Nichola will be putting a motion to Council on 9 December, calling on the Conservative-run County Council to allocate £100,000 to the county’s advice agencies to help meet the increased demand in the coming few months, with more to come in future years.

This move will complement the efforts of Cllr Ian  Nimmo-Smith, Leader of the Lib Dem City Council, who is asking all Cambridgeshire’s councils to contribute to funding extra advice and support for people suffering from financial problems at this time.

The motion reads:
Voluntary sector agencies such as Citizens’ Advice Bureau offer vital services to people needing advice about managing debt, applying for benefits, securing decent housing and other issues. As a result of the current credit crunch and economic downturn, many people in Cambridgeshire are facing severe financial pressures and are increasingly turning to these organisations for help. The agencies need extra funding to employ additional advisors in order to meet the demand.This Council requests Cabinet to allocate £100,000 to these agencies for immediate use during the current financial year, and to consider what further sums should be made available during the next two financial years.

The letter was signed by David Howarth, Cambridge’s Lib Dem MP, who said: “The government is trying to bring in ID cards by stealth by picking first on weaker groups, such as foreigners and students. But they know that their national database system will not work even in theory unless everyone is on it, not just a few people. They are just softening up public opinion by trying to link ID cards with the immigration issue. But since anyone who is here illegally will neither have nor need an ID card, this change will make no difference.”

“I am also worried about the effect of this move on the economy of Cambridge, which relies on a stream of highly qualified scientists, engineers and academics from all over the world. Treating highly qualified people as potential criminals rather than as welcome guests is not going to put us at the top of their list of places to go to use their talents.”

Ross Anderson, Professor of Security Engineering and Member of Cambridge University’s Council, said “This will place yet another burden on non-EU students and spouses in Cambridge (on top of the recent huge increases in visa fees). People will have to trek to Croydon to get fingerprinted and interviewed. In fact one of my own foreign students is hurrying to write up and leave the country before his current visa ends in January precisely to avoid this.

“This will not merely be an annoyance but will make UK universities less competitive. It’s basically an attempt to introduce ID cards by stealth by picking on relatively defenceless people.”

Andrew Watson, joint Cambridge coordinator of the NO2ID campaign, said: “The government originally planned to use British airport workers and students to test its unpopular ID card scheme, but both groups are resisting strongly. It seems the Home Office now plans to use non-EU students as guinea-pigs instead, forgetting that they can always study in other countries. Non-EU students contribute over £3 billion to the UK economy every year; risking driving them away for no better reason than to
test the doomed ID card scheme is sheer folly.”

Nichola spoke to the planning committee at the start of the day to explain the range of concerns expressed by Petersfield residents, and to ask the committee to consider very carefully whether these concerns could be resolved at the next stage of the process.  (more…)

The real news, hidden behind the headlines, is that the County Council seems set to scrap Mill Road’s funding for an accident reduction scheme, or at the very best kick the project into the long grass. (more…)