What to look out for after Cambridgeshire s elections
The May 6 elections have changed the political landscape in Cambridgeshire
Updated
Votes being counted in the Cambridge University Sports Centre
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Last week voters fundamentally altered the political status quo in Cambridgeshire.
The Conservatives lost control of both the county council and the directly elected mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough - the latter of which leads the combined authority, the former of which holds decisive votes on the Greater Cambridge Partnership.
Dromos Autonomous Vehicle concept for Cambridge Autonomous Metro. Designed and rendered by PriestmanGoode.
Plans for a £2bn Cambridge Autonomous Metro are to be scrapped, the new mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough has said.
Labour’s Nik Johnson confirmed that he would scrap the project after beating his rival, the Conservative incumbent James Palmer, to the post.
Speaking to the
Cambridge Independent after his win, Johnson confirmed that he would not be proceeding with the project, which could have seen a fleet of autonomous vehicles ferry residents around the counties
The Cambridgeshire Autonomous Metro (CAM) aims to deliver a new transport system to connect towns and villages across both Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. In March the project unveiled three sets of designs for the new transport system. One proposal would see a fleet of driverless pods ferrying people between 84 predetermined stops.
St Ives and time for a quick purchase at the market
- Credit: James Palmer
“As leader of East Cambs I restructured the council, making savings that has led to eight consecutive years of council tax freeze.”
Time out for Covid jab
- Credit: James Palmer
“We delivered, free parking, reformed Ely markets, built Ely Leisure Village and drove the delivery of Ely Southern Bypass.
Time for a quick break at Witchford
- Credit: James Palmer
“As the first Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, I set up the authority from scratch and invested into all areas of the county fairly.
Julian Makey
Nik Johnson is the new Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
- Credit: LDRS
New Labour regional mayor Dr Nik Johnson will start work this week with an in-depth review of which projects will go ahead and which will be axed following his stunning surprise election victory on Saturday.
Dr Johnson, from Great Gransden, has vowed to work with all political sides after turning the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority red in a deep sea of Conservative blue by unseating the Tory incumbent James Palmer from one of the region’s key political roles.
A metro scheme costing billions of pounds, backed by Mr Palmer, which would have brought a rapid transit passenger system to Huntingdonshire, will be scrapped by the new mayor.
The headline results of the local elections in England are clearly bleak for Labour and rosy for the Conservatives. The Liberal Democrats are, in effect treading water, while the Greens and independents have made some gains in terms of numbers of councillors.
But these are the aggregate council results. The top-level masks so many discrepancies. When listening to so much of the media coverage about these local elections, many candidates and councillors must get disheartened. They campaign as vigorously as possible, only for everyone to obsess about what the results mean for Keir Starmer and Boris Johnson.
The focus has been on how the “red wall” in the north of England is continuing to crumble. Labour lost control of Sheffield City Council and of Durham County Council for the first time, while the Conservatives have gained control of Northumberland County Council. But by zoning in on these, we miss that Labour had either no or only small losses in Gateshead Council, Liverpool C