TOO GOOD A friend of mine told me recently about another telephone scam that is being tried out locally. This time a female calls and claims to be from the district council.

She is doing her best to help the victim with a claim for and recent accident, although why the district council should wish to get involved where the ambulance-chasers have boldly gone before is a mystery.

My friend said that, once you had swallowed the initial anomaly, the conversation jogged along quite well until the lady asked for her prey’s credit or debit card details.

Bells rang and the call was ended. So just remember, the district council is not in the business of fighting injury claims for the people it governs and your card details are yours and yours alone.

VOLUNTEER

Jake the spaniel is always willing to help even though it’s sometimes quicker and easier if he doesn’t. He thinks he may have identified a new area where he can be of use to the community, volunteer policing. Of course there are some areas that Jake, with the limitations of a canine body, can’t help with, but there are others where he could be just the ticket.

He sees that the police are keen to encourage the neighbourhood watch and thinks that it could well be a good idea to put all those twitchy lace curtains to good use but he can’t see that a spaniel is really cut out for neighbourhood twitch so he looked further into Detective Chief Inspector Wass’ proposals and the prospect of becoming a volunteer “detective” appealed to him.

He can just imagine himself bursting into a room and growling “Put your trousers on, you’re nicked” but as the only ones who would be able to understand him would be other dogs and they don’t usually wear trousers he can foresee a snag.

So it looks as if Jake may have to make do with trying to get involved with the police cadets based at the village college. He’s sure they could do with a keen and competent sniffer dog, especially if they need plenty of biscuits sniffed out.

GOOD TIMING?

Apologies for straying a long way from Soham, but as Mrs of Soham hails from Welney I hope you’ll forgive a few words about the wash. As a result of this I have driven through the wash several times when the water was running over the road.

Once you learned the cambers and lows it was quite feasible to cross safely, even in an Austin A40, but only if you didn’t meet a lorry coming the other way! One thing that really needed sorting out in those days and, what with the hi-tech signs now installed was the information about the state of the road. Quite often the “Road Closed” signs were the best part of a week late in going up and then remained up for a week or more once the road was clear.

I also wonder why people buy houses near a wash and then complain that it gets flooded. Are they any relation to the ones who move next to a church and then moan about the bells? The was is there for everyone’s benefit and a trip through Manea or Downham Market makes a nice change once in a while.

SOLVED

There was a news item recently informing us that the powers that be in Cambridge want tourists to linger in town for longer than they do at the moment. Presumably this is so that the punt touts and traders can squeeze every last penny out of them while the locals look down their noses in contempt.

Actually, if they just want people to spend more time in Cambridge then it would appear that they solve that problem several years ago. It must be totally impossible to drive far in the city without having to cross innumerable sets of traffic lights, almost always on red and sometimes only letting two or three vehicles through each time.

One the hapless tourist has negotiated the required number of controlled junctions he probably doesn’t have time to see the things he would like to and heads for home instead. There is a rumour, possibly untrue, that people come on coach trip from Blackpool to see the lights of Cambridge as there are more of them down here.

SPRING

The sun has put in a few welcome appearances recently and when he’s about everything and everyone seems happier. It also encourages the first flowers of the year to force their heads through the slowly warming earth.

If you enjoy the sight of hundreds of thousands of snowdrops then you could have a real treat in a couple of weeks time when Chippen Park opens its gardens to us all with its wonderful array of the little white flowers. The gardens will be open from February 13 to the 28 from 10am to 4pm. It’s also a chance to pay the estate back for the innumerable Christmas trees it has given to Soham over the years.