Council leaders: ‘Thank you for extraordinary response to GCP Making Connections consultation’

Opinion | By Cllr Anna Smith, leader of Cambridge City Council, Cllr Bridget Smith, leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council, and Cllr Lucy Nethsingha, leader of Cambridgeshire County Council

This week sees the close of the 10-week consultation on Making Connections, the programme of improvements to public transport being proposed by the Greater Cambridge Partnership alongside a sustainable travel zone for Cambridge.

The consultation has seen an extraordinary degree of public response, with many thousands completing the consultation.

We are grateful to all those who have taken the time to make their views known through the consultation. The formal consultation documents are detailed, and it is a sign of the level of interest in these proposals that so many people and organisations have taken the time to respond in depth.

The information we will gain from the rich data in these responses will be invaluable in helping us to understand what the key priorities and concerns are for those who live and work in Cambridgeshire, and those who travel into the county for work or other reasons.

In addition to the thousands who have completed the consultation online, many hundreds have attended online or in-person meetings or emailed councillors individually. We are grateful to councillors and to the officers of the Greater Cambridge Partnership who have been out in our communities day after day, listening to residents’ views across the whole of Cambridgeshire and beyond. The debate has sometimes been heated, and the meetings sometimes challenging for councillors or staff. For decisions like these it is essential that local residents, who care passionately about our area, are able to meaningfully contribute their thoughts and ideas, and we want to thank the vast majority who have engaged in this debate, with mutual respect for the views of others.

The proposals in the consultation have been developed over many years by the Greater Cambridge Partnership, a body which includes representatives from Cambridge City Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council, and Cambridgeshire County Council, and also from business, education and other groups. The proposals were substantially shaped by the work of the Citizens’ Assembly in 2019, and we want to acknowledge the years of work which have gone into the balance of ideas in the scheme.

A scheme like this was always going to result in significant debate, but we felt that, given the scale of the challenges we are facing, that it was right to have that debate. There are no easy answers to the traffic and pollution issues faced in Cambridge city or to the desperate need for better public transport across our region, and our decision to hold this consultation is a reflection of that. Analysing the consultation responses over the coming months will take time. There are thousands of written responses, and we owe it to all those who took the time to respond in detail to analyse those responses alongside the headline figures.

Whatever the decisions made as a result of this consultation, we know much of the way we live, work and move will change in the coming decades. The imperative to respond to the climate crisis is matched by the need to recognise that car ownership is becoming increasingly expensive for more and more people. As we make that transition to a lower carbon transport system, we must also ensure that we are not putting too great a burden on those who are not easily able to switch to the bus or bike. We know we have an ageing population across Cambridgeshire, and that there will be many other groups of people who are not easily able to change the way they travel due to disability or illness, caring responsibilities or the type of work they do. And we need to make sure that those people are not left out of pocket, especially if they are on low incomes. We understand the need to be very careful in whatever changes are made, now and in the future, to ensure a ‘just transition’, where those in most need are not left behind.

We will look carefully at what the public have told us, and we will set out our responses to the consultation once we know what is contained in the thousands of replies we have received. Thank you to all who have engaged positively with this process. As we have said all along, we are listening, and we are grateful for the time given to helping to make our city and our county a fairer and greener place for the future.

As the consultation draws to its close, we wish all those who are celebrating it a Happy Christmas, and hope that all of you are able to find some time for a rest and a pause. We look forward to spending time understanding all of your thoughtful feedback in the new year.

Respond at consultcambs.uk.engagementhq.com/making-connections-2022 by midday on Friday.