Over the past six months we have seen a retraction in local bus services firstly with Whippet and now more recently with Stagecoach. It may be coincidence that this has happened since the Mayor and his Combined Authority took over as the Local Transport Authority and has such responsibility for bus services in the county. […]

Faced with a £4.2 million overspend Cambridgeshire Conservatives had no choice this year but to raise council tax by 2.99% the maximum the Government allows it to without a referendum.  Of course if it had done this in the past we would not now be facing the cliff edge which neighbouring Northamptonshire has already gone […]

Conservative controlled Cambridgeshire is consulting on making changes to the county council’s fairer contributions policy which would see people who receive benefits paying much more towards the cost of their own care. The whole of the higher rate of Personal Independence Payments will be included in assessments, whereas at the moment the higher rate for […]

The top four initiatives that drivers in Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire say would get them onto public transport are out of the direct control of the Greater Cambridge Partnership and rely on the actions of Cambridgeshire’s two top commercial bus companies that have cut services in recent months. In response to its Big Conversation to […]

James Palmer, the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Mayor has has dropped his election commitment for a light rail underground system for Cambridge and is now pushing for an articulated bus that can run in a short tube tunnel under the city centre calling it a Metro. He reluctantly agreed with the Greater Cambridge Partnership (aka City […]

The Conservative controlled Cambridgeshire County is taking £200,000 from the £607,000 budget for minor local highway projects to pay for admin costs previously covered by the highways budget which officers admit will reduce the number of projects delivered in the council’s Local Highway Initiative (LHI) scheme. The LHI scheme enables parish and town councils and […]

At yesterday’s full meeting of South Cambridgeshire District Council the Conservative Council Leader was accused of “telling fake news” about the council’s Local Plan ahead of the local elections in May after the Inspector conducting the public examination complained that his spin on it was misjudged. The Conservative’s interpretation of events was at best optimistic […]

According to figures published by the Department of Communities and Local Government, the public examination of the South Cambs and Cambridge Local Plan is the longest running in the whole country ever. The draft Local Plan was submitted for inspection in March 2014, over three years and eight months ago – and will have taken […]

Liberal Democrat councillors have called on South Cambridgeshire’s director of planning to publish a letter received from the Planning Inspector examining the council’s Local Plan which they understand is asking the council to modify the Plan and the legal advice received on its interpretation. Lib Dems say there is a strong case to be made […]

The report on the future of children centres debated by councillors at the full meeting of Cambridgeshire County Council yesterday confirmed that with a growing population we need to be doing much more, not less, to support early years children and their families and that it needs to be open to all not just focused […]