CHANGE NECESSARY IN THE WAY CITY COUNCIL IS RUN - LIB DEMS

Following the local elections last week, Cllr Tim Bick, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Cambridge City Council said:

"We were delighted to have secured the return of our Liberal Democrat candidates in the seats we held across the city last week - with increased majorities over previous years. Like the brilliant results in next door South Cambridgeshire, this was for us a resounding vote of confidence in how Liberal Democrats serve and champion our local residents. In the cross currents of the wider results we were sorry not to have expanded into other parts of the city, but we did score impressive votes and missed out by very narrow margins in several other wards. Our message of service and practical steps to a better future is durable and we will not be going away after other tides have ebbed.  

"No single party is now in charge of the city council. During our election campaign we were clear in our election platform that Cambridge faces two vital years before it is replaced by a new unitary authority, with major decisions on housing, the local plan and local services to be made.This calls for the political parties to find the right formula to work together to hand over to the new unitary council in a way that benefits the city for the long term. For our part, in this more open political environment, we Liberal Democrats are ready to work with others to try and achieve the priorities we have campaigned on. [See link below].

"We will work constructively with other parties who are open themselves to do that: willing to share in responsibility and respond positively to last week’s election result.  People voted for a change last week and they must see that in the way their council is run over the next two years.” 

Cambridge Liberal Democrats’ priority is to refocus the city council on its basic everyday services. In our platform for the city council elections on May 7th we proposed to restore some of the cutbacks made by the Labour administration in street cleaning, public toilets, and anti-social behaviour enforcement and to reform the failing repairs service to the council’s housing tenants.

As part of our plan to get council basic services in the city “back on track”, we aim to introduce tough new performance standards to monitor cleanliness of the city, and seek to stem anti-social behaviour by consulting on citywide controls on noisy and dangerous joy riding and press for measures to curb the nuisance from poorly-run Airbnb-type accommodation and unregulated Houses in Multiple Occupation.

We also want to keep neighbourhood centres, like Arbury Court, and the city centre “attractive and relevant to all, places where good businesses can prosper.” Emphasising the importance of working with residents and traders, their focus is on revitalising the role of centres as social and amenity hubs. They propose a new initiative to develop a vision for a much more inclusive city centre and support for major public investments in the so-called Civic Quarter, so long as they “increase usage, accessibility to all and reduce waste and energy - and payback to local people by subsidising council services.”   

For the long term of the Cambridge area, the Liberal Democrats aim to see the council adopt its new Local Plan, taking further strides to meet the local housing shortage, and to win government funding for further new social housing. But they will continue to actively challenge the government for infrastructure investment, its plan to remove local democratic planning powers and its abandonment of plans to regenerate North-East Cambridge. Having campaigned for many years for a simpler system of local government, the party commits to making the new unitary council work for the city, whilst serving a larger area. 

Read our full election platform below: