Cambridge: Political Squabbles

Recent examples include:

• Council Public Relations,
• the Market Square revamp,
• the CCTV system,
• Parkside Pool,
• the Lion Yard exhibition site,
• the fuss over pedestrian crossings,
• Romsey pavements.

Stop The Squabbling

• Coun. Kevin Southernwood (leader, Labour)
  Squabbles between political parties are in danger of scaring away vital business investment. He appealed for better understanding between parties. "The Liberal Democrats do seem to specialise in opposition for opposition's sake. It was especially clear over the whole Parkside pool issue. They seemed to just be dragging things out and wasting time, which is something that could hurt Cambridge. The private sector gets put off when they can't get things moving, especially when the delays are caused by in-fighting between councillors." "It would be terrible if business people started to approach Cambridge with trepidation."

• Coun. David Howarth (leader, Liberal Democrats)
  He said Coun. Southernwood was talking "complete rubbish", accused him of hypocrisy and claimed Labour's mismanagement was the greatest threat to investment. "I suppose you would be wary of investing in the city if the administration is this incompetent. It's extraordinary of Labour to say that they want more co-operation when they have deliberately kept all the council committee chairmanships with the help of the Tories."

• Coun. Sonja Froggett (Mayor, Conservative)
  She said "this wrangling doesn't help at all. I know one or two developers who have been put off by it all. But it was the Liberal Democrats who killed off the Market Square and put Parkside Pool in jeopardy, so they are no angels. Both parties are to blame for putting off business which we badly need to remain a thriving city."

• Black Horse Relocation and Management Today published a survey placing Cambridge as the third choice for relocation, behind Bristol and Oxford. The survey was of more than 500 chief executives, chairmen and managing directors. They cited the high quality of life.

Diana Memorial

The rose garden was indeed built, in Summer 1999, for £10,000 of public money. The consensus from the likes of the letters page of the CEN seems to be that it's ugly and that the money (if spent at all) should have gone towards something she appeared to care about, such as a children's charity. So much for democratic accountability.

CEN Opinion column, May 1971:

Planning has become a game in Cambridge and the county - an expensive, self-defeating game which has caused the players to lose sight of the fact that people's homes and jobs are at stake.

In the city, traffic chaos, over-crowded shops, high rates and prices, rising unemployment, poor public transport and large chunks of neglected property are all the result of many years of inaction and mismanagement.

See also Lion Yard/Petty Cury and The Kite.

Council Public Relations

The opposition parties said the money should be spent on real services such as bad pavements and late-night buses. Labour countered this by citing LibDem councils such as Colchester spending more than this on PR.

Anyway, by December 1996 a Head of Communications and a Press Officer were appointed. A year later they won an award from the Institute for Public Relations for Excellence in Public Communications, based on the successful media campaign around December 1996 highlighting homelessness in the City.
(CEN 12-Dec-1996, 6-Oct-1997).

Lion Yard exhibition site

However the City Council has extended parking permission for lorries for another two years (CEN 30-Apr-1996). Roger Quirk again threatened to sue to recover an estimated £150,000 in detailed planning costs.

The Council allowed negotiations for the possible sale of the lease on the site to begin.
(CEN 6-Aug-1996)

In May 1999 a fresh plan for a nightclub was proposed by Albert Gazeley's property company, this time for the former Job Centre building next to the empty space. The adjacent Fisher House C.U. Catholic Chaplaincy was the main objector, claiming a nightclub was an inappropriate use next to a pub (The Red Cow), a major entertainment venue (The Corn Exchange) and the Lion Yard shopping centre (with Fifth Avenue nightclub). After all the years of wrangles, a nightclub plan from Chilthorne Properties for this site was approved in January 2000 and the club is supposed to open later on in 2000. [See Grafton Centre Nightclub.]

Pedestrian crossings

David Howarth was quoted in the CEN on 12-Mar-1996 & 29-Mar as saying the Labour group voted down the proposal for the Castle Street crossing at the joint Traffic Managers meeting and a few days later claimed in a Labour Castle Ward newsletter that the crossing was their proposal. They had supported it at earlier City Council meetings. He reckoned the Labour group caved in to County Council colleague pressure - that less money should be spent on crossings for the City. He claimed the proposed site has the worst accident record of any of the proposed sites.

Labour Councillor John Ratcliff responded by denying any caving in and any knowledge of the newsletter.

County Councillor Chris Bradford (LibDem) explained the situation as follows in a CEN letter on 2-Apr-1996. Crossings are ranked in priority according to a formula. At the City Council level this made Castle Street second (with the worst accident record in the County) and Maids Causeway fourth (with equal second worst accident record). The Labour councillors voted according to formula priorities. When the full list was to come before the County Council, Castle Street would have ranked third and Maids Causeway seventh. As there was money for seven crossings this year, both should have been approved. However Labour Councillors substituted two lower-ranking sites in the actual list presented, ones with lower accident rates.

The Labour side said they realised they couldn't have all the crossings so voted as seemed best and in any case the City can only recommend.

The LibDems put a motion of censure to the City Council regarding Labour Councillors John Ratcliff (chairman of the Environment Committee) & Kevin Blencowe (chairman of the Transport Subcommittee). The motion alleged gross incompetence in that they let party political concerns override their civic duty. The motion was defeated 19-18 with 3 Conservatives abstaining (CEN 19-Apr-1996).

A year later Castle Street again came top of the priority list but the Joint Traffic Management Subcommittee voted to leave it off the list for the next funding year. Some people point to the reduction in traffic due to the Bridge Street changes.
(CEN 19-Feb-1997)

Romsey Pavements

Labour Ward councillor John Ratcliff criticised their action, saying they should have sent the report to the County Council, even though it's the City Council who'd have to act on it. He went on to claim the main problem is that County Council LibDems (then in charge) wouldn't provide enough money for maintenance.

Footnotes

Simon Sedgwick-Jell

He withdrew from Cambridge politics after the May 1995 elections and in March 1996 left the Labour Party (CEN 15-Mar), citing dislike of the New Labour under Tony Blair.

Existing Crossings

Maids Causeway has a crossing at Fair Street, the crossing point for Midsummer Common. It's a trial site for one of the three designs of PUFFIN crossing - ones which cancel a request-to-cross if the person has gone. The designs are:

• "radar" sensors above the lights - as here (though the sensor for Fair St. is pointed in the wrong direction!)
• sensors under the pavement
• infra-red sensors at about ankle height