Cambridgeshire County Council held its Full Council meeting this morning.

A selection of the highlights.

1. The Chair of the Council, Cllr Stephen Ferguson, made a statement at the start of the meeting about the invasion of Ukraine, concluding “We in Cambridgeshire support the actions of the UK, EU and wider international community in backing Ukraine’s democratically elected government against this unprovoked invasion.”
2. We amended the council’s Constitution to rule out motions to Full Council meetings about current planning applications. This doesn’t stop local councillors speaking up on behalf of their communities – of course it doesn’t. But it will put an end to attempts to make council policy on planning applications at Full Council meetings, without all the facts. The proper place to make planning decisions is the Planning Committee.
3. Cllr Ros Hathorn (Histon & Impington) successfully proposed a motion calling for a report on how the County Council can support the rollout of new repair cafés and the operation of existing ones. Repair cafés offer huge benefits, environmental as well as social. Great news.
4. Cllr Alex Bulat (Abbey, Cambridge) was also successful with her motion on voter eligibility and registration among EU citizens in the UK. As this motion said, we need a UK-wide approach to extend voting rights in local elections to all qualifying foreign nationals, as in Scotland and Wales.
5. Cllr Hilary Cox Condron (Arbury, Cambridge) persuaded the council to adopt the Public Sector Duty on socio-economic inequalities to help it address socio-economic disadvantage. Cambridge has huge inequalities among its population, and Fenland has several areas which are among the most deprived in the country.
6. Cllr Edna Murphy (Bar Hill) drew attention to the large number of dying trees along the rebuilt A14 where the National Highways tree planting initiative has failed. Her successful motion asked for facts and figures on this from National Highways, regular progress reports, and council officers to engage in ensuring the promised tree planting is successful.
7. Cllr Alan Sharp (Woodditton) proposed the only unsuccessful motion of the day. It called on the council to ‘oppose road pricing in all its forms in the Greater Cambridge area’. But it offered absolutely nothing positive instead. It had literally nothing to say about rising levels of traffic congestion in Cambridge, the lack of attractive public transport options, or dependence on ownership of private vehicles from which many people are increasingly priced out.

The live stream of the meeting was somewhat interrupted by poor wifi at the Burgess Hall in St Ives, but various parts of the meeting can be found here. The papers for the meeting are here.