Councillor Katie Thornburrow, Labour’s newly elected city councillor for Trumpington ward, has said that the Liberal Democrats should have acted much earlier as it emerged that Trumpington’s double-hatting Councillor Donald Adey has not just left Cambridge but has moved to Fife in Scotland and had already done so by March 2018,

Councillor Thornburrow said: “Trumpington is the largest and most diverse ward in the city with more than 9000 residents. It has an area which is firmly part of the core City in Newtown,  another which is very much a village and, of course, one which is a new and growing urban fringe to the city. Over the last six months I have spoken to almost every household and know the importance to them all of strong and effective representation on the City Council and my focus now is on ensuring that that happens.  However, at a stroke Councillor Adey has reduced their effective representation on the County and City councils by half by moving, not just out of Cambridge as the Liberal Democrat Group Leaders Councillors Bick and Nethsingha said yesterday in their statement, but to Cupar in Fife, Scotland.”

“It is clear that his departure was known much earlier this year and I am at a loss to know why Councillor Adey was selected to stand for a second council place by the Liberal Democrats only last year or why the Liberal Democrats waited until after he had left to threaten to withdraw the party whip. Had they acted earlier and made clear the reason, Trumpington residents would have had the chance to ask him directly how he could continue to represent them from 400 miles away.”

Councillor Thornburrow added: “People’s lives change and if Councillor Adey’s future is now in Scotland, I wish him well on a personal level. But the residents of Trumpington need councillors who don’t live a plane journey away and he should stand down and allow someone in the Cambridge community to take on the privilege of representing Trumpington on the City and the County councils. “