Michael Williamson

Here is the text of a press release sent out on Monday, June 8th when the result of the vote on the South Cambridgeshire District Council housing transfer process was known.

For further information on this sorry affair, click here. See also my earlier post on the subject.

The Liberal Democrat Group Leader on South Cambridgeshire District Council has today called on Cllr Simon Edwards – up to recently in charge of the Housing Futures project – and Cllr Ray Manning (Leader of the Council) to resign following the massive rejection of the Conservative Housing Futures project by South Cambridgeshire tenants.

Cllr Sebastian Kindersley was speaking after the results of the Ballot were made public on Thursday June 4th. Cllr Kindersley commented:

 “From the very start of this misguided and mismanaged project Cllr Edwards and Cllr Manning rode roughshod over the legitimate concerns raised by others. They were determined to blindly implement Conservative party policy without a concern for the financial realities for the South Cambridgeshire taxpayer. South Cambridgeshire citizens – whether tenants or not – have now lost a considerable amount of money.

Repeatedly we asked for the case presented to Tenants to be a balanced one; with proper information provided and all sides of the case put for public consideration. Our concerns were derided and the Conservatives actually went as far as to vote against this.

Repeatedly we asked for a delay in the consultation process as so many different mistakes and misjudgements were being made in the rush to ditch our Council housing. This was also refused.

Housing Futures was the single major issue for the Conservative administration and it has backfired on a massive scale – they completely misjudged the mood of our citizens. What is worse is that it has wasted nearly £800,000 of our money on a project that was doomed from the start due to Cllr Manning and Cllr Edward’s refusal to make a balanced and transparent presentation of information to tenants. 

This so-called consultation exercise patronized tenants and was a flagrant waste of precious financial resource, spent on forcefully promoting a simplistic message. 

Is this arrogant, high-handed and willful negligence what South Cambridgeshire citizens want from their Leaders? The answer is no – and today we call on Cllrs Manning and Edwards to resign. The integrity of the democratic process and of the political leadership of South Cambridgeshire District Council have been badly damaged.

I intend to ask Councillors to support a Motion of No Confidence in the Leader and Cabinet at an Extraordinary Meeting of the Council. The Council already has a meeting planned for June 18^th”and that would seem a timely and appropriate occasion to take this matter to conclusion.  

Thanks to all those who voted for me at the County Council elections yesterday and elected me to be your councillor for the next four years.

The full results were:

It was a good day for Liberal Democrats in South Cambridgeshire. Susan van de Ven was elected in Melbourn over the sitting Conservative member and we gained the second seat in Cottenham, Histon and Impington, where Sue Gymer pushed the sitting Conservative member, Matt Bradney, into third place and took her place alongside David Jenkins in this two member division.

 For full details of the election results in the whole of Cambridgeshire, click here.

The East of England Regional Assembly (EERA) has recently called for proposals for new towns in Cambrigeshire (see my earlier post on the topic).

On April 7th, I went along to a meeting of a committee called the Joint Cambridgeshire Regional Spatial Strategy Review Panel. This is producing recommendations to EERA about options for development and I was concerned that Waterbeach was in a list of sites labelled ‘worthy of consideration’. I was able to ask some questions at the meeting, and I am very pleased that the County Council Cabinet has now come pretty firmly down against all new settlements (apart from those already agreed or supported by District Councils), and Waterbeach is in the group of sites labelled ‘Serious difficulies identified ..’. Incidentally, Mereham, the site up at Haddenham-Wilburton, was ruled out as ‘No longer worthy of consideration’.

The saga goes on, and the developers will continue to press their case, but hopefully we shall be spared large scale development for some years.

The County Council has recently confirmed that the resurfacing of the Back Stile footpath is to be included in the capital works programme for this year. This is after several years of campaigning by Michael and others who see the current state of this path as a disgrace.

Back Stile (more formally known as Footpath Number 1) runs from Waterbeach Green to the A10. It was surfaced many years ago, but the edges of the path have fallen away over the years and, although it can still be used by walkers, it cannot be used by any sort of wheeled transport, including buggies and wheelchairs.

The path also has a junction with Footpath Number 2 which runs from the end of Glebe Road and has recently been resurfaced.

‘Repair of Footpath Number 1 will provide a much needed new route within Waterbeach’, says Michael. ‘In particular, I believe that it will provided a much-needed link between the Mill Road - Glebe Road area and the Green as well as improving access from the Green to the A10. It took us a long time to get there, but persistence clearly pays off.’

Liberal Democrats on South Cambridgeshire District Council have condemned the latest steps in the controversial plan to transfer council housing stock.

Speaking at the Full Council meeting on 23 April 09, Cllr Jonathan Chatfield said: ‘It is a scandal that after spending nearly £1million on ‘glossy propaganda’ including over £50,000 on DVDs, only 2% of tenants have indicated their support for transfer. Of the 7,739 tenants who were asked, 161 were said to be generally supportive. This is a mere 2%, meaning 98% were either opposed or chose not to respond.’

Throughout the process the Liberal Democrats have challenge the Conservative administration to give both sides of the argument, as there are clearly pros and cons to transfer and pros and cons to retention. However, this has been refused and the arguments coming from the Council have been entirely one sided.

County Councillor Michael Williamson agrees. “I have been talking to many people locally, and this is the main issue that keeps coming up in areas of South Cambs housing. Residents are very worried about their futures and this propaganda does nothing to help. One of my constituents has tried to make the alternative view known, and he has been stopped from doing this by Council officials.”

On Saturday, May 9th, a group of Landbeach and Waterbeach residents attended a Speedwatch training session at Landbeach Village Hall.

Michael Williamson organised this training session because of the huge concern in both villages about speeding traffic. Five residents of Landbeach and three from Waterbeach, including Michael himself, attended the training given by a representative of the police from Histon. It involved demonstration of the equipment and then a practical exercise on Green End where in a very short time a significant number of drivers were found exceeding the 30 mph limit.

The team from Landbeach are extremely enthusiastic, and intend to set up checks in the near future. One of them commented to Michael that he was very pleased that something was been done at last about drivers who drive through Landbeach far too quickly.

For more information about Speedwatch, see the article below.

By now, parents and carers have been informed that Helen Williams, Headteacher of Waterbeach School, has decided to move on after eight years, and will be leaving at the end of the Summer term.

Helen has been an extremely successful Head. Under her guidance the school achieved ‘outstanding’ in its OfStEd inspection in 2007. One of the comments of the inspectors was that “The key factor in this ongoing improvement is the outstanding quality of the headteacher’s leadership”. Thus Helen will be a hard act to follow. However, she will leave behind a strong team and, as a Governor, I am confident that the school will move on from strength to strength and will be in safe hands while the search goes on for a new head to start, hopefully, in September 2010.

Drivers coming along Butt Lane from Impington are having difficulty understanding what they should do if they want to go to Cambridge.

The correct thing to do is to take the turning to the right just before the A10 and drive through the Park and Ride site to the traffic lights where they can turn right again to Cambridge. However, many drivers are confused by the signs and end up at the end of Butt Lane where it is left turn only.

At this point, a few drivers attempt to turn right, not realising that the traffic coming from Ely is not stopping and there has been at least one collision caused by this manouevre. However, many do the correct thing and turn left, but then carry out a dangerous U-turn at the first available opportunity.

In retrospect, it might have been better not to force drivers going to Cambridge to do this via the Park and Ride site. However, what is absolutely clear is that better signs are needed to make sure drivers are told exactly what to do. I know that Milton Parish Council are very concerned about this situation, and that they have contacted the County Council engineers about the problem. I have followed this up, and am pressing for some changes as soon as possible.

The new interactive speed sign in Denny End Road flashes when you are travelling at well under 30 mph. It even gets set off by bicycles.

Speed signs like this can be useful to remind drivers of their speed. However, when they flash at drivers who are keeping to the speed limit, or are driving even slower, they are worse than useless. “The sign needs fixing or removing”, says Michael. “I have tried on many occasions to get it mended, but have as yet had no response from the relevant department in the County Council”

Speedwatch is a community initiative backed by the police to record vehicles travelling in excess of the speed limit. Trained volunteers use a very accurate speed display unit (on loan from the Cambridgeshire Safety Camera Partnership ) which is portable and can easily be moved around the area. The volunteers pass the information to the police, who will send a warning letter to anyone who is significantly over the speed limit. Five Milton villagers are currently trained to use the equipment.

Trials in East Cambs over the last year have shown that this increases people’s awareness of their speeding and generally helps to slow the traffic down. Lib Dem District Councillor Hazel Smith, who set up the group in Milton said, ‘The Speedwatch volunteers in Milton have been very keen to be the first in our area to use this kit. We suffer from both congestion in the mornings and speeding cars at other times of day. Having the Speedwatch equipment in the village is better than a flashing sign which people get used to: we can move this equipment around the village and target the dangerous places at particular times of day - like the approaches to the school in the morning. The idea is to remind people of the speed limit - no-one will get points on their licence just because we catch them over the speed limit, but they will get a letter from the police if they are going far too fast.’

A training session for new volunteers in Landbeach, Waterbeach and Milton has been arranged for Saturday morning, May 9th at 10 o’clock until 12 noon. For further information, contact Michael Williamson.