Time to mend our communities

It’s time to mend communities split apart by Conservative councillors in East Cambridgeshire.

Stretham ward Liberal Democrat candidates Caroline Shepherd and Pauline Wilson say huge damage has been done to villages including Stretham, Wilburton, and Little Thetford under the guise of ‘community led development’.

“Real community-led development should be about bringing people together,” says Wilburton resident and former county councillor Caroline Shepherd. “Instead, what has happened in Wilburton and Little Thetford couldn’t have been more divisive.

“The controversial Camp’s Field planning application in Wilburton, submitted three years ago now, is due to be decided shortly after the election,” says Caroline. “It’s a crucial moment for the village.

“Voting out the two Conservative councillors is a vital start to reuniting Wilburton, along with other villages including Little Thetford which have suffered splits and divisions at the hands of the Conservatives.”

Stretham Parish Council is the only parish council facing elections on 4 May for its eleven places, with no other parish attracting a full slate of candidates.

"However, rather than being a cause for celebration, the ballot paper—eleven candidates in favour of the parish council’s controversial ‘community hub’ proposals, and eleven against—is testament to how divisive the project has been", says Pauline Wilson.

“A parish poll last year voted by a majority of two to one for a pause to the project to allow for a rethink,” says Pauline, a former Witchford councillor. “But the voters of Stretham have been totally ignored.

“And the Conservative chair of the Planning Committee, who is standing again as district councillor for Stretham, allowed the planning application for this divisive scheme to be approved by officers behind closed doors rather than through open debate at the Planning Committee.

“The parish council ballot paper is evidence of a community at loggerheads. The district council election on 4 May is a chance to stop the damage by electing two Liberal Democrat councillors who will listen to communities.

“A vote for anyone other than the Liberal Democrats will just help the Conservatives sneak back in.”