Cambridgeshire County Council rejects the government's East Anglia devolution proposal
On Tuesday, Cambridgeshire County Council debated the motion: "This council notes the announcement by the Chancellor of the devolution deal for the East in his budget on 16th March, but regrets that the deal, in its current form, is not acceptable to this council" (with an amendment passed that would enable ongoing discussions with government, rather than forcing an outright rejection of the deal).
Lucy Nethsingha, leader of the Liberal Democrat group in Cambridgeshire County Council, and the proposer of this motion, had previously criticised the devolution proposal in an interview on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, describing how "the Government has given away very little power in this deal. It's all about power going up from local councils to this peculiar new East Anglia thing. [...] If the Government's offering money, they should offer it to us without all these strings attached for a mayor. We do not need another layer of government in this area. If they've got money to offer, that's fantastic. Let's have the money. But [...] a lot of that is money that is already in the system. [...] There is a very small amount of new money on offer, and it's on offer over a period of thirty years. This Government can't promise to deliver money over thirty years."
The debate on Tuesday was lengthy, but the outcome unambiguous. Out of 65 councillors present, one abstained, whereas 64 voted to support the motion and reject the devolution proposal in its current form.
Susan van de Ven, Liberal Democrat councillor representing the Melbourn Division on Cambridgeshire County Council, writes on her blog that "The Agreement document is a fairly big deal and deeply problematic. Apart from being arrived at undemocratically, at its core is a single powerful mayor over an ill-thought out region, removing decision-making power from local government bodies. It is about anything but devolving power to local people."
In general, Cambridgeshire seems less than keen to be lumped together with Suffolk and Norfolk. This is certainly the position of the leaders of the Liberal Democrat, Labour, UKIP and Independent groups of Cambridgeshire County Councillors, who state as much in a joint statement (which you can read on Susan's blog post), published in response to the outcome of Tuesday's vote. The purpose of their statement is to ensure that any future discussions with the government would take into account their groups' five areas of common concern -- of which the first is:
"We are opposed to an Eastern region mayoralty."
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