But I also wanted to say that this devolution deal is in danger of being dissed by the Cambridge twitterati before there has been a proper chance to talk to government about more of the detail and debate it among ourselves and with our communities.
It is a deal with some good points, and with some points that have people concerned, such as an elected mayor with wide powers. So we need to understand the governance around all this.
But for south Cambridgeshire and the bio-tech ribbon where I am ( Babraham Institute, Wellcome Trust, Granta Park etc ) the issue offers the chance to do something strategic about housing and transport. We don't have enough houses, but we also don't want to concrete over between our unique and distinctive villages. So building houses in Suffolk, for example, and with good enough links to get to work here in sensible time is an option worth exploring.
I used to run legal aid in this region and I know that as well as the richness of Cambridge there is a great deal of rural social poverty, in the Cambridge fens as much as in Norfolk and Suffolk. I think it is possible for South Cambs to be a gateway for to invigorate the economies of those two sleeping Giants to our east, and benefit the whole area. I'd rather see that than South Cambridgeshire become a detached suburb of London, house prices and all.
It may be this isn't a deal worth pursuing but let's be serious about first.
No comments:
Post a Comment