council – Katie Thornburrow

Building a truly integrated transport network for Cambridge

Every month I write an article for the Cambridge Independent which is later published on the Cambridge City Council website as my ‘Leader’s Blog’. In September I picked up on my long-term interest in railways and transport strategy.

If you remember the 1970s British Rail slogan “Let the train take the strain”, you may also recall that carriages were old and rattling and signal boxes were magnificent brick buildings by the side of the track. Things have changed a lot since then and, over the last decade in particular, regional railways have been quietly increasing their capacity and comfort while the network has been transformed by technology.

We can see the difference in Cambridge. Platforms have been lengthened across the network so train operators can run longer trains by adding extra carriages. In some cases they have doubled the length of the train, massively increasing passenger capacity. Alongside these physical changes, we have seen significant improvements to train schedules, steadily boosting the frequency of services connecting Cambridge with surrounding areas. And of course we have two new stations.

These visible changes have been made possible by essential work behind the scenes (read more).

Reviewing my first three months

I became the Leader of Cambridge City Council at our meeting on June 1, a little over 100 days ago, and it’s been rather busy but intensely rewarding since then and I have I’ve found it stimulating and, in almost every respect, enjoyable. I’m grateful to the Council officers and staff, and my fellow councillors from all parties, who have given me great support. We all work hard to deliver for everyone in Cambridge.

A major focus has been making sure we can work together effectively with Labour as a minority adminstration – we have fewer than half of the seats on the council and can only make decisions with support from other councillors.

I said in June that all the parties, have a vital and active role to play in the future success of Cambridge and I think we have managed to bring everyone together, with cross-party consultation, transparency, and a focus on delivering key community priorities that reflect the city’s evolving political landscape. That doesn’t mean we always agree, but we are working to find compromises and ways to be effective.

Let’s work together for Cambridge

At the Council AGM on May 21st no Leader was chosen and as a result there are no Cabinet members and all committee seats are vacant. We will reconvene as a Council on June 1 to resolve this. It is an unwelcome situation that has arisen because the other parties would not support me as Leader but were unwilling to put any other candidate forward or to propose a solution.
This is what I said at the end of the meeting. I call on the other parties to put the interests of Cambridge first and resolve things. They know where to reach me.

Here is the transcript of what I said:

Maria Cleminson: Councillor Thornburrow.

Katie Thornburrow: I have worked with Tim Bick and many of his members, very collaboratively and very successfully, and with enjoyment. I’ve also worked with Naomi Bennett, and Jean [Glasberg], and Hugh [Clough], with enjoyment, and we’ve been a really good council collectively. I have gone out of my way to work with green issues across the city.

And we need to get on and make make a decision about a leader. It may be that Tim could put his name forward, or you, Naomi.

We have put our case about our leader. We are prepared to be in opposition and we would still work constructively and collaboratively, and we would do everything possible for the best um, the needs of the council and our residents.

We have not said that we wouldn’t work with you in that way. And if you were to put your name forward today, and if that was the democratic decision going forward, we would then go and talk about the scrutiny committees and we would enable the council to get on.

We are prepared to work. We have a proposal about a way to work, you can propose a way. We feel that one of us could be a leader, and we will respect the democratic decision of of the councillors in this chamber.

Our proposal has not been accepted, I’d really value proposals from you. If we were in opposition, we would be constructive and collaborative. We would continue to work in our wards, and we would continue to do what we could for the council and the greater good.

Maria Cleminson: Thank you, Councillor Thornburrow