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| Cambridge Liberal Democrat Manifesto 1998Basic Services vs Prestige Projects |
The fundamental difference to emerge in the last few years between the Liberal Democrat and Labour approaches to local government in Cambridge is that while Labour pursues large prestige projects, Liberal Democrats have pushed for better standards in basic services. While Labour has voted almost all the Council’s available capital resources to the expensive Parkside Pool scheme, Liberal Democrats have campaigned for improvements in basic public services, including street-cleaning, pavement repairs, buses, street-lighting, housing improvements and education.
Labour has always argued that prestige projects such as the ill-fated Market Square scheme are necessary to create a feeling of civic pride in Cambridge. Liberal Democrats argue that the Council should concentrate on making the city somewhere to be proud of in the first place. No-one is entitled to be proud of ill-lit, dirty and litter-strewn streets whose pavements are broken.
Our highest priorities for improvement in our first budget will be:
A majority controlled Liberal Democrat council would order an immediate and thorough review of all council budgets in the confident expectation of finding yet more efficiency savings, the proceeds of which we will plough back into basic services and into keeping the Council Tax down.
Some of Labour’s cuts that pay for their prestige projects:
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