Early in July the government is going to be announcing those post offices which it proposes to close. This will be a sad day for many communities and will make life very difficult for people who find it hard to travel far to access services.  

At the national level the Liberal Democrats is the only political party to offer a comprehensive and funded strategy to save many of the Post Offices threatened with closure and create a sustainable network of Post Offices. In line with this, the Cambridgeshire County Lib Dems want the Council to provide funding to assist projects to deliver post office services in new ways where this has local support. One possibility would be to co-locate Post Offices with council services such as libraries or local housing offices.

Neither Labour nor the Tories has a good record of defending post offices. The Tories closed over 1000 when they were in power and Labour has already closed almost 3000! The Lib Dems see them as a vital part of local networks and would explore imaginative options to keep them open.

Click here to register your support for saving Cambridgeshire’s post offices today!

Nichola has led a Liberal Democrat challenge against the County Council Cabinet’s recent decision to make it much harder to introduce 20mph speed limits.  The Council’s previous policy, in line with national standards, allowed for 20mph limits on streets with existing average vehicle speed of up to 24mph. Under the new policy, existing average speed must be 20mph or less.  This means that a road with an average speed of just 21mph will not qualify for a 20mph limit.  Other councils are using the 24mph threshold to put 20mph speed limits over wide areas – in

The Liberal Democrats at Cambridgeshire County Council have urged the Conservative administration to persevere with its Transport Innovation Fund proposal, at least until the Government have responded in autumn 2008.  

We think that the County Council was absolutely right to submit a proposal to the Transport Innovation Fund, because we believe that a transport strategy which includes major investment in innovative public transport schemes together with some form of road pricing is essential for the continued success and prosperity of the Cambridge sub-region.

However we believe that the present scheme requires considerable modification including, but not limited to, an undertaking that all surplus revenue will be applied to improvements in public transport, and incentives for lower emission vehicles. We think that further consideration is needed of the charging structure, and of the ways in which the TIF funding (of up to £500m) could be used to provide radical improvements to the public transport system - for people living within and outside Cambridge.

We are confident that these matters can be satisfactorily addressed in a final scheme. We would be happy to co-operate with the Conservative administration to develop the proposal, with the aim of presenting to Government a well worked out and imaginative scheme which has cross-party support.

We understand that the Government is likely to give its response to the TIF submission in the autumn of 2008. We have strongly urged the Conservative administration of Cambridgeshire County Council to await that response before coming to any decision as to whether to proceed to the next stages of the TIF bid.

If the Conservative administration withdraws its Transport Innovation Fund submission before receiving the Government response, it will get a brief cheer from opponents of congestion charging.

But that will be quickly followed by public realisation that the Conservative administration has no alternative transport strategy, and that it has thrown away a once in a lifetime opportunity to invest £500m of Government money to provide Cambridge and its surroundings with a first class public transport system.

I would be very glad to hear your views on the County Council’s proposed Transport Innovation Fund proposal, including its proposal for a Cambridge congestion charge, or around £4 per day, to operate from 7.30am to 9.30am on weekdays.