What we will reject of Labour’s legacy

• Money wasted on council spin doctors
• Massive cuts in environmental improvements and traffic schemes
• Favouritism - restricting council spending outside "their" areas
• A closed council - secretive "working parties", less discussion in open committee, reduced public speaking rights
• A hostile and negative attitude to neighbouring councils
• A hostile and negative attitude to high technology industry and to higher education - and to arts
• Spending on prestige projects while basic services suffer
• Cuts in grants to voluntary organisations and the creeping municipalisation of services
• Panic sales of council assets to pay for overblown projects

Summary - A Better Way for Cambridge

Better Public Transport

• A comprehensive evening bus service and a late night bus service
• More community buses
• Support for St Ives railway line

Better Environment

• Reduction of heavy lorry traffic
• Restoration of city-wide environmental improvement and road safety budgets
• Promotion of interests of pedestrians and cyclists
• Aggressive use of environmental powers over road traffic
• Improvements to recycling
• No co-operation with central government over major new development unless guarantees over public transport funding
• Encourage conversion of offices into flats, colleges to bring houses back into family use, encourage people to live in city centre

Better Basic Services

• More and better quality pavement repairs
• Restore Labour cuts in help for the elderly, especially Garden Aid
• Extra help for disabled people, eg dropped kerbs
• Road safety schemes
• Repair bus shelters
• Bring back city wide funding for local environmental improvements
• Expanding the out of hours noise service
• Neighbourhood rangers to make sure local jobs get done
• A review of unnecessary traffic signs
• Better street-sweeping, for example, more waste bins at local shopping centres, and letting everyone know exactly when they can expect their street to be swept (or under what conditions it is swept)
• Help for local schools eg restoration of Children’s Arts Festival, help for Coleridge School in business links bid, restore help for school swimming. Opposition to school closures
• All enquiries replied to within a week (instead of a fortnight)

New Approach to Crime and Disorder

• Help local police eg neighbourhood specials
• Return of park wardens
• Restore cuts in youth work budget
• Restore previous standards of consultation on crime and seek to improve on them, for example by bringing in local magistrates

A More Democratic Council

• People affected by planning applications able to put their views directly to the Planning Committee
• Public question times at all Council meetings
• Inquiry with the voluntary sector to produce a new, more open, system for grants
• All Council departments to comply with the highest standards of public consultation
• Inquiry into help for local business
• Consultation on options for which decisions could be decentralised to local areas
• All Committee Sub-Committee and Working Party meetings to be held in public and enough meetings to take place to maintain full accountability.
• No to the government’s plans for secretive local government

A New Approach to Leisure

• Free swimming for all young people
• Restore the council’s contribution to school swimming
• Free swimming for those who care for people with disabilities
• More operational freedom for the Corn Exchange
• Encourage smaller shops to consider staying open during summer evenings
• Public entertainment area at Quayside similar to Covent Garden in London
• Complete overhaul of leisure card