The Mayor of St Neots, Cllr Richard Slade, writes his monthly column for August, where he talks about the new Priory Centre and the St Neots Dragon Boat Festival.
Late summer is quieter for mayors and their civic duties, we have no council or committee meetings in August except for planning where it is statutory by law that the committee make decisions. Despite this, I still attended 15 meetings but managed to cram in a much-needed two-week holiday with the family.
The biggest news this month is the closure of the Priory Centre for refurbishment and the opening of our new temporary home on New Street, opposite the museum.
I dropped by last week to see for myself — the café downstairs was packed with residents and upstairs a gallery space has been divided up so we can accommodate all the regular events we usually host at the Priory Centre. I met the team from U3A and they are very pleased with the new spaces.
One of the most discussed topics among residents when I’m out is nuisance parking, mostly in the centre of town. This issue is county-wide, and we’ve been eagerly waiting for civil parking enforcement (traffic wardens to you and me) to be introduced to Huntingdonshire.
Last month I met with the team for an update and was pleased to say that the street mapping exercise has been completed so they know which road lines need repainting and what new signs need installing. The process has been slow but we can hope to see wardens on the streets in early 2025.
This weekend was the annual St Neots Dragon Boat Festival and if you’ve never been before it’s a great day out for the family.
This year 22 teams from across St Neots raced against each other with a chance to win the festival trophy. It was a very tense and exciting series of heats and finals with the eventual winners, and for the second year running, was Young Guns II.
Our council team, Slade’s Sailors, alas didn’t make the semi-final, but we were delighted to be part of the event and councillors and officers enjoyed the challenge.
There are lots of council projects that have kept us busy in the last twelve months and it’s not going to slow down. I’ll to keep you updated each month and you may have spotted a few already taking shape.
The refurbishment of the Priory Centre is a big change for the town. Smaller projects like the refurbishment of the garden in Moore’s Walk start this week where you will see new planting, and new paving that gives level access via the high street and the cast iron railings will be fixed and painted.
The last few snagging issues are being sorted on the new accessible toilets in riverside car park and we hope to see them operational very soon. Thank you for your patience whilst we’ve been working with the district council in improving these facilities and for tolerating the Portaloos.
The resurfacing of the ramps in the skatepark is due to start in the next few weeks, I’ve supported this project right from the start as the skatepark is a fantastic facility for the young people of St Neots and I want to ensure it is safe and fit for purpose for our teenagers.
We’ve been supporting the district council with new paths in Riverside Park and the new much wider paths are nearly complete. We got to test them out this weekend at the dragon boat festival and were impressed with how much more accessible it has made the park.
Finally a quick congratulations to St Neots Mancave on celebrating their second anniversary. It’s a great initiative and one I was pleased to officially open two years ago alongside other councillors. Happy birthday.
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