

Plans for the new Octagon Park business complex off Angel Drove in Ely, reaching to the northern border of Little Thetford, are far advanced though there has not yet been planning approval which is scheduled for submission in October 2012. In addition, plans have been approved for the £31m route B southern bypass, an A142 diversion to Stuntney, which avoids the low railway bridge outside Ely railway station closed to traffic 35 minutes in every hour. This council approval, which has occurred despite English Heritage concerns, now also requires a planning application.

Tesco plan to build a larger supermarket on the Octagon site to replace their present building off Angel Drove. The new site will have wider aisles^note and three-hour parking. Healy Investments, developers of the Octagon site, say the site will also include “office and industrial units, pub, restaurant and a hotel”.

Some Little Thetford villagers do not welcome the news. They fear that the A10 Thetford junction, the only route out of the village, is already congested going north at peak-times and will only get worse as traffic is further encouraged to visit the Octagon shopping centre.

We should all hope that the behaviour of planning committee member Councillor Jan French, who is alleged to have promoted approval of Whittelsey’s Tesco plans against rival Sainsbury, is not endemic throughout East Cambridgeshire.

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John McCullough

^note We submit that, in context, our spelling of aisles is better than Cambs Times 24 spelling of isles!

Jamie McCullough, left, guided by his Pakua master, Rodolfo Oliva

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Coursing the hare, Francis Barlow, 1686

From a recent e-cops newsletter …

What to look for!
We ask you to look for males walking in a line across a field; they usually wear country style clothes or camouflage, but sometimes its jeans and trainers. They will have long dogs (Whippets / Lurcher / Greyhound types) there will be one or more of the dogs; they will be on a slip lead until released after a hare.
Try and see if there is a vehicle with them, this is sometimes left at the road side; the males are dropped off with the dogs then collected further on. The vehicles are usually 4×4’s or cars with 4×4 capabilities, for example a Subaru Forester type but we have caught them in the past in all sorts. We need the make, model and colour and if possible as much of the registration number as you can.

Who and when to call!
All hare coursing in progress, this means that there are dogs and males on land, needs to be phoned to the police on 999.
Any sightings of vehicles occupied with males and long dogs please contact 101.
Or any other information that may be of use on 101 or to your local officer.

To sign up to receive your own copy of the e-cops newsletter, visit this page.

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Little Thetford limited at Thetford Corner
© 2012 John McCullough

These signs, which order motorists to observe a maximum speed of 50 miles per hour, followed a long period of consultation; almost resulting in the whole of the A10 between Ely and Cambridge being so speed limited. In the end, the Cambridgeshire County Council plans [DOC*] were labelled as unnecessary and only two sections—Little Thetford and Milton—have had such restrictions applied. … Read more and/or comment

* A [DOC] file can be opened directly if you have Microsoft Word or similar on your computer. If the file will not open, consider using a free Google Docs account to open the file

We reminded you a few weeks ago to get your entry in by 5 September for this years Ely Standard Grunty Fen half-marathon. Entry is by filling in the form on their web site. As we said earlier, please do tell us if your are entering and send us your photographs.

Apologies to the Ely Standard who inspired the title of this piece with their headline today: “No grunting, no groaning – it’s that time of year for the Grunty Fen Half Marathon which could break a record“

Photographs, sent in by Tony Shaw, of our All The Bells event, Friday 27 July 2012 at St Georges. Tony says

[W]e had a good turnout [Friday] morning for the village’s contribution to the ‘All the bells‘ project. We rang the Church bell for the 3 minutes from 8.12 a.m. together with a wide variety of other ‘percussion instruments’ including the Bell Plates.

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All The Bells 2012	All The Bells 2012
All The Bells 2012	All The Bells 2012
All The Bells 2012	All The Bells 2012
All The Bells 2012	All The Bells 2012