Trumpington is Cambridge's largest ward in the south west of the city. It has several beautiful green spaces for recreation, exercise, bird watching or getting your children out to play. Trumpington has recently undergone several major housing developments, such as Trumpington Meadows and the Glebe Farm and Clay Farm Developments. Your Lib Dem Trumpington team is working hard to make Trumpington a great place to work and live for everyone.
Local politics is teamwork!
There are a number of ways you can get involved with your local community through the Lib Dems. Please contact us if you can spare the occasional hour delivering our leaflets.
You can meet your local Lib Dem Trumpington team right here:
Barbara Ashwood is the current Cambridgeshire County Councillor representing the ward of Trumpington. She is a member of several County Council committees and the Lead Member of the Liberal Democrat Group for the Communities & Partnerships Committee.
County Councillor candidate Philippa Slatter has lived in Trumpington since 1980, which is also home to two of her children. From 1996 to 2006 she served as a Lib Dem city councillor for Trumpington. She believes that public services provided by good, democratic local government make a big difference in people’s lives, by helping people to help one another.
Dan Summerbell has been City Councillor for Trumpington since May 2019. His priorities on the council have been tackling anti-social behaviour issues in Trumpington, and advocating for a new climate change strategy that matches the net zero target to which the council is committed.
City Councillor candidate Olaf Hauk is a scientist who has worked in Trumpington for over 20 years. He will work hard for sustainable change that requires a balance between creating vs distributing wealth and raising living standards vs environmental impact.
City Councillor candidate Ingrid Flaubert is an academic who has lived in Trumpington for over five years. She has committed herself towards making small changes that improve our environment and living standards.
City Councillor candidate Alan Cox is an Alternative Provision Tutor and has lived in Trumpington since 2013. He is passionate about developing our youth through activities that teach our children life skills and self esteem in order to turn them into great adults.
Nobody should be afraid to walk or cycle home at night. The Trumpington Lib Dem team is currently looking into ways to improve footpath lighting across Trumpington. Many people have raised concerns about a number of locations especially in the new developments and along the guided busway. The solutions will have to consider the concerns of local residents, environmental issues (e.g. protecting dark skies and wildlife habitats) and – last but not least – Council budgets. We have brought this issue to the attention of local councillors, and are looking into funding options such as through the Local Highway Improvement scheme as part of our road safety campaign. Please feel free to contribute to the Facebook thread on this issue started by our team member Ingrid Flaubert.
Over recent years the new footpath from the Trumpington Meadows Country Park to Grantchester Road has become increasingly popular with joggers, children riding their bicycles, parents with pushchairs, couples going for a walk, dog walkers etc. Amazingly, the path joins the road without a pavement so they have to cross over between two bends, at a place which is already dangerous because vehicles speed up on the short stretch between the 30 mph and 40 mph signs. When the pavement is crowded, pedestrians regularly have to step into the road to get out of each other’s way.
This is a dangerous undertaking as the road bends with poor visibility and cars coming from both directions. The current signage to alert drivers of crossing pedestrians is clearly insufficient, as residents of Woodend report that many cars pass this area at high speed. This is a deadly accident waiting to happen. The speed limit leading up to the bend on Grantchester Road is 40mph, and the small sign for 30mph is partly occluded by bushes and clearly ineffective. The fact that a vehicle crashed in the warning sign itself demonstrates this!
Ideally, we would like to see the 20 mph speed limit through Grantchester village extended to Trumpington, as well as better road signage. For example, we are looking into options to install electric signals that alert drivers of pedestrians crossing the street and encourage them to reduce their speed.
Dangerous bend on Grantchester Road that urgently needs traffic calming measures
Liberal Democrat campaigners in Trumpington are calling on Cambridge City Council to take urgent action to fill empty shop premises on Hobson Square – and hopefully help local entrepreneurs in the process.
While the pharmacy, library, community centre, medical practice and general store are now open, Trumpington still lacks the local shops that were envisaged in the design of Hobson Square as of the new community facilities.
Local Lib Dem campaigner Olaf Haukcommented: “Two large shop premises have remained totally empty and unused ever since they were finished in 2018."
“Many of us will be working from home for some time to come. While town and city centres may be experiencing a retail crisis, we know that many people in our community are increasingly looking to local shopping facilities. For the benefit of our community and our carbon footprint, we want to make sure that the residents of Trumpington have access to a variety of shops, markets and services close to their homes.”
Fellow Lib Dem Ingrid Flaubert says: ”We are calling on the City Council to act so that new local shops and traders can bring a greater sense of community to this area.”
Local resident Alan Cox added: “This would be a perfect opportunity to support local business people!"
“We know that Trumpington residents are enterprising people - starting from fortnightly food vans at the Community Garden in the summer, we now have a regular menu of food from all over the world on sale in the new public squares every day of the week."
“I’d like to see the Council look into every possible option, including ‘pop-up shops’ or temporary leases, to get these properties in use and hopefully support small local businesses.”
The Trumpington Team Helped Local Residents To Register Their Bikes
One stolen bike may not look like a big deal (if it's not yours), but thousands of stolen bikes are organised crime. As Trumpington resident James Hems writes in the Winter Edition of Camcycle Magazine (pages 30-33), approximately 9000 bikes are stolen in Cambridge every year - 25 bikes per day! This is four times the national average, and twice as many as in Oxford. Only about 5 % of bike theft victims are reunited with their bikes - but this number could be significantly higher if more people registered their bikes. Importantly, this could also lead the police to the gang leaders who organise bike theft on a grand scale. Knowing that bikes in a certain area are registered may also put thieves off in the first place.
The Trumpington team raised awareness of this issue and helped local Trumpington residents to register their bikes in an event at Trumpington Meadows on December 19th. The organisers Olaf Hauk and Philippa Slatter as well as their team members got their hands dirty and turned a number of bikes upside down in order to find their registration numbers. Many passers-by were given more information on why and how to register their bikes and were pointed to the useful tips in the Camcyle article mentioned above. If this becomes common practice in the community, then the message to bike thieves is very clear: There is nothing for you to do in Trumpington!
The County Council is proposing on-street parking control proposals for Trumpington Meadows, including visitor permit holder parking in signed parking bays every day from 8am to 6pm.
However, the proposals have been poorly publicised. There has been no door-to-door delivery of the public notice, with the Council relying on residents spotting it online or in the Cambridge Evening News. Please sign this petition for a proper consultation.
Concerns raised by residents include which roads would be included (with Renard Way wrongly labelled as Falcon Road on the Council’s parking plan); whether the visitor bays would be clearly marked; and how it would be clearly displayed that parking in other bays belonging to householders is prohibited.
Given the limited circulation of the proposals, the 15th December deadline for submissions is very tight. Philip Allen, Ian Sollom, Zoë O’Connell, Dan Hilken and the local Lib Dem team will continue to press for a proper consultation of all Trumpington Meadows residents. If you feel as strongly as us, please sign our petition.
Near Fawcett Primary School.
Along the Guided Busway.
