Nichola Harrison

Nichola came to Cambridge in 1974 to take a first degree at Clare College, studying first Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic Studies and then Land Economy. After starting her career as a Chartered Surveyor in Huntingdon, she moved to London where she worked in the commercial property development sector. In 1986 she moved to North Norfolk to concentrate on business interests including the family farm and in 1997 she and her two sons moved back to Cambridge.

A member of the Liberal Democrat party since its foundation in 1988, Nichola has been active with the Cambridge party since 1998 and has been a councillor since 1999, being first elected to the City Council for Newnham ward. In 2000 the Liberal Democrats took control of the City Council and Nichola had the privilege of holding the portfolio for environmental and planning services during the early years of the Council - services including street cleaning, recycling, public transport and planning for the city’s future.

Nichola has lived in Peterfield since 2002 and was elected as County Councillor for the ward in 2005. She is the Lib Dem spokesperson for Growth and Resources, with responsibility for party policy (the Lib Dems are in opposition to the Conservatives) on the growth and development of the city and county and the financial and general management of the Council. She is a member of the Joint Planning Committee responsible to determine the planning applications for the major urban extensions on the fringes of the city, and serves on numerous other council committees and panels.

She is a governor of Parkside and Coleridge Community Colleges, together known as the Parkside Federation. She is Chair of the Trustees of Shape East, the architecture and built environment centre for the East of England, which is based at Sturton Street. She was a member of the East of England Regional Assembly’s Regional Planning Panel, which determines planning policy above the local tier, from 2001 until earlier this year.