A day of huge significance for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, as James Palmer’s Mayoral empire comes crashing down.

With a new (Labour) Mayor, and Liberal Democrat gains in South and East Cambridgeshire helping tip the County Council into No Overall Control, the political dynamics of the next four years in Cambridgeshire will be very different.

The County Council’s annual council meeting is scheduled to take place on Tuesday 18 May. It’s not yet known who will lead the County Council. It’s also not yet known who will represent the Council on the new Mayor’s Combined Authority Board. Some decisions of the Mayor require the support of a two-thirds majority of Board members. That could be difficult for a Labour Mayor, who will need to get at least one Conservative Board member on side for each of those decisions, as – whatever happens at the County Council – three other member Councils (East Cambridgeshire, Fenland, and Huntingdonshire) will continue to send a Conservative representative to the Combined Authority.

A new Mayor will no doubt mean a change of direction in a number of key policy areas. Mayor Johnson is already on record as seeking to scrap his predecessor’s much-vaunted CAM metro. And it appears that he may be more interested than his predecessor in working with registered housing providers, and perhaps less interested in promoting ‘Community Land Trusts’.

There will also undoubtedly be implications for East Cambridgeshire District Council. The District Council and its Trading Company have enthusiastically pushed for loans from the Combined Authority for their ‘Community Land Trust’ schemes, and the Combined Authority has eagerly reciprocated with funding for these and for their favoured developer Laragh Homes. Will the new Mayor be so supportive of the District Council’s approach?

Much change ahead.