July 26th. An important message from from East Cambs District Council

Electoral Registration forms are being delivered over the next few week to homes throughout the District. It is important that these forms are filled out and returned immediately as the register will enable you to use your right to vote. If you are not on the Electoral Register you may be refused credit.
Please use our secure internet web site, free phone number or send us a text message using our SMS service if the details on the form are correct. Please check your form for details of these.
Alternatively use the prepaid envelope provided to return your form.
If occupants’ details need to be changed, simply cross out the old information and enter the correct details. Please remember to include 17 year olds, as they should also be added to the form. All the instructions for completing the form are printed on the reverse side. Please also use the prepaid envelope if the details on the form need changing.
The forms have a section that those who are not eligible to vote must complete, as it is vital to receive a response from each household.
If we do not receive a response from each household then a canvasser may call to obtain this information, canvassers are due in the area between 4th October to 1st November.
If you are moving before 15th October you should leave the form for the next occupants to complete. If you will be in residence at the property on the 15th October but are moving after that date, you should still complete the form at your current address, then contact local electoral services office to register once you have moved.
If you have not received a form by 11th September or if you have any queries that are not answered on the form please contact the electoral services department at The Grange, Nutholt Lane, Ely, on 01353 665555

The minutes of the Village Council meeting held on 12th May are now available on the Village Council page select here. The meeting held on July 14th was entirely taken up by a talk by Police Inspector Andy Bartlett, East Cambs Sector Commander, who gave an interesting report on local police initiatives and successes. The Council meeting will now be held on Wednesday 28th July,

Ely Action Plan - July 2010. The latest options for the future development of Ely are covered in a comprehensive website produced by ECDC. This is a consultative document and feedback is welcomed. Go to the site select here

Unique Bed & Breakfast accommodation now available at Stuntney Old Hall.
Anthony and Alison Morbey now offer very attractive B & B accommodation for visitors to Ely, in their historic home with its commanding setting providing magnificent views of Ely Cathedral and the surrounding countryside. Full details on the website www.theoldhallhotelely.co.uk

The Google Earth website gives amazing views of the world taken from satellite, you can zoom in on Stuntney and see an aerial view of your house and garden in some detail. But there is more - Stuntney is covered by 'Google Street View' which gives a detailed street level view of our village and its houses. Some may find this invasive but Google would argue that they are showing nothing that is not open to the public anyway. To view your house, and all the others, go to the Google Earth satellite map from our Index (above) and drag the little orange man from the top left corner to the spot in the village where you wish to start.

Stuntney through the seasons slideshow - Go to the 'Images of the seasons' page

Stuntney Broadband connection speeds. We are not well provided by the BT line to Stuntney and some broadband download speeds are very low, as little as 0.13 M/bit/sec. (130 kbps)
You can take the test by going to www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk
If you are dissatisfied with the speed you are getting it might be a good idea to complain to your ISP (Service Provider). Mine was very helpful and I am now gettting speeds of around 1.4 M/bit (October 09). Another user in Soham Road has increased his speed to 2.3 M/bit after a considerable discourse with his server BT.
Footnote: Report in the Daily Telegraph August 15th 2009.
Earlier this year, the Government committed to ensuring that every UK household will have access to broadband at a minimum speed of two megabits per second (2Mbps) by 2012.
Today more than 10 per cent of households cannot be provided with that basic level of service, many of them because they are too far from the local telephone exchange - that figure rises to 42 per cent in rural areas.

A number of Stuntney residents have signed up to receive E-Cops messages from the police. These include alerts and general news information. You can go on the list by visiting https://www.cambs-police.co.uk/myneighbourhood/ecops/

The Stuntney Neighbourhood Watch email circulation list seems to work well, and a chain of residents (currently 25 addresses) in Stuntney quickly get updated on any crime or security issues affecting the village. If you would like to be added to the list please contact the webmaster, email address at foot of this page.
From September 2007 the East Cambridgeshire Neighbourhood Watch Association has a new website. Stuntney NW has close ties with the Association, whose headquarters are at Ely. To go to the site select here
One of the commonest forms of burglary these days is the Distraction/Deception scam. Criminals are constantly thinking up new cunning ways of gaining access to households in order to steal cash or other valuables. For a report from the police on the variety of ruses to watch out for select here
For full details of the police team and contact numbers go to the 'Police & Neighbourhood Watch' page

For those interested in local history, a graphic description of Ely and its surroundings in 1698 was written by the intrepid traveller Celia Fiennes. select here

The Milton Children's Hospice does wonderful work but relies heavily on charity for its funding. From time to time supporting events are held at Milton, which when received will be advertised on the Events page of this site. To find out more select here

Keep your computer safe. You should have up to date anti-virus protection and a firewall. Avast & AVG are two good free AV downloads. Windows Vista includes its own firewall and Zone Alarm firewall is available for earlier versions of Windows.
Make sure your computer is programmed to automatically receive Microsoft Security updates. Bad people out there are constantly seeking new ways to create problems.
'Phishing' is a method used by criminals to take charge of your computer by pretending to operate a legitimate site. To take the test to see how safe you are go to http://www.getsafeonline.org/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=1
Follow two cardinal rules to keep nasties away from your computer:
1. Never open e-mail attachments, even from trusted sources, unless you are sure they are genuine, ie. the text in the main body explains the attachment.
2. Beware of clicking on any links from or to dodgy sites, these sometimes pretend to be from reputable organizations, such as banks, Inland Revenue, Amazon or E-Bay. Some pretend to give free anti-virus scans. Even clicking on the 'No thank you' button, or the close 'x' can be a trap, try Control + W to clear a pop-up box or close a doubtful site. Reputable sites do not seek information this way, so be warned!
Spam is a curse of the internet and much of it is being sent out by innocent users whose computers have been hijacked by implanted programmes. If your computer is running very slowly or is acting in other strange ways you could be a victim. Running a virus scan with a good anti-virus programme should show up any lurking intruder.
If an alarming flashing red warning pop-up appears on the screen informing you that your computer is infected with several different viruses, don't panic. It can be difficult to delete as it tries hard to get you to accept the 'cure', which no doubt would cost you dearly for a worse than useless programme. You may have to to restart your computer as the only way to get rid of this abomination. It's just a scare to get you to sign up for something you certainly don't need. So be warned, don't be frightened into accepting this kind of scam. Stick to a well tried and trusted Anti-Virus programme such as Avast or AVG.
Also please do not pass on any chain-mail type emails containing dire warnings about supposed viruses that will wreck your computer. They are invariably hoaxes and at best clog the internet, at worst they could themselves contain a virus. Even the well intentioned jokes or pretty pictures that you are asked to forward to your friends are used to harvest email addresses, resulting in still more spam.
For a list of well-known hoaxes, go to http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/virus.asp
For good advice on all kinds of computer questions it's hard to beat the 'Ask Bob Rankin' site, see our 'Links to Related Sites' page.