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Help Labour Win in Cambridge - City Council Elections 2008

On 1 May 2008 there will be elections across the whole of Cambridge to Cambridge City Council.

We will be lauching our manifesto in April 2008 but you may like to read our 2007 manifesto for details of Labour's plans for Cambridge.

We need volunteers to be part of our team and help out in our offices, from your homes or on the campaign trail.

Volunteering with Labour can involve as big or as small a commitment as you like. By getting involved, you'll contribute to our common goal of winning elections and putting our values into practice. All sorts of things need to be done, from telephoning voters, delivering leaflets, knocking on doors, stuffing envelopes for delivery, addressing envelopes, helping at fundraising events or taking voters to the polling station.

Things you can do from Home

• Display a Labour poster
• Display a Vote Labour placard
• Phoning voters

• Stuffing and addressing envelopes.
• Help with printing and publishing the newsletters our local councillors and campaign teams regularly issue to Cambridge's electors.

• Delivering leaflets from Cambridge Labour Party, and local councillors to voters in your area. Volunteers to take on a regular delivery round of between 100 and 200 properties are always needed.
• Delivering letters to Labour Party members and supporters.
• Calling on local residents with councillors and local campaign teams.

Save Our verges

Labour Councillors campaign to restore and protect our verges

VERGING ON THE RIDICULOUS

Labour campaigners promise to fix David Howarth's Broken 2002 Verges Promise. Local residents across Cambridge and Labour candidates like Mike Todd-Jones in Arbury are demanding urgent citywide action to restore verges which are so damaged they look more like tank exercise grounds.

In 2002 the then Lib Dem leader of the council, David Howarth, promised to make verges the LibDem council's "TOP PRIORITY". Since then, the council has fixed only 2 roads in 6 years - a rate that would take 600 years to deal with the 200 Cambridge roads that have appallingly damaged grass verges.

Labour's three point 'Verge Action Plan' proposes massive improvement by 2010

1. Allow all residents to 'adopt' verges in front of their house, and give out free painted white rocks and guidance on safe use. Preferably, whole streets will jointly adopt their verges.

2. Urgent two year £250,000 protection and repair programme to restore the verges most neglected by the Lib Dem council.

3. Yellow lining along all main roads such as Perne and Brooks Road, so that ALL illegal verge parkers can be ticketed.

NOTES

1. What do you think? Email Mike if you support Labour's plan mjtoddJones@Yahoo.co.uk or ring him on 353937

2. For Arbury residents: Mike lost by only 12 votes to the LibDems in 2007. Join 'MIKE'S 13' and get Mike Todd-Jones elected in 2008

3. Some of the most damaged verges are in the following areas: Arbury - Carlton Road/Mere Way/Alex Wood Road/Hurrell Road Castle Ward - Belmore Close Cherry Hinton - Church End Coleridge Ward - Birdwood Road area and Perne Road East Chesterton - Kendal Way area Abbey Ward - Whitehill Road area.

4. Contact us to add your street to our campaigning list.

Save Our Open Spaces

More than 11,000 houses have been planned for Marshalls airport. It is expected that this development will generate an additional 125,000 vehicle trips per day.

The roads that will take the strain of these new trips are:

• Newmarket Road
• Coldham's Lane
• Brooks Road
• Mill Road
• Perne Rd
• Cherry Hinton Road

All these roads already experience gridlock daily

Now a new Transport Study proposes to deal with this unacceptable traffic increase by destroying grass verges and building guided busways across our valued commons and meadows!

Labour leader Lewis Herbert comments: "This is a nightmare scenario for east Cambridge. Our streets are already stretched beyond their capacity, and there are no suggestions for addressing this issue. These proposals have been cooked up in backroom deals between Lib Dem City Councillors and County Council Tories, neither of whom are prepared to defend the area of the city, presumably because they have little or no representation here."

What can I do? Labour councillors will be campaigning to stop the transport nightmare. We are collecting signatures on petitions at local shops. You can also add your name to the petition calling for the city and county councils to adopt our 4 point plan online by ticking the box above.

Save Our Open Spaces

We object to the damage to our open spaces that will be caused by the proposed development on Marshall's airport, and demand that the City and County Councils:

1. Rule out new transport or guided bus routes over Stourbridge and Coldhams Commons and Ditton Meadows, or that threaten our verges & trees. These are valued open spaces and should be protected.

2. Sort out existing congestion on Newmarket Road, Coldhams Lane, Brooks Road, East Road, Mill Road and Perne Road now. The plan to build 11,500 homes on Marshall's airport will have devastating effects on our roads in the east of the city, which already experience daily congestion and frequent gridlock.

3. Abandon proposals to build homes on Marshall's airport until:

- alternative sites have been examined

- an independent transport assessment has been carried out

- a proper transport strategy exists for East Cambridge

Cambridge needs more homes. But the transport implications of developing this number of houses on Marshall's are unacceptable, and more rail-accessible sites such as Waterbeach barracks which was first considered in 2000 as an alternative to the Northstowe development, need to be independently examined.

4. Consult all local residents before any decisions are taken.

Residents should be fully informed about, and given adequate opportunity to be involved in, any decisions which may lead to construction of guided bus routes across our commons, tearing down trees and destroy verges, building 11,500 dwellings on Marshall's, and bringing further congestion to our roads.

Housing Crisis

There is a chronic shortage of affordable housing in Cambridge. Labour believes the council must:

• Ensure that 40% of new developments are affordable housing on every site of more than 15 homes

• Maximise the amount of 'Social Housing' (housing at affordable rents) by ensuring at least half of all affordable housing in each development is social housing.

• Ensure developers build a mixture of affordable housing sizes including sufficient family homes with gardens

• Not accept money from developers to buy their way out of building affordable housing.

• Build 100% affordable housing on council owned land.

More Campaigns

Hands off Marshalls!

The Cambridge East Area Action Plan proposes that Marshalls Airport should move out of Cambridge or alternatively close so that 12,000 houses should be built on the site.

Labour agrees that major housing development is essential in the Cambridge area but Labour councillors object to the plan to build on Marshalls.

• The full transport implications have not been assessed.
• The LibDems and Tories want to build on Marshalls, rather than sites like West Cambridge and Waterbeach which are more accessible by Public Transport, for party political reasons.
• The plan depends on relocating Marshall's airport but they don't care what Marshalls think.
• The plan says Marshalls should move to a new site. The new sites they suggest may never be available. So will the plan work?
• The plan does not address the existing transport problems for those entering Cambridge along Newmarket Road, Barnwell Road and Coldham's Lane.
• The proposed development would mean an additional 55,000 trips per day, of which 25% would be at peak hours, predominantly into the city. Do we want traffic gridlock?

If you want to object to the Plan write to:

Development Services Director
South Cambridgeshire District Council
South Cambridgeshire Hall
Cambourne Business Park
Cambourne, Cambridge, CB3 6EA
01954 713183
ldf@scambs.gov.uk

Director of Environment and Planning
Cambridge City Council
The Guildhall
Cambridge
CB2 3QJ
01223 457200
planning.policyresearch@cambridge.gov.uk

Working Women Campaign

Labour Party believe that working women reaching their full potential is vital to the future success of the UK economy.

Women work because they want to - 7 out of 10 mums working full time say they would work even if they didn't have to.

We have had some successes. The UK has the highest female employment rate of the major EU countries. Women start up one-third of new businesses. The New Deal for Lone Parents provides support for parents who often find it hard to balance work and home life and so go back to work. The government has made it easier for women who have been discriminated against to take up equal pay cases. Parents now have the right to request flexible working and by 2006 additional childcare places will have helped around 2 million children.

But despite government legislation women on average still earn less than men.

The Pay Gap

• Women working full time earn 18% less than the average male wage.
• Part-time women workers earn 40% less.
• Men make up the majority of employees in the five highest paid occupations,
• Women predominate in four of the five lowest paid occupations.
• The starting salary for women graduates lags behind that of male graduates

  We believe it is vital to campaign to continue to cut the pay gap and make workplaces women-friendly.

  Join us in our campaign to:

  • End of the long hours' culture and promote flexible working to bring about work-life balance.
  • Put pressure on employers to carry out equal pay audits.
  • Secure enhanced maternity, paternity and parental leave and pay.
  • Strengthen equal pay legislation.

  Anti Social Behaviour (DPPOs)

  Your local Labour Party takes the issue of anti-social public drinking seriously and on 8 September Labour councillors successfully proposed a motion to the city council demanding that the leader of the Council, Liberal Democrat Cllr Ian Nimmo Smith, identify steps for the Council to take to address this issue.
  
  Cllr Nimmo Smith responded by trying to side step the question. He said that he thinks the issue of primary concern is not public drinking but 'binge drinking'. He tried to shift responsibility away from himself saying it was up to the police to enforce the law, and the government to produce new legislation.
  
  He then reiterated that he is not prepared to give Cambridge police the power to apply Public Places Orders (DPPOs) to designated drinking hot-spots.
  
  We do not believe Cllr Nimmo Smith's response is adequate.
  
  We agree 'binge drinking' is a very significant issue, but it is not the one which most concerns the people like you who signed the petition.
  
  Lib Dem councillors have opposed DPPOs in the past, on the stated grounds that DPPO powers are 'illiberal', and that they 'do not trust the police' to use them properly!
  
  Your Labour team would never blame the police for Cambridge's public drinking problems. Ian Nimmo Smith's council have denied the police use of DPPO powers which are specifically designed to combat this type of anti-social drinking and left them to use inadequate dispersal powers.
  
  DPPO powers would allow police officers, not just to move drinkers on, but to confiscate drink in designated places, and to confront directly behaviour which harms both the drinkers themselves and the local community.
  
  We also think it's a bit rich for Nimmo-Smith to suggest the government should bring in more ASB legislation. After all the Lib Dems have opposed all the Labour government's anti-social behaviour legislation nationally for party political reasons,
  
  We need to stand up to the Lib Dem council and demand action. Your Labour team will therefore be lobbying councillors for DPPOs on 8 December along with other local residents, If you would like to join us, please get in touch.
  
  If you think the council should introduce a DPPO please sign the petition above calling upon the city council to introduce a DPPO in the areas of Cambridge identified by the police.

  Recycling

  We recently carried out a survey with Cambridge residents to find out what people thought about the current rubbish collection and recycling services we have here in Cambridge. The proposed change from weekly to fortnightly bin collections has caused a lot of concern locally. Whilst we can see the undoubted recycling benefits in switching to fortnightly collections, we also recognise that a one size fits all approach does not always work. We were disappointed that the City Council's survey on the issue did not give the public the right to state their preference one way or the other.

  Our survey aimed to gauge views on bin collection, recycling and the environment, and identify options available to Cambridge City Council to increase recycling levels in the city. As a result of an early analysis of the results, we called on the City Council to introduce kerbside plastics collection. Collection of some types of plastic bottles only is now planned for introduction in autumn 2005. However, we are concerned about the very high cost of the scheme that the City Council has proposed, and believe that they should find a cheaper way to recycle plastic.

  The survey was conducted between October and November 2004, and 652 local Cambridge residents responded. Key results from the survery show that:

  • Over 70% of residents want to keep weekly black bin collections
  • Over 90% of residents thought that the current performance of black bin/green box and black bin/bag collections was good or OK
  • Over 80% of respondents thought that local litter bin services were not good
  • Nearly 80% of respondents thought that street cleaning services were not good

  It is clear that the Council needs to address underperformance in current recycling delivery and promotion before implementing major changes to the scheme. We are now calling for the City Council to:

  • Recognise that people in different wards and housing types require a different mix of collection containers and frequencies
  • Extend the scope of current recycling services to cover the whole city
  • Address the areas of poor performance where service inefficiencies mean residents are unable to contribute to recycling
  • Put forward new arrangements for people with small gardens and no outside container storage; people in shared housing; and people living in flats/masionettes

  You can download the summary of my findings - 'Bin Collection, Recycling and the Environment' as a PDF file.

  There is a national campaign for residents who wish to express their concerns about reducing the frequency of waste collection. You can find out more about the campaign on the Weekly Waste website.