Tag: Cambridgeshire County Council

Cambridge Central Library cuts and the shape of things to come

08:20 Thursday 4th June 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Should a councillor from Ramsey or Whittlesea be able to decide what happens in Cambridge city centre? Well that’s exactly what happened with the controversial decision about Cambridge Central Libray earlier on this week. It’s prompted new calls to make Cambridge a unitary authority, the same as Peterborough.  Let’s speak to the Group Leader councillor Ashley Walsh. So what benefits do you think there could be to Cambridge of a change like this?
ASHLEY WALSH: Well I think Cambridge is now a city of huge national importance, it’s rate of growth, the importance for the Eastern and Southern economies, (such) that we really have to be able to control our own destiny in terms of how we want to grow, what sectors of the economy we want to develop into. And we don’t have the power to do that at the moment, because most councillors represent parts of the county that have very little to do with Cambridge, and centre around places like Peterborough, or places around Norfolk. And they just don’t get what Cambridge needs and what it needs to do in the future.
DOTTY MCLEOD: There is a flip side to this of course, which is that if you became a unitary authority in Cambridge, you would no longer have the power to decide on things going on in Ramsey and Whittlesea and Wisbech. Would you be happy with that?
ASHLEY WALSH: Well I think when councils work together very well, as the City Council and South Cambridgeshire do over developing housing, then you can have the power to do that, because you influence each other and you work together. But the Central Library is ust one eaxmple of where Cambridge has suffered because people representing elsewhere in the county have not been able to develop beyond their own parochial interests.
DOTTY MCLEOD: It’s just democracy, isn’t it, the fact that people in different areas decide on one thing that might affect one other area?
ASHLEY WALSH: That’s true. I don’t think there’s anything intrinsically wrong with having two layers of local government. The big problem now is that because cuts have been so bad, it’s now becoming an argument about defending your own local area from the scale of the huge spending reductions. So although it might sound like a high ideal to be democratic and represent the whole county, because we have very little money around, people are just defending their own interests. The reason I think that we’ve had to lose the third floor of the Central Library is because Conservatives have historically underfunded branch libraries in the county. And Cambridge is now having to pay that price.
DOTTY MCLEOD: OK. Well let’s talk about what happens when a council becomes a unitary authority. One man who knows a lot about this is counciilor Charles Swift, an Independent councillor for North ward in Peterborough. Been a councillor more more than six decades, so seen many changes, not least Peterborough becoming a unitary authority. So you’ve been a councillor before and after Peterborough became a unitary authority. Has it been good for the city do you think?
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Cambridge guided busway weekend repairs as faults emerge

08:08 Wednesday 8th April 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Our top story here in Cambridgeshire this morning involves the busway between Histon and Orchard Park. It’s going to be closed this weekend for repairs after busway operators spoke to the Council. Next weekend the section from Addenbrookes’s Hospital to Trumpington will be shut for maintenance. It comes of course six months after a technical report found £31 million worth of defects that would lead to a deterioration in ride quality. At the time the County Council voted to hold the contractor Bam Nuttall responsible. Bob Menzies joins me now, the Service Director for Strategy and Development at Cambridgeshire County Council, and known as Mister guided bus I expect to many people. Bob, what exactly is this work going to fix?
BOB MENZIES: It’s going to fix a number of things. We’ve been monitoring the busway very closely. As a number of people commented there, the ride quality has deteriorated since it opened, and the joints are moving. And that caused a number of different things. And so we will be fixing where the beams have dropped. Your reporter there was talking about an inch drop. There’s actually a rubber pad should be sitting under the beam there, and we find they move out over a period of time. So we monitor that, and when they do move out we go back in and fix them. We’ve fixed a number already. We’ve fixed about twenty already, generally doing it overnight so it doesn’t disrupt the passengers. But what we’ve got through Histon, we’ve got a number of them there. We’ve got some other problems as well. Your reporter talks there about what we call spalling, where the end of the concrete .. because the beams then knock together, it knocks the end of the concrete off. It’s not a structural problem. It’s more of a .. it is a ride quality issue. If it gets too far into the concrete then it will start affecting where the guide wheels run. So we’re fixing that as well, and that takes a little longer. So we’ve taken the decision that actually on the section through Histon we’ll close that for a whole weekend. And then we can work from Saturday morning through to Sunday evening and get it all done and get it back open again. We can divert the buses round, but we do need to shut the maintenance track as well. So if there’s one message I can give people it’s don’t try and cycle down the maintenance track when it’s closed, because there will be machines there. There’ll be men working there. It won’t be safe. And when we’ve done this in the past, we have actually closed this before, people have tried to get through. It’s not safe to do it and it’s not wise to do it.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So you’ve already seen quite a lot of problems, even before carrying out these repairs this weekend. Did you expect to have to do this kind of work, less than four years into the life of the busway?
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Wisbech 2020 Vision gathering pace

17:48 Friday 13th March 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS BERROW: Detailed proposals aimed at bringing about the wholesale regeneration of Wisbech and its surrounding area have been published. The project is called Wisbech 2020 Vision. It’s a twenty nine point action plan, and it was launched in January 2013. Now the idea is to make Wisbech a good place to work and a nice place to live. This morning there was a meeting to review the progress that’s been made so far. Steve Count is Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, and I asked him what progress has actually been made.
(TAPE)
STEVE COUNT: It was a good news day. There was a whole raft of things that we were able to update people on. I think the big one that most people have been talking about is getting the railway line back to Wisbech. The progress on that has been very good. We’ve completed a GRIP 1 Study and a GRIP 2 Study, and we’re now commissioning and underway with a GRIP 3 Study. And these are the hoops that we have to get through in order to reopen a railway line that will link Wisbech with the national rail network. I think one of the things that people have realised now is that it’s not just good for the people of Wisbech, it’s good for the people of March, Manea, those that are along the line towards Cambridge. And also there’ll be benefits for the people of Cambridge, because if you look at the house prices in Cambridge which I think are quite a bit above £300,000 average, and just over £140,000 is the average prices in Wisbech. If we introduce that into the travel to work area for Cambridge, it’s going to be fantastic news for everyone.
CHRIS BERROW: Infrastructure is a problem in Wisbech. What other problems does it face?
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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.
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Cambridgeshire council tax rise agreed but problems lie ahead

08:08 Wednesday 18th February 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Council tax in Cambridgeshire is set to rise by 1.99%. The increase comes as the County Council faces £150 million of cuts over the next five years. The rise in council tax was agreed yesterday by the Council after being approved by the committee which sets the budget, but UKIP councillors voted against the rise, and Labour councillors abstained. Joining me now to talk more about this are three county councillors, Paul Bullen for UKIP, Paul Sales for Labour and we’re going to start with Kilian Bourke for the Liberal Democrat party. So Kilian, this increase in council tax, it will put more pressure on people’s pockets. How do you justify it?
KILIAN BOURKE: Well it’s on an average Band D property, and that’s going to be an increase of 43p per week. And the reality is that if council tax had been frozen, there would have had to be further cuts to bus services, to children’s centres, to social care. That would be a terrible decision in my opinion. And the Council did a survey, and the online survey showed that 78% of people would be prepared to have some level of increase, and 54% of people supported an increase of 1.99% or above. So it’s justified.
DOTTY MCLEOD: OK. Which department are you most worried about for this budget? Where is going to really feel the pressure of these cuts?
KILIAN BOURKE: It’s very simple. It’s social care. The sustainability of public services and the NHS depends on the Council’s children and adult social care services being able on an increasingly tight budget to provide those services. And also actually the NHS is providing an integrated older people’s service, and that social care service and the NHS’s new over-65 service, these two things have got to work, because if they don’t, we’re going to have real problems in the years to come.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Now this council tax rise wasn’t passed unanimously. The UKIP group voted against it. Paul Bullen is from that party. Why did you vote against it Paul? Continue reading “Cambridgeshire council tax rise agreed but problems lie ahead”

Estover – County Council Leader bids to save the land from development

07:20 Thursday 15th January 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: A campaign to prevent developers moving onto the Estover playing fields in March appears to have made a significant breakthrough. It’s been reported in the Cambs Times, who are supporting this campaign, that the Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council has pledged to hand over half the area to March Town Council. The other half would be offered on a lease to sports groups. The Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council Steve Count joins me now. So Steve, what are you suggesting now for these playing fields at Estover?
STEVE COUNT: Good morning Dotty and thank you for giving me the time on air to put a couple of these things right. The County Council isn’t pledging anything. What I’ve done is take a personal motion to the Council, where I think I’ve got enough support to win, to actually give just about 60% over on a 99 year lease, and 40% roughly on a 7 year lease. And both leases, as opposed to what was in the paper, go to March Town Council, who have the constitutional set-up to receive them. March Town Council will then set up a charitable trust with the local playing fields association and all the sports bodies in March, trying to get as much interest as possible to actually set that up for a more sustainable long term development. So just a little bit of clarification there. The point about being a Private Motion is as opposed to the County Council that once things are passed they go ahead and do it ..
DOTTY MCLEOD: It’s an attempt, rather than a pledge. Is that right?
STEVE COUNT: Yes. I have to win the vote. Yes.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Sure.
STEVE COUNT: I think the way that local people have demonstrated to the people at Cambridgeshire County, just the depth of feeling and the reasoning why it shouldn’t be developed on, has given me a great help in putting towards a package that I now believe we can deliver all the sports facilities without the need for development.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Because there was previously this suggestion that there would be 100 odd homes on the site. What’s happened to that?
STEVE COUNT: That’s still sitting there. That is still the County Council option that they believe is the preferred option, and it is, if I succeed at Full Council, that my option becomes the preferred way forward. If I fail, then it goes back to the General Purposes Committee, which will be afterwards, to go back to Plan A so to speak.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Were you involved Steve in the initial decision to put that County Council proposal in place?
STEVE COUNT: Very much so. Yes. I’ve been involved in this ever since I’ve been a county councillor.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So what’s changed your mind?
STEVE COUNT: The fact that I now believe that we can get the sporting facilities without the development, and the way that the local people have been able to help with this massive massive campaign. Without that, I don’t think I could have convinced a number of other people to back this new approach. It will be on a knife-edge. I think I have enough support to actually achieve this, and I think if the people of March continue to lobby in exactly the same way as they did before, I think we can get this over the line.
DOTTY MCLEOD: OK. And when does your motion get decided?
STEVE COUNT: 17th February.
DOTTY MCLEOD: OK. So a little while to wait.
STEVE COUNT: Yes.
DOTTY MCLEOD: And that’s Steve Count there, the Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, bringing a motion to stop the plans for development on the Estover playing fields. Johnny D is in March this morning. He’s been meeting one of the men behind the campaign to keep these buildings off these playing fields.
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Government Northstowe announcement decried

08:07 Thursday 4th December 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: ‘Unfortunate’. That’s the word that’s been used by the Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council to describe the local authority’s surprise at Government plans to take over housebuilding at Northstowe. In this week’s National Infrastructure Plan the Government announced a pilot project to build and sell thousands of new homes at Northstowe itself, rather than rely on developers. Here’s what South Cambridgeshire District Council Leader Ray Manning had to say when I spoke to him earlier on.
(TAPE)
RAY MANNING: I think it was unfortunate that they didn’t choose to tell us beforehand, but I think the announcement has all the hallmarks of being done very quickly at the last minute to get in the Budget Statement.
(LIVE)
DOTTY MCLEOD: Ray Manning also going on to say he doesn’t feel this shake-up is a direct criticism of the Council, because the recession is what slowed progress with the new town.
(TAPE)
RAY MANNING: The truth is that we did have a recession, but there was money was difficult, and developers are not going to build houses unless the market is buoyant and they’ve virtually sold them off-plan. So what Danny Alexander said was quite true, that the Government can afford to build the houses without waiting to sell them first.
(LIVE)
DOTTY MCLEOD: Well the Government does say that with its involvement, development will be twice as fast as conventional routes, and it says it has been discussing Northstowe with the Council for years. Let’s talk to Sebastian Kindersley. He’s the Liberal Democrat councillor for Gamlingay on Cambridgeshire County Council. So Sebastian the Government say that you’ve already known about this. They didn’t surprise you with this announcement. What’s your reaction to that?
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New Foxton streetlights give cause for concern

07:22 Friday 28th November 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Have you switched to low-energy light bulbs in your house yet? There’s this new generation of bulbs that promise to slash your bills and to last longer than the standard filament bulbs, and even the earlier low-energy type bulbs we were all asked to switch to in recent years to save money and the environment. Now streetlights are being upgraded too to the fancy energy-saving ones. But despite savings being made through this, not everyone in one Cambridgeshire village is welcoming them. Waseem Mirza has the story.
WASEEM MIRZA: I’m in the village of Foxton, and off of the main road, not far from the village shop, there is a brand new streetlight column put up. But what do people here make of it? Let’s find out. Hello. What’s your name?
LOCAL: Kimberley.
WASEEM MIRZA: This is a fairly recent development here, isn’t it? What do you make of it, and what’s experience of these lights so far.
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