Cambridgeshire Local Plan – Inspector calls for more evidence

17:21 Wednesday 1st July 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: People in Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire are to be consulted once more on how the area’s councils can deliver thousands of new houses. Last month a Government inspector said more work must be done on the Local Plan, which maps out long term development for the two districts. Cambridge City and South Cambs will work together to address those concerns. Well let’s find out more from councillor Robert Turner, who is South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Cabinet Member for Planning, who joins me now. Robert, hello.
ROBERT TURNER: Good afternoon Chris, and good afternoon to all your listeners.
CHRIS MANN: So a bit of a slap on the wrist for you guys from these Inspectors. They said that you hadn’t done enough and your ideas were all wrong basically.
Continue reading “Cambridgeshire Local Plan – Inspector calls for more evidence”

Lewis Herbert on George Osborne’s spending cuts

09:26 Friday 5th June 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

LEWIS HERBERT: I don’t think we’ve heard the worst of it. We’ve basically lost about half of our core Government grant. So we spend about £30 million. We used to get about £10 million. We’re under £5 million in grant now. We are making considerable service efficiencies, working with South Cambridgeshire, changing the way we deliver services, protecting those who need our help the most. The biggest concern is probably for the County Council. I think some of their expenditure cuts are going to be far worse.

We’ve been working on this for five years. So it’s like another five year prison stretch for local government. We’ve already survived five. It’s not simple, and I’m not sure we’re going to survive the next five. I think the worst of it is still to come. Concerned that the Chancellor will save up some of the pain for when he has a Budget Statement in July. We’re a growing economy. We’re a £12 billion a year turnover place. We create more wealth for the Treasury than they put into Cambridge. We’ve got a bigger population. It’s crazy to cut budgets like transport, because we need improved transport, we need more homes for rent.
Continue reading “Lewis Herbert on George Osborne’s spending cuts”

Cambridge property – average earners priced out

07:08 Wednesday 29th April 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: A typical working family hoping to take their first steps onto the property ladder would find no homes that they could afford in Cambridge. That is the bleak assessment from a report by the housing charity Shelter. They compared the asking prices for houses on a popular property website with what they calculated would be the average combined salaries of a couple in their 20s, so just over £30,000. And nationally they found families on that money could afford 17% of homes. In Cambridge 0%. Well Kevin Price is Labour’s Executive councillor for Housing on Cambridge City Council. Morning Kevin.
KEVIN PRICE: Good morning Dotty.
DOTTY MCLEOD: And also with me on the line is Catherine Smart, who is the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Cambridge City Council. Morning Catherine.
CATHERINE SMART: Good morning.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So Kevin, do you accept this research? Is the situation really as bad as Shelter are saying?
Continue reading “Cambridge property – average earners priced out”

Ashley Walsh and Rod Cantrill on tuition fees and the Living Wage for Cambridge

17:19 Friday 27th February 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

(MUSIC – Same Old Song – Four Tops)

CHRIS MANN: Well will it be the same old song from the two politicians joining me now? A couple of subjects to talk about. Let’s first welcome them. Councillor Ashley Walsh from Labour, who’s the lead on the Living Wage on the County Council. The member for Petersfield. Ashley, hello.
ASHLEY WALSH: Hello Chris.
CHRIS MANN: And also councillor Rod Cantrill, LibDem for Newnham on Cambridge City Council, and a member of the Council’s Strategy and Resources Committee. Hello.
ROD CANTRILL: Hi Chris.
CHRIS MANN: A couple of things. We’ll come on to the university tuition fees in a moment or two, but there was a claim today by the LibDems saying the Co-op of all companies, the Co-op food stores, are paying people below the Living Wage. Expand on this please Rod.
Continue reading “Ashley Walsh and Rod Cantrill on tuition fees and the Living Wage for Cambridge”

South Cambridgeshire 2020 Vision

17:11 Wednesday 4th February 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: Plans for how South Cambridgeshire District Council’s services will be financed when all Government grant funding ends in five years time have been published this afternoon. The Government grants the Council receives to deliver services will be cut to zero by 2020. With savings in the region of £670,000 needed in this next financial year, that’s 2015/2016, to balance the books, there’s a lot of work to be done. I’m joined in the studio now by Simon Edwards, who is the Deputy Leader of South Cambs District Council. It’s a big ask.
SIMON EDWARDS: It is a big ask Chris, and this budget really is very different to previous budgets, because this one is all about vision, and I like to call it my 2020 Vision. I know it’s an overused phrase, but for the first time we can now see on the horizon of our five year strategy, in 2020 we will have virtually no, in fact we’ll have no revenue support grant from the Government.
CHRIS MANN: I know you said in a statement earlier that you need to innovate and generate your own income. So what ideas have you come up with? Continue reading “South Cambridgeshire 2020 Vision”

Cambridge City Deal – plans agreed to tackle congested routes

17:09 Thursday 28th January 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: Around £180 million worth of transport improvements in and around Cambridge were prioritised at a meeting in the city this afternoon. The Greater Cambridge City Deal Executive Board decided which projects are likely to be the first to be funded with money from the Government, made available to ensure the future prosperity of the city. But first, workers at the Cambridge Science Park told us earlier what they’d like to see the money spent on.
(TAPE) (VOXPOP)
ONE: Cycle paths. They’re not too bad, but some of the connectibilities like Dry Drayton to Histon should have cycle paths.
TWO: It’s still too dangerous to cycle in Cambridge I think, and it should be encouraged. I don’t think the buses run often enough. But it’s getting better with the electronic bus stops, more practical for people to use, that sort of thing. And obviously the new train station, that should boost this side of Cambridge.
THREE: I would like the cycle path along the river to be redone. all the way, because I’m from the Fen Ditton area, so that when I cycle from town it’s nice and smooth half way, but then it ends and it’s bumpy and not really nice for a ride.
FOUR: Cycleways, better parking. Don’t really use public transport, because it’s not easy to use. If it was more regular .. And I think the Park and Ride, now that they’re charging people, that’s caused a problem.
FIVE: Every time I try to get out of the Science Park in a car I have to sit in a traffic jam. Now it’s probably because there’s too much traffic on the roads. I have no idea how to reduce that. But something needs to be done about that. You can’t just keep adding more and more and expect nothing to .. something will give.
SIX: Quite new to Cambridge. Been here for about six months. But the roads are pretty bad. (Would like to see) free flowing traffic to be honest with you. Because sometimes it can take about an hour just to do two miles to get into town.
(LIVE)
CHRIS MANN: So where is the money likely to be spent? Well joining me is our reporter Tom Horn, who was at the meeting for us. Tom.
TOM HORN: Yes, evening Chris. Well as you mentioned, this meeting was to agree on which works should be prioritised, and I will come on to that in a minute. But first, a brief update on what the City Deal actually is. And it’s basically a test of local power to generate economic growth. Now this starts with about £100 million from the Government, with funding expected from April this year. If councils and partners prove that their use of that £100 million has driven economic growth, a further £400 million will be released in the years that follow. Now this afternoon the City Deal Board at Shire Hall heard one of the biggest obstacles to growth is, no prizes, congestion. So those schemes that will be prioritised at this stage are bus lanes on Milton Road, Histon Road and Madingley Road, a segregated bus route from the A428 to the M11, there’ll be improvements to cycle paths across Cambridge city centre, and also on Hills Road, a new Park and Ride site out on the A1307, and the so-called Chisholm Trail. That’s the cycle trail from Cambridge railway station to the Science Park. In total, this is more than £180 million worth of work. And after this afternoon’s meeting, I spoke to Cambridge City Council Leader and the Chair of the Greater Cambridge City Deal Board, Lewis Herbert. He gave me more details about what they hope to do.
Continue reading “Cambridge City Deal – plans agreed to tackle congested routes”

Rapid expansion brings challenging issues for Cambridge City Council

17:08 Monday 19th January 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: Cambridge is a tale of two cities, according to a new report. On the plus side, there is the lowest unemployment amongst UK cities, with a booming local economy helped by the best-educated workforce. On the negative side, rising house prices and rents along with falling real wages making life quite a struggle for many. So what can be done? Well earlier I challenged councillor Lewis Herbert, Leader of Cambridge City Council.
(TAPE)
LEWIS HERBERT: Well it’s good news for Cambridge. It demonstrates that we’re up there in terms of prosperity. We’ve added 12,000 jobs in 10 years, and just about 12,000 homes. But it also shows that we’ve got a few challenges Chris. We’ve got great inequality, in the sense that we’ve got falling incomes for quite a lot of our people, and house prices have been really rising. So Cambridge is not without its challenges, but we’ve got a good future, provided we get on top of them.
CHRIS MANN: So it’s a tale of two cities. Who is suffering here, do you think? Who are the people who are losing out? Continue reading “Rapid expansion brings challenging issues for Cambridge City Council”

Cambridge city centre congestion – Lewis Herbert on proposed new measures

07:20 Tuesday 13th January 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Proposals for new transport projects in and around Cambridge have been discussed for the first time by the Greater Cambridge City Deal Joint Assembly. They include bus priority projects on Histon, Milton and Madingley Roads in Cambridge, cycle links between the city and Saffron Walden, Haverhill and Royston, and improvements to the Foxton level crossing. Recommendations will now be made to the City Deal Executive Board to discuss later this month. Lewis Herbert is the Leader of Cambridge City Council. So Lewis, what will you be recommending?
LEWIS HERBERT: Well we’ve got £100 million to spend, and people who are in their cars this morning, particularly people who are listening at home and about to get into their cars, know that we’ve got a massive congestion problem. So we’ll be recommending that we need to have some radical solutions for the city centre. We’ll be recommending that we have to help people with different options for the last two to four miles, so that buses genuinely do leapfrog cars on these roads that are gridlocked. And we’ll be recommending work to win further funding. We’ve got a Science Park station. We’ve got the A14 improvements. But we also need to persuade Government that we need to fund an Addenbrookes station as well.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So Lewis you’ve said you need to ease congestion, and we need radical solutions and we need help for buses, so that people have options when they reach the city centre. have you got anything a bit more specific, a bit more concrete that you are going to be recommending to the City Deal Executive Board?
Continue reading “Cambridge city centre congestion – Lewis Herbert on proposed new measures”