Full Council

Full Council promised to be a quiet affair. The agenda did not seem as packed as usual. However, with five motions listed anything could happen. In fact, a huge amount of time was spent debating the motions.

Some great pre-council collaboration work with Labour resulted in agreement on a motion on drought being passed. This was a great example of a mature approach to minority politics in the best interests of the people of Cambridgeshire. No grandstanding, sensible approach and collaboration with my ruling group. Everyones a winner.

Compare that with the Lib Dem approach. They rarely seek to get a motion passed to achieve anything other than some headline in a paper. My group is tired of this approach as trying to identify something sensible amongst the nonsense is just too difficult.

The constant attempt to claim credit for others actions is starting to make them lose any credibility. They attempted to claim Labour ideas were theirs and the biggest deceit of all was the Lib Dem claim that they have delivered the Cambridge Science Park Station. This long awaited station is to be delivered exclusively because my Cabinet wanted to borrow the money to do it. Add to that the Conservative minister who has agreed to put it in the rail franchise agreement it is clear the Lib Dems had NO impact or influence in this deal.

We discussed two motions on cycling, one of which took us forward in our thinking and the second attempted to do what was already happening ( no prizes for guessing whose motion it was). Still on a happy note we were pleased to announce that I had appointed a cycling czar to give some strategic thinking to the issue of cycling across the county. Martin Curtis currently looks after the Olympics which for obvious reason come to an end shortly. Top man for the job.

Cambridge Evening News business awards

A great evening last night at Kings College. I was a guest of Real VNC at the CEN business awards. Some super companies were up for awards. A real pleasure to be there to offer support.

Better bus boost is just the ticket for transport improvements

Bus services in and around Cambridge have been given a massive £5 million boost after a successful bid for Government funding which will see hundreds of thousands more bus trips.

Cambridgeshire County Council has been told today by Government that a bid £1.7 million bid for the Better Bus Area Fund led by the authority has been successful and unlocks further millions of pounds of funding.

The money will help improve bus journeys, make it easier for passengers to access services and reduce pollution in the historic Cambridge city centre.

Cambridgeshire already bucks the national trend for increasing bus patronage and new measures would see up to 518,000 more passenger journeys over the two years of the bid.

The key element of the Better Bus Areas Fund bid is a package of measures in Cambridge city centre and on four of the key radial routes for bus services in the city (Hills Road, Mill Road, Histon Road and Milton Road).

Various traffic management measures will be introduced to remove or reduce delays to buses to make journey’s more reliable. This includes reallocating road space to buses, prioritising buses through signalised junctions, rerouting buses away from pinch points, reducing conflict with other road users and enforcing parking restrictions on key bus routes.

In addition, bus information screens will be provided in the Grand Arcade and on Petty Cury, and Smartcard machines will be provided in the city centre and at Cambridge Station.

Together, these measures will improve journey times and the reliability of services, and should allow the continuation of the significant growth in bus patronage in the city that has been seen in the past ten years.

A further element of the bid will introduce rural interchange sites in three villages in South Cambridgeshire, Cambourne, Sawston and Linton. These will include a secure parking and cycle parking provision, and will allow people to link with local services provided by taxis, community transport providers, and for drop off trips.

As a partner in the bid, Stagecoach East have committed to replace the oldest buses in their Cambridge fleet (which run on the Citi 2 route) with new buses that meet the Euro V emissions standard for emissions. This major investment will mean that over 90% of bus mileage in the city will be made by buses meeting the Euro IV or Euro V standards. This will significantly improve air quality in the city centre.

Stagecoach has also committed to experiment with extending Busway journeys to new destinations such as Peterborough, Ramsey and Chatteris via St Ives & The Busway.

The bid was a partnership between Cambridgeshire County Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council, Cambridge City Council and the two main bus operators Stagecoach East and Whippet Coaches Ltd.

Bus boost could see busway services stretch across the County

A successful bid for a Government grant could help see the already highly successful Busway extend services across the County.

Cambridgeshire County Council has been told today by Government that a £1.7 million bid for the Better Bus Area Fund led by the authority has been successful and unlocks further millions of pounds of funding.

Plans to look at extending some peak Busway journey’s as far as Chatteris, Peterborough and Ramsey form part of a massive package of proposals to improve bus services to Cambridge.

The bid was led by Cambridgeshire County Council in partnership with South Cambridgeshire District Council, Cambridge City Council and bus operators Stagecoach East and Whippet Coaches Ltd.

The County Council will be working with Stagecoach looking at extending services so they link in with the Busway and St Ives.

This will help provide more services to rural areas and help give the opportunity for further transport links.

This is great news for Cambridgeshire and reflects the County Councils drive to improve all forms of transport. The Busway is highly successful and we welcome Stagecoach East’s willingness to experiment with new linking services. This has always been one of the added bonuses of the Busway that additional services from rural and remote parts of the County could benefit. If successful these could create further transport links or provide even more commercial incentive for further bus services.

Andy Campbell of Stagecoach said: “The Busway is a massive success and Stagecoach East is investing millions of pounds into Cambridgeshire. This new bid means that we can experiment in providing new services that link into the Busway from further afield. We are really pleased to work in partnership with the Councils to bring these improvements forward.”

More cycling

Just over a year ago I opened the new cycle route between Horningsea and Fen Ditton which I, the local parish council and residents had campaigned for. This included a mass cycle ride of around 50 people to show their support for the scheme.

I was really pleased, therefore, to see that according to our latest figures cycling has seen a massive rise of 14 per cent in and around Cambridge. But an amazing 21 per cent increase in cycling trips to and from the surrounding villagers. The new route between Horningsea and Fen Ditton is part of that increase in cycling and I am glad together the community was able to secure it.

The Council has been investing heavily in cycle facilities, promotion and training. Together with partners we secured some £9 million investment as part of the Cycle Cambridge project putting Cambridge the top cycling city in the country.

As part of the budget setting this year I and my cabinet were keen to make sure there would be free cycle training for children across the County.

Encouraging cycling not only helps tackle congestion and therefore helps our economy but also aids in our new role as a council to help improve the health and well being of our communities.

Lib Dems – ridiculous claims. Lack of integrity.

I know I am new to politics and I know that politicians seem to have got themselves a poor reputation and I know they are often not believed but ……… I thought that at least some of that was urban myth. But sometimes something happens which really makes me stop and think.

I was brought up to strive to be honest, to stand on my own two feet and never steal the credit for others actions.

Cambridgeshire Lib Dems latest deceit has astonished me.

It seems, according to a newspaper they are shoving through letter boxes in Cambridge, that they are claiming to have “delivered” a new rail station in Cambridge. This is outrageous.

Before I go into the details of this ridiculous claim I would like to explain why the Lib Dems are deluding themselves if they think they have ANY influence over ANY policy at the council.

The stark facts are as follows. There are two places that decisions are made, full council and cabinet. The people of Cambridgeshire have democratically decided that the Conservatives have significantly more elected members than any other party. This means that the ruling Conservative group make decisions. Lib Dems have NO authority to take decisions or make ANY policy and can not delivery anything.

The Lib Dems COULD exert influence at Overview and Scrutiny committee meetings but again they have less members on these committees because less people voted for them. They can also seek to influence by speaking with cabinet members but instead they prefer to avoid that as they cant create a publicity stunt out of it. The Labour group manage to influence very effectively because they genuinely want to affect change and not just making a fuss to get noticed by the press.

In short, because the Lib Dems are focused on fuss, PR and perpetual electioneering stunts they are not taken seriously by any of us in cabinet. This means they are ineffective, NEVER influence policy, are largely irrelevant, have no credible alternative policies and will do and say anything for a vote. They appear, with one or two exceptions morally bankrupt.

It is ridiculous that the three Labour councillors have more impact than the 21 Lib Dems at the County Council. A vote for a Lib Dem is a wasted vote.

So it should be safe to assume that when the Lib Dems claim that they have “delivered” the North Cambridge Railway Station, they have been integral to the decision-making and that they had done something more than just ask for it to happen. Well, the truth is, they have claimed they “delivered” it, and yet have done NOTHING except be one of the many organisations lobbying for it to happen.

They also say that “Lib Dems in Government approved the station” – which shows how little they understand the decision-making process. The decision to “approve” the Station was one made by the County Council’s Conservative Cabinet, in consultation with the ruling Conservative Group.

It was facilitated by an agreement from Theresa Villiers, a Conservative Minister, that the Government would include any Cambridge Science Park Railway Station in future rail franchise agreements – but the approval was made by the Conservative Cabinet.

The means of funding, and the renewed vigour for the Station was a combination of work from County Council officers based on my vision when I became the Conservative Leader of the County Council last year. I can remember the conversation when I asked for a list of the 5 top capital projects that made sense to be brought to me for review. The new station was top of the list.

Absolutely no Lib Dems have been involved in delivering this project, absolutely none. To claim differently is at best delusional.

I would argue that the world would be a better place if politicians spent more time challenging dishonesty rather than behaving dishonestly like the Lib Dems have in this case.

Ridiculous.

Wisbech Cabinet day – a personal view

Much has been reported, talked about and tweeted about Cabinet being held in Wisbech. It is rare for such an event to have attracted such universal praise.

I thought I might reflect on the day from a personal perspective, warts and all.

The day began at 0600 with my alarm going off. The great thing about my Iphone is that the alarm can be personalised which is fun. On this occasion I woke up to Winston Churchill “fight them on the beaches speech” which sort of felt appropriate. Fighting for the people of Wisbech and Cambridgeshire as a whole is something that I am getting used to in the role of Leader.

I enjoyed the drive to Wisbech and arrived on the dot of 0800 at the same time as Mac, my deputy, and John Powley, the Chairman of the Council. The sense of expectation was palpable.

I had been promised bacon rolls for breakfast so imaging my disappointment when I caught sight of pastries and fruit and no bacon !!! Worse no coffee. But of course I had arrived early and both coffee and the bacon rolls soon materialised. This was to be the last meal I was able to spend more than 5 minutes over. Thanks to John Elworthy.

The breakfast meeting was a great ice breaker. Mind you, speaking after John Elworthy (Archent Newspaper Editor) and then Alan Melton ( FDC Leader) is always a challenge. Neither are shy or retiring. Today was no exception. John was bubbling with excitement and Alan as passionate about Fenland as ever. I wanted to give my commitment to Wisbech and Fenland as a whole and to try and get over my own brand of common sense and business led focus to running not just the County Council but also to providing civic leadership.

The Boathouse facilities are excellent. Cabinet kicked off at 1000 in a room much larger than our normal cabinet room. I was aware that being heard might be a problem, at the back of the room, so made a mental note to project my voice more than normal. Starting to lose my voice at the end of the day reminded me that microphones next time would be helpful.

We had a good debate on a range of subjects in front of a larger number of the public than usual and not just the usual smattering of Lib Dems. Talking of the Lib Dems, I was pleased to see a few of them had made it to Wisbech. It unusual to see them far from a city.

I was surprised how poor the Lib Dem contribution was. When they spoke they were full of errors both of fact and content. They also seem to be stuck firmly in negative mode, as usual. Shame on such a positive day.

Susan Van De Ven who speaks on transport for the Lib Dems seemed on particularly bad form. Having tried to make a point by using public transport to attend the Cabinet she claimed to have spoken to people on the bus who had said they wanted to keep their bus service, no shocks there. Unfortunately for Susan at the time she was travelling the service is not subsidised so all she managed to do was to unnecessarily alarm passengers and made herself look daft in front of Cabinet. To. Be clear, we do not run bus services we just subsidise about 20% of the commercial services.

By contrast, the single Labour Councillor Tariq Sadiq outperformed, as usual. Our politics might be different but Tariq provided far more real constructive opposition than most of the Lib Dems put together. I suspect that is because conviction wins over froth every time.

After Cabinet I opened up a session for Q and A with the public. This has not been done before and was well received. I had no idea what was coming so had to be on my toes. During Cabinet Mark Lloyd, my Chief Exec, had whispered that local taxis drivers wanted to come and protest and was I ok with this, which I was. After all we had come to listen. However, all was not as it seems. Taxis ranks are not a County Council function so I guess they were at the wrong Council meeting.

It turns out the taxis spokesman was a thinly disguised Lib Dem District Councillor, who is also a taxi driver and knew exactly what he was doing which was to attempt to embarrass the District Council in front of us. Not great really and because I had clocked this Lib Dem ploy he looked a bit daft. It seems the Lib Dems were not having a great day.

Some great questions followed from members of the public. I was then whisked off for a TV interview before nipping over to the Oasis Center for lunch. I had 8 mins to eat mine before chairing a meeting with civic leaders. This was brilliant but not long enough ( lunch and the meeting). We had one hour and I suspect we could have filled four. Some great stuff came out which I am sure we would not have picked up in Shire Hall. It was a challenge to keep the great and the good on topic and to the time allowed. I found myself in the unusual position of protecting the local police inspector during a robust discussion around anti social behaviours.

And then onwards to visit the College Of West Anglia before off on a walk about around Wisbech. We then headed off to the Castle at 1700 for a wash up with Cabinet and officers. All Cabinet members had visited different places in Wisbech.

I confess to feeling tired by this point. Three speeches, chairing a Q and A session, chairing the civic leaders discussion, a visit to COWA, a walk around Wisbech and then chairing a wash up and all largely unscripted was a challenge but great fun.

The wash up was very positive. Lots had been learnt by Cabinet, officers were tasked with following up on lots of issues and I was able to offer my thanks to all those who had made the day possible. Everyone agreed momentum had been created and that a difference could be made.

Now we must deliver.

Wisbech – College Of West Anglia expansion

During our day in Wisbech I was pleased, with the Leader of Fenland District Council, Alan Melton to have a brief tour of the College of West Anglia.

It was a great opportunity to get a closer look at the exciting plans the college has for the engineering block and see exactly where our new offices were going.

The visit came just as the land deal between the college and the County Council was signed. We, together with Fenland District Council and the College are investing around £13 million to create the new engineering and office blocks.

I think we were all impressed with the plans and ambition the college has and the real need for improved facilities to make this a reality.

It also gave me a chance to make some suggestions and look for ways of how we could be further involved in areas such as SmartLife.

The College specialises in motorsport engineering and the new facilities will help them continue this as well as maybe branch out into other things. The UK is recognised as one of the leaders in motorsport engineering. So it was good to hear the college has had success as a race team and a student has gone on to work for Lotus.

Providing the right skills and training is vitally important in helping create employment and support business. While putting our services in one place not only makes them easier to access for people but also signals our commitment to the town.

Wisbech 2020 vision

I was really pleased to announce at yesterday’s cabinet meeting that work will start on the creation of a 2020 vision for the Wisbech area.

This is a joint initiative that local MP Steven Barclay and Leader of Fenland District Council Alan Melton, and myself believe needs to be created. It is something we all have been working on for sometime.

There is already a 2030 Vision Group looking at Cambridge and the surrounding area. Surely it is just as vital for Wisbech that something similar is carried out for the town and surrounding area. But I think everyone agrees we need this sooner rather than later, which is why Wisbech should have a 2020 vision of where it is going in the near future.

But this will not be a vision belonging to me, or the cabinet, or our MPs or the leader of Fenland District Council. It will be a vision created within the community and shared by the community.

This group will be made up of a diverse range of people including community representatives, civil and business leaders as well as academics. All looking to do the best for Wisbech. I am really pleased the University of Cambridge has indicated its support and willingness to help create it.

It will look at where we are now and where we want to be. More importantly it will look at how we are going to get there.

The group will examine the challenges facing the whole of the town, its communities and local industry. We will have hard facts and evidence to see what is happening and what can be done.

It will create a vision that we can all work to. It will build on the very good work that has gone on before. It will deal with deprivation in this community and help support economic growth.

There is already much good work going on in the community. There are great community champions and I know all elected representatives – be it on our local councils or our MP, want the best for the whole of Wisbech.

That is why this vision will be strategic and look across the whole of the area not just one individual issue or place. This vision will build on all of this good work and I for one look forward to seeing it take shape and playing our part in making this a reality.

Wisbech – Cabinet day

Unlike the people who look down their noses and make snide remarks about places such as Fenland and Wisbech I am a frequent visitor to the area.

That is why when hearing from John Elworthy, editor of the Wisbech Standard, that once again the town had unjustly been criticized, it was time for the County Council to show its continuing support for its community.

Yesterday, for the first time, the Council’s Cabinet moved to Wisbech. But this was not just symbolism, it was about listening to the local community.

The day kicked off with a well attended breakfast meeting arranged by John and Archant Newspapers. It was the perfect start to the day creating a real buzz and can-do mood attitude.

After a good Cabinet meeting and with a break in tradition we held a public question and answer session.

Cabinet members, officers and colleagues from Fenland District Council then spent the afternoon travelling around the area visiting projects and looking at where we could improve things.

From the feedback I have been given and the coverage I have seen I think this was a massive success.

Wisbech has some particular issues, including areas of high deprivation, but it is also a vibrant town with lots of promise and successes.

What stood out yesterday was a willingness from all organisations to make improvements happen and to grow prosperity and opportunities. I want to thank everyone for their help and dedication yesterday.

This is only achievable if we all pull together and it was good to see the local media playing such a vital role in not only reporting it but championing the area and being involved in taking action.

I would also like to thank our officers who made this all possible, especially Dan Thorpe, Mike Davey and his team as well as Chief Executive Mark Lloyd. Especially as they and their colleagues all now are busily looking at moving some of the actions raised on the day forward.