East Cambs residents at risk of losing influence on local services, warn local Lib Dems

Residents in East Cambridgeshire could be set to lose any influence over many of the services they use and value if the district council chooses to cut its links with Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire in the forthcoming reorganisation of local government in the county, local Liberal Democrat leader Lorna Dupré warns.

Local councils in Cambridgeshire are going through a process set by Government in which they will lose their county and district councils and move to fewer, single-tier ‘unitary’ authorities.

There is value in making local government structures simpler, though the rules laid down by the Government for this process mean that any outcome is likely to be less than ideal.

“We would have welcomed a more considered process from the Labour government, and a chance to resolve some of the more obvious anomalies in the geography of our area, such as Newmarket, Haverhill, St Neots, and Royston,” says Lorna. “But we are constrained to work within the process laid down for us.”

The three main proposals currently on the table for our district are

• Option A: East Cambridgeshire joins with Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire
• Option B: East Cambridgeshire joins with Peterborough, Fenland and Huntingdonshire
• Option C: East Cambridgeshire joins with Peterborough and Fenland

Local Conservatives want to take East Cambridgeshire residents into a new unitary authority with distant Peterborough instead of joining with more nearby Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire councils.

Most residents in East Cambridgeshire look to Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire for many aspects of our daily lives. The A10 runs from Littleport down to the Milton interchange. The main railway line runs from Littleport through Ely and Waterbeach, to Cambridge North and Cambridge. (There is no railway connection from East Cambridgeshire into Huntingdonshire.) Even the Greater Cambridge Partnership’s greenway plans run into East Cambridgeshire at Lode, Swaffham Bulbeck, and Bottisham.

East Cambridgeshire residents work in Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire—at the Biomedical Campus, the Science and Business Parks, the two Universities, Arm, Cambridge University Press & Assessment, and many other businesses and organisations large and small. Young people from East Cambridgeshire travel in to Cambridge every day to study, at Cambridge Regional College, Hills Road, Long Road, and elsewhere.

We receive health care from Addenbrooke’s—very few East Cambridgeshire residents travel to Norfolk or Huntingdonshire or Peterborough for treatment or care. And we use Cambridge’s many retail and leisure facilities. We are a key part of the economy of Cambridge and its wider area.

East Cambridgeshire has changed markedly in recent years. Increasing numbers of our residents have moved out from Cambridge or South Cambridgeshire for more affordable housing while maintaining easy access to jobs and services.

By contrast, most East Cambridgeshire residents have no connection at all with Peterborough. This is particularly so in the south of the district, such as the many households in the villages around Newmarket. What connection does Dullingham or Stetchworth have with Peterborough? What understanding would a council run from Peterborough have of our local needs and priorities?

“To be wrenched from all our natural connections with our nearest neighbours, and forced into a huge sprawling council governed from Peterborough and stretching from Kirtling to Wittering and from St Neots to Tydd St Giles, would set our district back for decades,” says Lorna.

“The recent ‘engagement exercise’ carried out by the seven Cambridgeshire councils showed that 32 per cent of East Cambridgeshire residents work or study in Cambridge or South Cambridgeshire. Just one per cent of us work or study in Peterborough, and none of us seek health care there.

“We know some residents in East Cambridgeshire are worried that our rural concerns will be overlooked by these new larger councils. But why should we believe that politicians in Peterborough will understand us better than those closer to home in Cambridge? And if Fenland residents, who will end up in a council with Peterborough whatever happens, feel equally concerned about being overlooked, why should we believe that a Peterborough-based council would be any better for us here in East Cambridgeshire?

“The current shape of local government in our county was settled in 1974, over fifty years ago. The proposals being formed now will have an impact on decisions about our area for half a century. It would be a disaster for East Cambridgeshire if we were to end up without any influence at all on the wider area to which we relate most closely.

“In the recent engagement exercise, participants from East Cambridgeshire expressed strong positive identification with Cambridge while demonstrating profound opposition to any association with Peterborough, based on perceptions of fundamental differences in character, priorities, safety, and community needs. Conservative councillors in East Cambridgeshire pressing for Option B and a Peterborough-based council are seriously out of step with their constituents’ views.

“Residents of our district are taking the long view about what is in our best interests, and supporting a council that unites East Cambridgeshire with Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire. Their local councillors need to be listening to them.”