Elections

This is my landing page for the Queen Edith’s ward vacancy for the Cambridge City Council Elections 2023. (Also on FB at https://www.facebook.com/CambridgeTownOwl) My name will be on the ballot paper in the upcoming election. Below you will find links to blogposts, videos (See my playlist of videos for the Queen Edith’s Hustings on 25 Apr 2023), and a host of other things.

First things first:

Debate Not Hate

As Cllr Sam Davies MBE (Ind – Queen Edith’s) wrote, this is an opportunity for local residents to discuss the future of our city and the large local developments that are continuing, such as the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. My candidacy provides that space and background material for residents to discuss with all candidates and each other about the issues arising from this.

Watch my responses to questions from Queen Edith’s residents on a range of issues, including:
  1. Opening Speech
  2. Inequalities, living with my parents, and recovering from a heart attack
  3. Chris Rand’s explanation of *how* Cambridge City Council sits within GCP structures
  4. The GCP’s proposed congestion charge
  5. On Cambridge City Council vs developers not providing nearly enough local and community facilities

I strongly recommend you read the materials published by my fellow candidates, which you can find by typing in your postcode to https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/. At the time of posting (06 April 2023) the city manifestos published are as follows:

CamCycle has now published its questionnaire responses for all Cambridge candidates

– you can read them all here by selecting your ward in the dropdown bar.

You can read my draft slide pack of proposals for both Cambridge and Queen Edith’s specifically on Slideshare here. What would you add? What would you remove? Feel free to discuss these with my fellow candidates.

The broad themes for discussion in my proposals centre on our broken governance structures which are at the root of our city’s chronic problems.

“What’s your top proposal? Or top two?”

Abolish the Greater Cambridge Partnership and the Combined Authority. Replace them with unitary councils centred around Cambridge, & Peterborough respectively.

And

Build a new light rail for Cambridge that goes underground under the city centre – as proposed by Cambridge Connect

Everything else stems from those two proposals – both of which are likely to require new legislation. My campaign’s primary aim is to raise awareness and knowledge of what is needed across our city & beyond if we want both of these to be realised.

You can find out if I am on your ballot paper by typing your postcode into https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/

If I am not, you are more than welcome to put anything that I have published on local history and local democracy to the candidates standing where you live, and start local discussions there.

I welcome candidates from local political parties adopting policies/plans/proposals/ideas that I have written about in the past. I’m not precious. I want our city, county, & beyond to improve and succeed collectively – for people and environment.

As I will never be in a position of governance, the role of independent candidates generally is to influence the decision-makers rather than become decision-makers themselves.

For anyone wanting to support my campaign costs, see https://ko-fi.com/antonycarpen – and type in “Election” in the message. Please ensure you are a permissible donor (see the Electoral Commission here)

I will be listing the following:

Election blogposts & policy articles:

Election videos and vlogposts:

Thank you for reading.

And don’t forget you can find details of all of the candidates standing for election where you live by typing in your postcode into the box at https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/ – Ask lots of questions based on your experiences and on what you’ve read of their manifestos, and give them/us feedback as well.

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