Castle

The Lib Dems are winning in Castle - and can beat them again this May.

The Liberal Democrats are winning here in Castle - and can beat Labour in this year's city council elections and overtake them as the largest party on the City Council.

In last year's county council elections, it was a two-horse race between the Lib Dems and Labour with less than 60 votes in it. Cllr Rory Clark was elected with 943 votes to Labour's 884.

Only the Lib Dems can beat Labour in Castle Ward this May. A vote for the Green Party, Conservatives or Reform risks keeping Labour in power for another year and continuing their record of letting Cambridge down.

The Lib Dems are also the party with momentum in Cambridgeshire going into this year's local elections. In the 2024 General Election, the 3 Lib Dems were elected for the seats surrounding Cambridge, as Lib Dem Cheney Payne finished as the closest challenger to Labour here in the city. Last year, the Liberal Democrats gained overall control of the County Council for the first time in its history.

This year, the Lib Dems are once again the clear challengers to Labour in Cambridge. As the main opposition on the City Council with 12 councillors, only the Lib Dems can overtake Labour and replace their failing leadership of the City Council. With less than half the number of councillors the Lib Dems have, the Green Party are too far behind and won't be able to overtake Labour. The Conservatives with one councillor and Reform with none have no chance.

Vote Liberal Democrat on May 7th for the real alternative to Labour in Cambridge and to send Keir Starmer a message he cannot ignore.

Fighting for fair funding to fix our roads.

The Lib Dems are fighting for fair funding to fix our roads. 

Having inherited an £800m backlog from the Conservatives, every year the Lib Dem County Council faces a £27m funding shortfall between what government gives and what is required to maintain our roads.

Liberal Democrats are stepping up and filling that gap with record investment. Investment that Conservative, Reform and Labour councillors refused to support at this year’s budget meeting. 

If these 3 parties got their way, there would be even less money to fix potholes in our city.

Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Cambridge Cheney Payne and our county’s 3 Liberal Democrat MPs have called on the government to give Cambridgeshire extra money as our roads are more vulnerable to potholes than other counties.

Cheney Payne says, “Cambridge’s roads are crumbling and we need the funding promised by the government to fix potholes. Instead, local Labour councillors are proposing budgets that would have meant less money for our roads and more potholes.

Cleaning up our streets and tackling anti-social behaviour.

The Lib Dems opposed Labour’s cuts to street cleaning. They will make cleaning up our city a top priority if they win in May.

The Lib Dems have also called for the reversal of Labour’s public toilet closures.

They put forward an amendment to this year's budget that would reverse some of Labour's cuts, partially funded by reversing the payrise Labour gave to their own leader. Sadly, Labour rejected the plans but the Lib Dems will keep fighting.

The Lib Dems have also led the campaign against crime and anti-social behaviour in our city. They have called for noise cameras to tackle noisy road racers, put forward proposals to tackle anti-social e-bike and e-scooter use and backed the national Lib Dems' “Operation Bike Bait” campaign. This is a plan to create a dedicated bike team at the National Crime Agency focused on bike theft, who would have the power and resources to do more sting operations to capture the criminal gangs stealing and reselling our bikes.

Vote Lib Dem this May to back the team who want to clean up our city's streets.

Standing up for our city, its values and our local environment

The Lib Dems are opposing the divisive politics of Nigel Farage and standing up for Cambridge’s values.

Labour’s failure in government and strong swing to the right is risking giving Nigel Farage the keys to 10 Downing Street - and letting our country become like Trump's America. Instead of standing up to Farage, Keir Starmer is increasingly copying him.

Thankfully, where Labour are failing, the Liberal Democrats are taking on Reform - and winning. The Lib Dems have the best record of any party at beating Reform in council by-elections - winning more last year than any other party.

The Lib Dems have done this while:

• Fighting for our place in Europe by campaigning for a UK-EU customs union and rejoining the single market.
• Opposing Reform UK and the Labour government's unfair and divisive policies on immigration.
• Standing up to Donald Trump on the genocide in Gaza and his aggression to Greenland and Canada.

If you vote Lib Dem this May, you will not only be voting for the party that is beating Reform. You will also send a message to Labour that they need to stop copying Reform and start standing up to them instead.

The Lib Dems also oppose Labour's plan to take local people's voice away on the future of our growing city by taking away planning powers from elected representatives to Whitehall bureaucrats. Our local councils have a good record of delivering housing with the buy-in of local communities. Taking away these powers will only weaken local democracy and make it harder for our city to grow in a sustainable way.

Luke, Rory and Cheney are standing up for our local open spaces and to save our precious River Cam from failing locks and sewage. If elected, Luke will work with South Cambridgeshire MP Pippa Heylings to protect our chalk streams.