TIF bid split into two

The county council's cabinet met at the end of September to decide how to act on the transport commission's recent report on congestion in Cambridge.

They have decided to put a bid in now for the proposed new station at Chesterton, with the hope of it being built in 2012, three years earlier than planned. A second stage bid could then be made at the end of 2010.

Coleridge Conservatives are delighted that congestion charging has been kicked into the long grass, as if we have a Conservative government after the general election they have pledged to remove the link between TIF (that could provide the vital infrastructure that the Cambridge area needs as it grows) and unpopular congestion charging.

Whatever happens, Conservatives in Cambridge will keep pressing for the unwanted tax to be ruled out completely.

The full county council meeting on 13 October will ratify the cabinet's decision on the bid.