Station Bus Interchange takes shape

The County Council held a briefing meeting today to update Councillors on latest plans for the new bus interchange at the station.

Progress is being made - the current plan is for the whole of the station area south of Station Road to be developed by the end of 2012 - a planning application for the bus interchange should be brought forward in May. There is some urgency as the County Council has secured £4.5m of grants to develop the bus interchange and new bus link road to Hills Road, and the money must be spent soon.


View Larger Map

The good news is that this should bring significant transport improvements to the area:

- a new bus and cycle road from the Brooklands Avenue junction on Hills Road to the bus interchange
- a new bus interchange that will double the bus stop capacity at the station
- numerous new pedestrian and cycle routes in and through the site south of station road.

The details of the new bus interchange appear to be high quality, with good materials, and features such as real time bus information.

But my view remains that the station area plans are a wasted opportunity. The bus interchange will be surrounded close by on both sides by high density student accommodation - if nothing else it effectively rules out indefinitely using the station area as a significant new bus station due to space constraints - the whole area looks quite cramped - a problem that will be exacerbated when the new trees planned for the area mature. I fear it is too late now to change this.

In other developments, I have been trying to arrange a meeting with Network Rail to discuss a range of railway related transport projects - the City Council are currently taking this forward and trying to arrange a meeting for Councillors focusing on plans for a new island platform - giving local people a say in how these plans develop remains a key objective.

Coleridge Election Result

Thank you to everyone who voted Conservative on Thursday in Coleridge and to the many people who helped my campaign for the city council election.

The result of the city council election was a win for Labour with the Conservatives again taking second place. The Liberal Democrats appear to have benefitted from their profile in the parliamentary contest. Adjusted for general election turnout the green performance was slightly down on last year's while the UKIP vote was squeezed.

1320 (32.3%) .. Lewis Herbert (Labour)
1160 (28.4%) .. Andrew Bower (Conservative)
1040 (25.5%) .. Thomas Yates (Liberal Democrat)
446 (10.9%) .. Valerie T Hopkins (Green)
118 (2.9%) .. Albert Watts (UK Independence Party)

Congratulations to my Labour opponent, Councillor Lewis Herbert, whose work for local residents has clearly been recognised. Coleridge Conservatives will continue to try to work with ward councillors from other parties where we share common ground.

Well done to Nick Hillman for moving us into second place in the parliamentary elections in Cambridge, building on the excellent work done by former candidate Richard Normington, who was personally responsible for reviving the Conservative campaign in Cambridge in the period since the last general election, resulting in us coming second in Cambridge in the European elections last year.

Special thanks to Chris Howell, Coleridge and Cambridge's top councillor and top Conservative campaigner, to Richard Normington, Coleridge branch chairman and to Tim Haire, Cambridge Conservatives' excellent new political deputy chairman. The work for 2011 begins now!

Bower's Contract: 4. Fixing Planning

Local planning policies are broken. I want to see an end to garden grabbing, insufficient parking on new developments, the sacrifice of open spaces and the destruction of Cambridge's heritage.

Many of our problems derive from national rules, including effective maximum parking restrictions and crazy housing targets. Indeed the threat to Marshall was a consequence of Labour's housing targets, as warned by local Conservatives but dismissed as scaremongering by Labour councillors. Yet the city is suffering from a lack of family housing - a problem that the current mass development plans don't address.

However, the city council's own rules (the 'local plan') and the manner of their implementation make problems much worse.

If elected I would add my voice to that of Chris Howell's in calling for a rapid rethink of the plan, along with strategic development plans to take advantage of what we must all hope will be a new Conservative government's cancellation of Regional Spatial Strategies and reform of planning rules.

Even without a Conservative government, however, I would call for the city council to strengthen the plan to protect Cambridge's heritage, to remove the crazy tighter local requirement for maximum parking provision that is currently ensuring chaos for the future and to cut down on garden-grabbing developments.

Bower's Contract: 3. Working Hard

My third pledge if elected at this election is to work hard for Coleridge residents throughout the year, keeping residents regularly informed by newsletters and on the blog and being accessible to residents.

There is currently only one Conservative on the city council in Chris Howell, who punches well above his weight at the Guildhall. Electing another Conservative would make us twice a effective. And with the Conservatives you don't just hear from the person who is next up for election - the whole team works hard.

Much of our work over the last year can be scrutinised on this blog.

A Conservative government would also be excellent news for Coleridge and Cambridge. I urge you to vote for Nick Hillman for MP to help us get the changes we badly need nationally as well as locally on issues like planning. However, when it comes to the crunch I will always put local residents first.

Bower's Contract: 2. No Congestion Charge

My second main pledge to Coleridge if I am elected as city councillor on Thursday is to continue to oppose congestion charging for Cambridge.

Congestion charging is not the right answer for Cambridge. I have campaigned hard against the charge ever since it was proposed in 2007.

Cambridge badly needs funding for transport infrastructure to match the huge developments being forced on it but the Labour government's answer was to blackmail the county council saying funding would only be available if a congestion charge were implemented, via the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF).

Congestion charging would be a complete disaster for Cambridge, fail to raise enough revenue to pay for its network of spy cameras and adversely impact most those on low incomes who rely on motor vehicles for trade.

Many Conservatives on the county council voted against the TIF bid but Coleridge's Labour county councillor voted for congestion charging with a spirited defence of the Labour government. The Lib Dems and the Greens are also right behind this lunatic plan and are desperate to resurrect the now dormant plan for congestion charging.

Fortunately the TIF scheme has been proven to be unworkable and the government has found it necessary to replace it.

I will stay vigilant to the risk to Cambridge of any renewed attempts to introduce congestion charging.

Perne Road Shops Latest

Last Friday I was at a meeting with the owners of the Perne Road shops (and one of our three Labour Councillors!), to find out the latest on redevelopment plans.

It wasn't good news for those looking for an early solution to the problem - redevelopment is currently on hold, due to lack of finance being available for this type of project. Whilst this could change any time, the owners have now offered to provide some funds to improve the site. They plan to put wooden boarding around the site, and will support some type of murals or artwork on the boarding. I have contacted the Council to find out if they could also provide some support, for example to allow local artists to work with the local schools to come up with some ideas for murals or some other type of public art.

It is still unacceptable that the flats on this site have been empty for so long, but in the meantime it would be great if we can get improvements to the site whilst development is on hold. As ever, let me know if you have any ideas.

Bower's Contract: 1. Lower Council Tax

This is the first of a series of posts running up to the city council election on Thursday in which I will cover my five main pledges to Coleridge to which I would work if elected.

Every Conservative should put the taxpayer foremost when dealing with taxpayers' money. That means that every pound is spent well.

Cambridge City Council has been increasing council tax by 4.5% year on year. For this general election year only they are raising it by only 2.5% but have planned to raised it by 3.5% and then 4.5% in the following years. That means an Olympic-sized cumulative tax rise of 11% by the Olympic year of 2012.

I would push for the city council to keep council tax rises down to 2.5% or lower for the next two years so that they can benefit from the council tax freeze promised by the Conservatives nationally if, as we all must hope, they get elected. In contrast the Conservative-run county council is planning 2.5% rises for those years, meaning council tax bills would be frozen.

The graph above shows council tax rises after the application of the Conservative national council tax freeze for frugal councils that keep their rises below 2.5% by 2.5% matching funding.

The full Conservative policy on the city council for keeping council tax low is on pages 10 and 11 of our manifesto.

We need a new culture at the city council to keep council tax under control. Instead of incremental budget changes that are thoroughly opaque we should instigate 'zero-based budgeting' whereby all expenditure is justified afresh and the council doesn't just keep on doing things which may not be to taxpayers' benefit because they haven't been identified.

David Cameron has the right idea when he talks about Labour’s ‘carnival of waste’:

I know there are those who will hear us talking about cut waste and say "you'll be no different, you'll have your pet projects, you'll go native when you start living in the land of bureaucrats". So let me explain why we'll be different. We'll be different because we are different. First, our attitude is different. Conservatives loathe waste. Efficiency is in our DNA. We never forget that fundamental fact about public money, which is that it's public, it's yours, not ours. It doesn't undergo some magical transformation at the Treasury to become government money. Those are the same pounds that were earned by you on the factory floor, on the hospital ward, in the office and we will never forget that we have a moral duty not to spend your money but to save it where we can.

Good government costs less with the Conservatives!

I would do my best to keep council tax down, following the best practices of Conservative councils across the UK and taking a lead by calling for councillor allowances to be cut by 10%.