There may be dark clouds in the sky today, but whilst out and about delivering Sutton Focus newsletters this morning in The America and Stirling Way I reflected on some of the good things that have happened this month in the village.

On The America there is a noticeable slowing of the traffic coming into the village since the installation of the 40mph buffer on Chain Causeway at the end of last week. This is thanks to a traffic management scheme that the Parish Council bid for at the end of 2012 and one that is 90% funded by the County Council with just a 10% contribution from the Parish Council – a good deal for Sutton. Of course this is a long way from solving all of our problems with speeding traffic in the village, but it is a step in the right direction. With further improvements we can make Sutton a more pleasant and safer place to live.

In Stirling Way the refurbished play area was being well used, not as packed today as last Wednesday when it opened, but clearly appreciated by the village’s children. This came about following a bid for grant funding put together by SIPP (Sutton-in-the-Isle Play Project) and the Parish Council. I helped delivered some of SIPP’s play survey last year which provided good feedback on the improvements that are needed. The grant application was successful and with all £40,000 coming from grants, an even better deal for Sutton. Again this does not address all the village’s needs, in particular we need better provision for older children and further improvements to existing facilities. It is however another good step in the right direction.

Finally, I was held up by the traffic lights on the corner of the High Street and The Brook, but again this is good news. The work there is part of the scheme to introduce superfast broadband into the village. Already a large number of homes are able to place orders for a broadband upgrade and within the next two weeks those upgrades should be complete. As one of the local “Broadband Champions” who helped campaign to get superfast broadband to our village this is great to see.