Lib Dems focus on COVID, climate, highways and drainage

Support for communities battered by COVID, more speed in meeting Cambridgeshire’s climate commitments, and better maintenance of highways and drains are the three key priorities of Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats’ budget proposals.

At Cambridgeshire County Council’s budget-setting meeting today, the Liberal Democrats will propose

• a £7.8 million programme over five years to help local people rebuild and strengthen their local communities after the pandemic
• £200,000 this coming year, doubling from the following year, for support for small businesses and new green apprenticeships
• £3.6 million extra into green energy over five years, and £1.8 million over five years for biodiversity and our natural environment
• £11.3 million more over five years to improve maintenance of roads, pavements, cycleways and—crucially, after the recent floods—gullies and ditches.

“We know the impact the coronavirus has had on individuals, families, communities, and jobs,” says Cambridgeshire’s Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Lucy Nethsingha.

“That has to be our focus right now, and it’s astonishing that the effect of Covid doesn’t feature anywhere in the Conservatives’ budget proposals.

“At the same time, we also need to meet the climate crisis head-on, and maintain the county’s basic physical infrastructure. “We propose to do all that, while proposing a council tax rise that is lower than the ones in Tory Norfolk, Tory Suffolk, Tory Hertfordshire, and Tory Peterborough. And our budget also leaves a smaller budget gap for the years to come than the Conservative proposals, meaning less financial strain on the council for the next five years.”