Cambridge Liberal Democrats Elect New Leader And Front Line Team

Cllr Tim Bick
(LD, Market)

Cambridge Liberal Democrats have today (Monday, May 14) announced that Councillor Tim Bick will be taking over from Councillor Sian Reid as the group’s new leader.

Sian has decided to step down following surgery earlier this year and the need to take some time to fully recover.

The Lib Dems have also elected their front line team for the coming year with Cllr Catherine Smart continuing as the group’s deputy leader. They propose she will continue to have responsibility for housing, Cllr Tim Ward with the planning and sustainable transport portfolio,

Cllr Rod Cantrill with arts, sport and public places and Cllr Jean Swanson with the waste and recycling portfolio.

They will be joined by newly re-elected Cllr Mike Pitt who they propose to take responsibility for community development and health and Cllr Julie Smith for customer services and resources. Both have experience as executive councillors.

Tim will be proposed as Cambridge City Council Leader at the council’s annual meeting on May 24 when councillors will also vote on the nominations for executive councillors.

The Lib Dems will also be nominating Cllr Sheila Stuart as Mayor and Cllr Paul Saunders as Deputy Mayor for the coming year.

Tim said: “I am delighted to be given this opportunity but at the same time we are all sorry that Sian has decided not to re-stand. She has been a formidable leader of the group and the council and we are sorry that she wanted to step down."

Tim has represented Market Ward on Cambridge City Council for the past four years and served as Executive Councillor for Community Development for the last two. He has worked in human resources in the local technology sector for over 10 years and lives in the city centre. He brings experience of leading his party in local government in Warwickshire.
 
The Lib Dems are the largest party on the city council with half the seats and will propose a full Lib Dem administration at next week’s annual council meeting.

“We have a strong vision for this city and have far from run out of energy and ideas,” said Tim. “The council has work to do and needs to satisfy. There is no other party or collection of parties that is in a position to deliver sound, consistent government to the city.

“It is good for the city that the council's procedures envisage close results and help to avoid deadlock. The same procedures will give voice to the stronger Labour representation and we hope this will add richness to the council's decisions."

Sian’s two year leadership saw the city council through hard economic times. She faced tough decisions setting the council’s budget while at the same time making sure that basic services and those for the vulnerable were protected.

Before taking the leadership, she was Executive Councillor for Climate Change and Growth for four years.

During this time she worked hard to get the city council national recognition for its policy requiring developers of new homes to meet the highest levels of sustainable building.

One of her greatest achievements was the recognition for Cambridge in the Centre for Cities report which named it as one of the top cities in the UK to lead the country to economic recovery.

“I am delighted to hand over to Tim,” she said. “He brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the role and I have every confidence that, together with his new front line team, the Liberal Democrats will continue to work hard for the people of Cambridge.

"I have been part of a fantastic team of people through extremely challenging times, and very much remain part of that team.”

City Council Celebrates Success Of Apprenticeship Scheme

Cambridge City Council is celebrating the success of its apprenticeship scheme after eight young people achieved their qualifications.

The young people, aged between 17 and 23, have been awarded their NVQ Level 2 award in Cleansing and Support Services.

They were recruited in two phases under an apprenticeship scheme run by the city council in partnership with cutting edge training company, Nordic Pioneer.

Working with the council’s Street and Open Spaces service delivery team, the apprentice tackled jobs around the city such as removing graffiti, flytipping and flyposting and cleaning up commons and cemeteries.  

Cllr Jean Swanson (LD,
Queen Edith's Ward)

The scheme was partly funded with £10,000 raised from Fixed Penalty Notices issued for environmental crime such as dropping littler, graffiti and fly-tipping.

The scheme ties in with the national drive to expand apprenticeships after the coalition government gave an extra £50,000 over four years to create 250,000 more apprenticeships.

Cambridge City Executive Councillor for Waste and Environmental Services, Jean Swanson said: We are very pleased with the success of the Cleansing Apprenticeship Scheme.

“We worked with Nordic Pioneer to shape the programme to include some basic grounds maintenance activities to bring some extra variety to the programme and introduce other useful skills.

“Two apprentices have continued to work with us, when required through an agency and they are keen to apply for positions should vacancies arise.”

The scheme is being evaluated it is anticipated there will be enough in the council’s budget to recruit another group of apprentices.

Massive Recycling Project To Be Rolled Out Across The City

A massive programme to promote recycling on the go is being launched by the Liberal Democrat-led Cambridge City Council at a cost of £800,000 over four years.

Dual purpose bins, designed to collect rubbish and recycling, will be located in streets and open spaces across the city.

It is expected Parker’s Piece will be the first big open space to get the bins following a daily litter problem in the area last summer.

Consultation is to take place on the style of bins to be provided, ensuring they are aesthetically pleasing and easy for the public to use, and on areas which have seen particular problems.

Cambridge City Council has allocated £200,000 a year for the next four years to fund the project.

Jean Swanson, Executive Councillor for Environment and Waste Services said: “This scheme would tackle some of the main problem areas in the city and allow large amounts of waste to be recycled at the same time.

“Bins will be designed to be dual purpose – collecting the litter and recycling - making the whole process much more efficient and less time consuming. We hope that these bins, which may be of several different styles, can be placed on streets and open spaces where we know there are on-going litter problems to encourage people to take responsibility for keeping these areas clean.”

Your Views Count – Have Your Say on Bin Collections

Cambridge City Council is carrying out a survey asking residents for their views about bin collections.
The survey is part of a major project to review the routes that bin lorries take around the city. Using specialist software to re-map the routes taking traffic and other factors into account, the council aims to reduce the costs and carbon footprint of bin collections in the city.

Re-mapping the bin lorry routes means that some residents might see a change to their bin day in 2012.

Executive Councillor for Environment and Waste Services, Cllr Jean Swanson said, “The software will tell us where we could make savings, but we want to take residents’ views into account too. As well as finding out what people think about some of the options that the software may present, we are also asking what people think about things like incentives for recycling, and what services they would like to see.

I’d like to encourage as many Cambridge residents as possible to visit our website and take the survey.”

Residents can visit www.cambridge.gov.uk/binsurvey until November 5th to complete the survey.

A telephone survey of a representative sample of 1000 residents will also be conducted this week.