King's Hedges Election Results

Well now the election results across most of the Country are known it's been pretty clear that the Liberal Democrats haven't had a good night, the fact that the Conservatives haven't had a good night either isn't really that much of a consolation.

Here in Cambridge City we lost several good Councillors including my ward colleague Cllr Neil McGovern who was part of the Cambridge City Executive and who has worked very hard for King's Hedges residents but unfortunately it wasn't enough to turn back the Labour Tide.

The full results for the City elections are available on the City Councils website here. From the website;

"Before the elections, the composition of the 42 seats on the council was 25 Liberal Democrats, 14 Labour, 2 Green and 1 Independent. 


Labour gained four seats and the Conservatives gained one, while the Liberal Democrat party lost four seats and the Green party lost one. 


A Green councillor announced on election day that he was switching his allegiance to the Labour party, so after the elections the composition of the council was 21 Liberal Democrats, 19 Labour, 1 Conservative and 1 Independent."

The result in King's Hedges was;

• Gawthrope, Nigel Peter (Labour) - ELECTED 827
• Karimi, Arnette (Conservative) 199
• McGovern, Neil Michael (Liberal Democrat) 576
• Tyes, Ian (United People's Party) 105

Here is a quick diagram showing how the vote was shared out;

King's Hedges Share of Vote

Phil Rodgers has done an excellent visualisation of the last two elections on his blog (available here) which shows that both the Liberal Democrat and Labour share of the vote have increased over last year at the expense of the Conservatives but that the Labour share of the vote has increased both by more and from a higher base.

Congratulations to Nigel on his election victory, I look forward to meeting him at the next North Area Committee meeting.

Lib Dems' Election Manifesto To Ensure City’s Success

Cambridge Liberal Democrats launched their election manifesto today (Saturday, March 31) and promised to continue to ensure the success of the city by investing in its people and its future.

They reiterated their vision for Cambridge to meet housing needs, support the city’s economy, care for the environment, tackle anti-social behaviour and meet the needs of the vulnerable.

And looking forward, they said they would continue to do things better for lower costs, with a focus on working more smartly behind the scenes.

Leader Sian Reid said: “We have worked hard over many years to find better ways for the city council to deliver services. This has meant we have preserved investment and protected frontline services during tough times.

“We take our lead from our residents and make decisions as closely as possible to the people affected by those decisions.”

The manifesto sets out clear priorities for new spending in the future:

• Supporting vulnerable individuals and communities including a new job club, installing welfare advice points and rehabilitating street drinkers;
• Investing in streets and open spaces including piloting street champions to tackle litter, a 20mph scheme, dual use litter bins and promoting Mill Road;
• Getting Cambridge’s future right by cutting energy use and investing in renewable and making the case for sustainable transport.

Cllr Reid added: “We are never complacent about the city’s economy and the outlook for its vulnerable.

“Our approach and our work with so many organisations is paying off for Cambridge. The city has weathered the storm better than any other city in the UK which was acknowledged by the Centre for Cities.”


The manifesto is available to download here (via Google Docs).