Labour Councillors have an answer to the current failures of both the LibDem City and Tory County councils

8 April 2008

Local Labour City Councillors have responded to today's Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire boundary change proposals by agreeing that they would improve the logic of most of the current historic boundary.

But Labour's view is that this is not the real answer for the future to meet real challenges facing the Cambridge area, which in Labour's view is a single council to replace currently three councils for the area.

Labour City Leader Councillor Lewis Herbert said 'We will be supporting these changes but they are only a stop gap solution, and perhaps also a way of keeping the town and surrounding areas as separate as possible.

'Cambridge is developing so fast into a city region that there should be one unitary local authority replacing all three current councils, also replacing a range of local quangos and joint committees too - put simply we say "One Cambridge, One Council".

Coun Herbert added 'Councils are being reorganised in neighbouring counties like the two planned in Bedfordshire to replace four, and we see exactly the same need here. Its a nonsense long term to stop the Cambridge boundary at its urban edge and it is also a nonsense that we have three different groups of council officers often working on exactly the same issues but in totally separate office buildings. Why should local residents pay for three different councils and three bureaucracies ?

'We look forward to the consultation by the Boundaries Commission on these detailed changes, as its vital that local residents and others affected have their say, but we also want a much wider public debate on what is best for Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire, and whether people support us in proposing a single council for the whole Cambridge area.'

Examples that Labour points to of inadequacies in the current 'three council arrangement' include:

the mishandling of transport planning, public transport, congestion charge plans and the A14, by the failure of the county and the councils to work jointly, and the failure to have a proper debate or real consultation on the full range of options to tackle city congestion

the need for one organisation, not the current FOUR including Cambridgeshire Horizons, to deliver on the challenge of extra high quality, sustainable new housing, successful new communities and badly needed affordable housing

a huge range of crucial local Cambridge decisions on key issues that get lost at Shire Hall, for example:

* the vital importance of expanding youth services in Cambridge, to give young people real alternatives and cut local anti-social behaviour
* ending years of delays in introducing residents parking, and implementing vital, overdue bus, cycling and minor road improvements across Cambridge.

On the detail of the changes, Labour is also concerned that there is no logic in leaving the Science Park out of the city and that several other boundary issues are not addressed in the proposed changes.