Tonight I moved the budget amendment from the Liberal Democrat group. This proposed:

• Moving support for Community Led Development to the new free resource in place thanks to Cambridgeshire ACRE and the Combined Authority.
• Deleting an increase of one-third in the Council’s PR budget.
• Investigating civil parking enforcement, the system used by almost every other district in England instead of police enforcement of on-street parking.
• Delegating £169,000 of spending to parish and town councils.
• Committing £500,000 towards a safe crossing for pedestrians and cyclists at the A10 BP roundabout at Ely.

This is what I said.

“Our amendment is intended to alter the proposals from the Conservative group in a number of significant ways.

Firstly our amendment deletes the post of Community Led Development Advisor and the £100,000 of CLT [Community Land Trust] pre-development finance support. Put very simply, and in terms no-one will misunderstand, we don’t trust this administration and its version of community led development as far as we can throw them.

Every other district in the county is part of the community led development offer by Cambridgeshire ACRE through the Combined Authority, at no cost. We see no reason why any authority seeking to be transparent, inclusive, and genuinely respectful of the voice of local communities would not want to do the same.

Secondly, our amendment deletes the increase of £25,000 in the cost of the Council PR budget. There is no excuse for increasing the size of the Council administration’s self-promotion spend by one-third and we will not support it.

Thirdly, we would use some of this saving on a one-off spend of £10,000 to investigate options for introducing civil parking enforcement. By the end of this year we will be able to count on the fingers of one hand the number of councils where on-street parking is still enforced—or more realistically not enforced—by the police. And East Cambridgeshire will be one of them. It’s time to look at ways in which we can join the rest of society while achieving our own local objectives.

Fourthly, we would delegate the £169,000 Rural Services Delivery Grant to parish and town councils, with a view to them spending that money on environmental or biodiversity activity, or actions to help mitigate development in their communities.

Fifthly and finally, we would commit an initial £500,000 from the new Growth & Infrastructure Fund as matched funding towards a safe crossing for pedestrians and cyclists at the A10 BP crossing in Ely. This is something residents have been crying out for ever since the roundabout was reconfigured under the cheer-leadership of the Leader of the Council, to exclude safe travel on foot or by bicycle. I commend these proposals to this Council.”

The Lib Dem budget proposal was defeated by the Conservatives by 17 votes to 10.