The Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) should be scrapped, according to Conservative councillors, as it is “forever tarnished” by its failed congestion charge plans.
Its responsibilities for transport and infrastructure projects – and its money – should instead be transferred to the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, it was argued.
Cllr Steve Count, the Conservative opposition leader on Cambridgeshire County Council, put forward the motion.
“I do not know of anybody in the region that speaks of the GCP with glowing terms and therefore it is hamstrung from delivering anything constructive,” he said.
“There have been so many failures by the GCP that nobody has confidence in the end. So it’s time for it to go.”
But Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors voted down the motion and hit back, arguing that the former leader of the council was among those who signed up for the City Deal that established the GCP.
Cllr Elisa Meschini (Lab, King’s Hedges), chair of the GCP’s executive board, described the GCP as the opposition group’s “favourite punching bag” and noted the government had spoken highly of the organisation by pledging £7.2million to “restart” the paused Cambridge South East Transport (CSET) busway scheme.
“Let us not forget who put this into existence and who controlled it until 2021,” she said.
The GCP was established in 2014 as a delivery body tasked with spending up to £500million of government money under a City Deal agreement designed to help the economy prosper, speed up development, create jobs and enhance transport.
It comprises elected representatives from the county council, Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council, plus some university and business representatives, but there are no direct elections to it.
Cllr Count’s motion, debated by the county council on Tuesday (19 March), called for the council’s chief executive to write to the government, confirming the request to disband the GCP and transfer all funding and responsibilities to the Combined Authority, which has a directly-elected mayor – currently Labour’s Dr Nik Johnson.
A petition signed by 258 people calling for the organisation to be disbanded was presented to the meeting.
The motion also called for the Combined Authority – which has itself been mired in controversy in the last year – to ring-fence GCP funding to spend in the geography for which it was intended.
The motion stated that the GCP has “lost the credibility and support of many of the residents they are supposed to represent and businesses they are supposed to support”.
It said the GCP and Combined Authority share “some common aims” and “have some duplicated bureaucracy that can be slimmed down”. The motion added that projects could be accelerated “by removing a tier of bureaucracy”.
“Now I’m no fan of the Combined Authority under the current mayor or leadership, but it does have a role and a purpose,” said Cllr Count (March North and Waldersey).
Cllr Count referred to the GCP’s Making Connections project, which included controversial plans for a Sustainable Travel Zone (STZ) in the city which drivers would have had to pay a congestion charge to enter. The idea was defeated after public and political opposition.
“They put in the bin 24,000 responses without analysing them fully and said there’s no longer political support for this,” said Cllr Count, who argued this showed that they “still haven’t listened to the public”.
“What you should have said was it’s clear the public don’t want this and we need to change direction. And now that stain on the GCP, on the Labour Party, on the Liberal Democrats, still remains like a beetroot stain on your shirt or blouse, so anything the GCP tries to do now is tainted.”
Cllr Count then challenged the coalition in charge of the county council – comprising Liberal Democrat, Labour and Independent councillors – to pledge support for the GCP on their election leaflets and if not, to support the motion. But they noted the former council leader was among those who signed up for the City Deal.
“This reversal of opinion of the mover of the motion seems strangely matched with a reversal of the control of the council,” said Cllr Brian Milnes (Lib Dem, Sawston and Shelford).
Cllr Graham Wilson (Lib Dem, Godmanchester and Huntingdon South) said: “I for one I’m very proud of what we have achieved and what we are achieving.”
Meanwhile, Cllr Mike Black (Lab, Arbury) argued that it was a “weird idea” to think that the money could be retained if the GCP was scrapped.
Highways committee chair Cllr Alex Beckett (Lib Dem, Queen Edith’s) said: “The challenges the GCP faces are indicative of a body actively engaging with complex urban issues, not one that has ceased to serve its purpose. We want to bolster not belittle institutions like the GCP that can strive to bring about tangible change. It’s also vital that we do not conflate the difficulties of pioneering new projects with a lack of credibility, the journey of innovation is fraught with obstacles and the GCP has made concerted efforts to navigate these.
“Those 24,000 residents engaged with the Making Connections consultation and the subsequent cessation of the STZ [Sustainable Travel Zone] is not a sign of failure, but of active civic participation,” he said, before listing the GCP’s achievements including the Chisholm Trail, Greenways, electric buses and free parking at Park & Ride sites.
“The best is yet to come from the GCP. We should be giving it our help.”
Cllr Meschini responded directly to claims that nobody speaks highly of the GCP: “I know somebody who speaks highly of the GCP and that is this Conservative government.”
She added: “I received an email this morning from an official in Michael Gove’s department which confirms, and I’m reading, ‘the £7.2m announced in the Budget earlier this month by Jeremy Hunt MP, the Chancellor, to improve transport connectivity to the Biomedical Campus will be paid to the GCP with a specific purpose to restart the paused CSET scheme’.
“The conclusion, Mr Chairman: they don’t like the GCP – they were the ones setting it up. Everybody else recognises that our programme that we are carrying forward is the number one priority for transport improvements in our region to support this government’s growth plans for the UK’s so-called science capital, which we apparently all are supposed to want.”
Cllr Steve Tierney (Con, Wisbech West) pledged his support for the motion and also called for the Combined Authority to be scrapped.
“These are layers of bureaucracy and decision-making that we do not need. They are expensive, they spread the blame rather than focusing the blame on the people who were elected to take it, and make difficult decisions. I would give all the money to this council regardless of who is in charge of it and let them have to stand up and say this is what we’re going to do and take the blame if it’s wrong.”
Cllr Dr Susan van de Ven (Lib Dem, Melbourn and Bassingbourn) said the GCP provided the “only available forum” to deliver the transport improvements needed to meet the “extraordinary growth” in the area, and argued it would be “absurd” to disband it.
Cllr Alan Sharp (Con, Woodditton) said it had transformed Cambridge, but “not in the way that was envisaged”.
“We have a city that is divided and a large number of residents not having their voices heard.
“We have schemes that may solve one problem that pushes the problems elsewhere. The GCP needs to be put into Room 101 of the CPCA and I commend this motion.”
Cllr Count concluded: “It did do a good job at a point in time. I think the change came with the congestion charge in 2021 and now it is forever tarnished.”
The motion failed with 18 councillors voting in support and 31 against.
