Voters give Labour a kick in the ballot box over controversial congestion charge
See the Cambridge Independent here. The rain outside at 1.30am probably reflects the mood of opponents in what was previously a solid Labour seat.
I’m not going to wax lyrical about the detail – you can see the links to the videoed hustings in my previous post. It was raining for a fair amount of the day so who knows whether that put off a sufficient number of Labour voters from showing up.
Above – Phil’s Graph.
Depressingly low turnout – but almost inevitably so given what the locals at the hustings told me about residents feeling they were not being listened to.
The Greater Cambridge Partnership have six weeks to come up with either further concessions or a replacement policy
The next public meeting of the GCP will be on 07 September 2023 – get your public questions in today!
Ideally get them in by the end of August 2023.
The Cambridge City Council elections 2024 have some prominent local councillors defending their seats.
The leaders of each of the groups (Labour, Libdem, and Green/Independent) are all up for re-election. (See http://www.cambridgeelections.org.uk/cllrs5.htm for the list). Furthermore, as I mentioned in my previous blogpost halfway down, the Greater Cambridge Partnership is due to undergo a ministerial gateway review in 2025. That process begins in under 18 months time. Between those points we are due a city council election (again) and a general election. Halfway through, there’s a county council election and a mayoral election too. All of that turmoil alone could be enough to derail the GCP completely resulting in ministers withdrawing funding. Hence there will be huge pressure on senior officers to come up with something that is politically and electorally palatable – and can be commenced soon enough to meet the standards required of the review.
Either way, the voters of King’s Hedges ward gave the local democracy bubble a timely reminder not to take the people of our city for granted.
Food for thought?
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