Riverport Radio Podcast
Latest news, interviews, discussions & what’s happening where in St Ives Cambridgeshire.
Riverport Radio Podcast
Episode 7 - County Council Election Special (part2)!
Part 2 of our County Council Election Special.
We interview Alex Bulat & Sajjad Khan, both Labour Candidates standing in different Wards.
We also catch up with Dr Nik Johnson, the current Mayor of the Combined Authority.
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I'm Ron and I'm John and I'm Paul, and welcome to Riverport Radio. Riverport Radio. Riverport Radio.
Speaker 3:Coming up in this podcast. This episode is part two of our local election special for the county council elections due to be held on the 1st of May. Today, we interview two Labour candidates, both standing in different wards Alex Bullock, who is standing for the St Ives South and Needingworth Ward, and Sajid Khan, who is standing for St Ives North and Witton Ward. We'll be asking them about their background, their achievements, their plans if elected, and why you should vote for them. To round off the podcast, we also catch up with Dr Nick Johnson, mayor of the Combined Authority, and talk about some of the achievements he's been proud to be part of during his term. Riverport Radio. Riverport Radio.
Speaker 4:Hi, thanks for coming into the studio Now. Our next two interviews are with more of the candidates for the County Council elections being held on the 1st of May. Just to remind listeners, there are two seats in St Ives St Ives South and Neenworth, and St Ives North and Whitton. We're expecting the elections to be fiercely contested, and now we have two more candidates with us both representing Labour. They are Alex Bulat I hope I've got that pronounced properly who is standing in the St Ives South and Neanworth ward, and Sajjad Khan, who is standing in the St Ives North and Witton ward. Welcome to both of you. Thank you very much.
Speaker 4:Thanks for having very much are you looking forward to the contest?
Speaker 5:yes, I mean I started actually campaigning since straight after the general election because I was a candidate Labour candidate for the hunting the constituency. I had a month off and I was out on the doorstep leafleting, speaking to people in August. So the campaign has been never-ending for me for the past year or so I have to say and what about you, sajed?
Speaker 4:are you?
Speaker 7:you're quite new to this, are you? So I'm already at Senai Council, but for the County Council I'm first time standing in an election and it's quite interesting to go out and see people and listen to their views different kind of views, different debates, different discussion we have on the doorsteps, which gives me a great insight into people's, how they think and how they see the political setup and Senayev's itself, and how they are either connected or disconnected from each other. So yeah, it's quite interesting and it's going good at the moment.
Speaker 4:Good, just before we start asking you questions, I think listeners should know that the River Porter and the Riverport Radio have contacted all the candidates, including the Green candidates Tom Herxmer and Chris Smith, and Reform candidates Noah Sanderson and Mark Turley, and none of them have taken up the offer to either send a statement to us or print for printing in the Riverport or for enjoying an interview with us here in Riverport Radio. I think that's jingle time, paul. Yeah, it is. Riverport Radio.
Speaker 4:Riverport Radio so the other thing I should say now we've got some a little bit of interference outside our studio. The Barclays bank, uh, debacle, no, I'll just call it the redevelopment of barclays bank someone has decided to drill very hard concrete, uh, with a very loud drill, so you might hear the odd drill noise. It's not the candidates, by the way, and it's not my stomach anyway. So let's start with you, alex, although some people will know a bit about you as you stood for Labour, as you said in in the last general, last year's general election for the Huntington constituency, your background is not a usual one for a local politician, so tell us a bit about yourself.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean, that's true. I came to politics previously being a non-voter. I left home at 18. I moved from Romania to the UK. I lived in various places. I lived in Brighton, near Brighton, london. I moved quite a bit, lived in Cambridge and then bought my first home in Huntington. That's how I ended up in Huntington and then standing for the general election for the constituency. But I have to say I don't come from a political family. I wasn't that interested in politics to start with, I think until my mid-twenties. Really, I was one of those people I door-knock now saying they're all the same, I'm not interested. Please, please go away. Please stop bothering me. And I think it was only when I started being affected by certain things in my life. I struggled with the cost of housing, for example. I'd been a private renter before. Various things were difficult in my life and I thought we need more people to be involved, represent different experiences and voices in politics, and if I say I can't be bothered about this, I'm not going to complain, then nothing will get sorted, really.
Speaker 5:So I started being a serial complainer to my local councillors and my local MP at the time, and then I ended up in politics.
Speaker 4:So did. Your local councillor said well, if you can do any better, try it yourself. Is that what he said?
Speaker 5:Well, not really, but previously I lived in an area where and this is the sad truth of many areas I lived in an area where I contacted my local representatives, I got no response, I didn't really see them around, and I thought we surely should have cross-party, really more active counsellors, because it's not fair for residents really, wherever you are in the country, when you have counsellors not showing up to meetings or not responding to your emails, because you're there, if You're lucky enough to get elected, you're there to represent and at least listen and respond, even if you can't sort out every issue. And if you're there to, you know, have local surgeries, for example, respond to your council emails, which would be the bare minimum really, and show up to meetings, not once every few months so you've actually been a county councillor since 21 for the abbey ward in cambridge yeah, um and um.
Speaker 5:So why have you chosen to move to stand in some times? Yeah so so in back in 2021. I used to live in the full-born division, so south of Cambridge, that's where I was renting at the time and, through the party process, was elected in in Abbey. Now I had already a campaign I was involved in Abbey which was to campaign for earlier's provision in the word, which is something it wasn't funded at the time, and one of my big achievements, I think over in the last four years, is to get a new community center built with new nursery and new library in Abbey Ward. So I already have the experience of representing for four years, I think quite actively an area where you know I haven't lived in, although you know it was similar, like about maybe 10-15 minutes drive from where I lived at the time to to Abbey.
Speaker 5:I moved to Huntington back two years ago, about a year before the general election, because, like many people living in and around Cambridge, I can't afford to live there and I thought I was at the age I turned 30, I thought I wanted to buy my first home and, like a lot of people living in London, in Cambridge, they moved to Huntington, to St Ives to Townsend, to Ely, to places around Cambridge and I think that's how I ended up there.
Speaker 5:I live with my partner. My partner is standing for one of the Huntington seats on the County Council and I wanted to really build up on the experience I had campaigning in the general election. Lots of issues I've taken up already on the County Council. In March I had a debate on flood mitigation and really I got to engage with you know on this issue during the general election campaign when I met people in St Ives times were involved in the flood, local action groups who had this as their main issue and I thought, even if I don't represent this specific area, I want to take up that issue on the council because you're there to speak about issues also obviously in your own word, but also county-wide and more strategic issues that affect beyond the specific division.
Speaker 4:So you've already mentioned that you've had some success as a County Councillor. What are you hoping to achieve if you get elected this time? Is there anything else on your hit list?
Speaker 5:Yes, definitely. I think the advantage of canvassing all year round, not only two weeks before election and having residents meetings, is that you build up a very long list of issues and the question is always okay, what should I prioritize? So one of the things that comes up a lot and I think we can make some progress is actually look at the options to sort out flooding on the busway, because it really affects a local travel, an active travel route. This is brought up by many people. You're listening to Riverport Radio. Riverport Radio, riverport Radio. Radio Riverport. Radio Riverport Radio.
Speaker 5:Transport in general, better connections between towns and villages, including connecting Needingworth and St Ives. Holywell has no bus connection.
Speaker 5:Obviously, double decker won't work there but, having more demand responsive transport like they have in other areas, areas like in West Huntingtonshire and South Camps could work quite well. Obviously, potholes and maintenance comes up quite a lot on the doorstep. I think again it's an issue about what to prioritise. My previous experience as a councillor in Abbey I do every month, every couple of months, I invite the local highways officer to just walk with me, sometimes for many, many hours on the local streets and say, okay, those are all the issues.
Speaker 5:What can we do next? Right, so we're just like very close to knitting worth road, for example. That is, in my view, what road it has to be prioritized for resurfacing. It's like really clear to everyone living there and driving there right and I think I have.
Speaker 5:I will work on, like very local issues such as, you know, better footpaths, roads, but also more strategic issues. There's improving education a school governor at Holywell Primary, for example. I want to see a lot more strategic decisions being taken around how to navigate real budget pressures, sand budgets on adult social care and bringing the experience of local residents into the council debates bringing the experience of local residents onto the council, into the council debates.
Speaker 4:Well, I think it's good that. Um, as you said right at the beginning that as a young person, you decided to get engaged, because it's quite difficult normally to get younger people engaged in the process you don't regret it then well, it depends how you look at it.
Speaker 5:I generally enjoy it. I generally enjoy uh, you enjoy knocking on doors and you get a mixed feedback. And I like a challenge, I like a debate. I think I put probably the most debates of any county councillor. I've done debates on everything very controversial issues. I've done debates on immigration, on the shortage of NHS dentists, on ethical advertising, on flooding, on farms as well.
Speaker 5:I actually go. I have a lot of external, external appointments. I like going into meetings where it's challenging. I attend the young farmers meetings and it's really challenging now with like the kind of national context. But I'm there saying like, please do ask me the challenging questions, I'll be there, I'll listen to you, I'm not afraid of a challenge, I'll get back the answers for you. And I think people even if we might disagree on policy, people generally appreciate someone who is active and is able to show up and not afraid of having difficult questions, and I think it's often what's missing. Often people don't really like the door knock all year round because they're afraid of negative feedback or they avoid doing counsellor surgeries. I quite like seeing the town counsellors being at the market getting questions from residents.
Speaker 4:I would like to see more county councillors doing the same for example oh right, it would be nice to see a county councillor on the farmers' market, wouldn't it, Roddy? It would.
Speaker 5:I'll be very happy to.
Speaker 1:That would be quite a change.
Speaker 4:As you know, st Ives has suffered from a lack of county council, which we mentioned in the previous broadcast, but you're standing in St Ives South. Why didn't you stand in St Ives North? I know Sajjad's here, but forget him. He's not really here, right? Just why didn't you choose St Ives North, which, which is the of the two constituencies, the one that's been lacking a county councillor for the last eight years?
Speaker 5:yes, I know very well the issue you mentioned and, I have to say, being on the last four years on the know very well the issue you mentioned and, I have to say, being on the last four years on the county council. It is really incredibly frustrating to see when you're there and I try to make every single meeting and I have very good attendance when I'm there and see people showing up every six months and then staying for a couple of hours and leaving, not leaving after the lunch break in full council, regardless of what party they represent or they depend or not, for me sitting there thinking like, thinking like, why don't you trigger a by-election if you don't do the job? Why don't you just stand down and let someone else? There are plenty of candidates who could do, who would be a bit more active, so I think that's just to put it aside. I think that's unfair In terms of where I'm standing. I did actually campaign and canvass a lot more in the south part of St Ives in the general election and lots of the issues that I generally think I can make a difference. I'm a I'm a driver, but also I use buses. I really would like to see improvements and the parking rides, frequency of buses. The bus was that's in the world. There's something I would like to work on, like the transport and connectivity.
Speaker 5:I was really being on the children's committee on the council for the last four years. I see the challenges, especially with funding on small schools. That's why I wanted to be when the county council put out a call saying we have a lot of governor vacancies. I wanted to be a governor in a smaller school because I was really interested to see how can we make smaller schools more sustainable, especially with demographic change and people often moving out of rural areas into towns and new developments. And also one of the things that's really fascinating me about, which I'm really keen to work on, is how to ensure we have better community infrastructure and transport links on new developments.
Speaker 5:So the new development in Needingworth of Plantation Road I was canvassing there again. I thought it would be great to have someone who is active to actually advocate for more community facilities, because there's very little there. It's, you know, a new development, lots of houses, but you know the roads haven't improved, the community facilities haven't really improved there. So, yeah, lots of different reasons. Plus, I have to say, on a personal level, I have, you know, many, you know good friends in the area as well, living on this part of town that's good enough reason you're listening to Riverport Radio. Riverport Radio.
Speaker 1:Riverport Radio. Should we jump in and actually get a word from Sajid?
Speaker 4:Yes, yes, we can do Absolutely. I'm going to leave it to you then. No, no, no.
Speaker 8:I just thought I would jump in at that moment.
Speaker 1:Sajid, you're currently a town councillor, that's right. I understand you were co-opted onto the town council last year. Tell us a bit about yourself and how you're getting on with the town council thing. First, are you enjoying that?
Speaker 7:So, being a town councillor, it's a great opportunity to have the insight. You know how the local council works and how the local bureaucratic setup is put together to help the local Samayib residents. Plus, it's also a great opportunity to have face-to-face conversation, being the bridge between the council and the public to communicate the issues around. So, yeah, I quite I'm enjoying it and I learn different things and I work together with the St Ives town team and the people they run the administrative part of the Senayef town council and the council itself. So some great people are there and they're doing great stuff for the Senayef itself.
Speaker 7:Just I would like to mention that being a councillor at Senayef town council it's it's a we don't get paid at all. There is no, we don't get paid at all. There is no, nothing is paid. Basically, there was a perception that probably the Senayat Town Council gets paid, but that's not the case at all. We don't even pay expenses whatever. It's just for the sake of the public to understand that we do this purely for the love of Senayat rather than anything else.
Speaker 1:Interesting. So is there anything particular on the council while you've been there that has actually sort of piqued your interest, things that you feel that you really want to get involved with?
Speaker 7:So, yes, what really peaked in is that disconnection between the council and the public itself and that lack of communication in many ways, and that's why I put myself forward to be that bridge, you know, and to take the message across and to build that trust of the public on the councils and to say that they are there for you. You know, even though many people disagreed on different aspects of of council, what they do, but then we have difference of opinion across the board, so this is something, you know, a broader sense of you know issue, rather than a very specific but yeah, that's, that's that there was the reason, you know, I become the part of it and that was really interesting as well, and in terms of as a county councillor standing there.
Speaker 1:Is there any particular issue that you feel that you want to bring out from there as well?
Speaker 7:Sure. So while I'm at the town council, I've realised that Sana'af Town Council is only a consultee town council, which means they consult with us on different things. We don't take active decisions in the bigger issues which are directly affecting our daily lives, for example, schools, roads, the infrastructures, the more communities or buildings coming around St Ives. So that's why I thought I should go to the county where I can take part in the bigger decision process to make us a nice, better place for all of us. So that was the reason you're listening to Riverport radio.
Speaker 4:Riverport radio you've mentioned in, when you applied to be a Commer Town Councillor, you mentioned that you were a magistrate and it hasn't put you off going into politics. Then.
Speaker 7:Or has it been a?
Speaker 4:catalyst for going into politics.
Speaker 7:It was it was a catalyst to going into politics, because in politics we can come out, do things actually on the ground while being part of the magistracy. It ties you up by the rules, so and plus, you have to keep all your biases on the side. You know you have to base your decision based on the evidence provided on the day in the court and the hearing itself. So you can't just do things what you believe In politics, what you believe what you hear from people. You can actually go out and make a difference and change that for the better for the people. While most of the legislation is passed in the parliament so that's why we can't do locally anything about it. So anything which needs to be changed, it has to go in the parliament. So that's why we can't do locally anything about it. So anything which needs to be changed, it has to go to the parliament, which is the ultimate authority to set up all the rules and regulations.
Speaker 7:So there was one occasion that previously probably you guys heard about Rishi Sunak changing the law to send the people to Rwanda. So I was sitting and thinking that, okay, somebody is hell-bent to make that possible. He's going to go and change the whole law around it because he wants to do something. So this is like personal preference and you basically go and you play with the law itself, which will affect majority of the people. So how easy it is for those people sitting up there to change things as they want. For us locally, you know, we don't have that level of authority. So that's why I was frustrated on many occasions when we were dealing with certain type of cases and we could not do much about it apart from sticking to the guidelines, keeping our biases on the side and judge based on the pure evidence we have in front of us.
Speaker 1:It's all about standing for a seat in America.
Speaker 4:Yes, I was going to say Talking of someone trying to change the law on a whim.
Speaker 1:We're talking about changing the law. We're talking about a mistake. Something comes to mind.
Speaker 4:I think actually, america will be seeing quite a change soon. If he's allowed to continue I don't think we should be fiddling with the judiciary. In that sense will be seeing quite a change soon if he's allowed to continue.
Speaker 7:I mean, I don't think we should be fiddling with the judiciary in that sense, and politicising the judiciary itself.
Speaker 4:It needs to be clearly separated from politics. That's how we run it in this country and that's how it should stay really.
Speaker 7:That's exactly as it should be and I think if, for example, if I believe on something that that's how it should be, I should have the consensus of the people and the backing of the people behind that as well. You know at a friend, them, or you know any sort of voting, then yes, you go ahead and change that thing. But because if I personally believe something and I want to go and change the whole law for that reason, I think that is wrong. You, I think that is wrong. You know, I see that as wrong.
Speaker 4:We still rely on people persuading others to a point of view. I mean, if you've got the majority of the people, you've persuaded them through argument. That's one thing. By introducing a law without their consent, that's another thing altogether. Obviously that's right. Yeah, I think there's been issues raised around Farage and how he might deal with certain issues, but we'll see about that. Unfortunately, we can't have a reformed person here to talk about their elections.
Speaker 1:No, they have not shown up at the game.
Speaker 7:In that sense I'm a great believer of democracy. I think democracy is the core value of our societies and if you've got a huge majority, if the people's will, you know we should go and implement that. That's how the democracy works generally, you know.
Speaker 4:Yeah, tell that to all the Democrats in America when nearly 50% of the American population are off in arms.
Speaker 1:But there we go, I see on the notes that, Alex, you were interested yourself in actually becoming an MP at some point. Do you still hold that ambition? You're listening to Riverport Radio, riverport. Radio Riverport Radio.
Speaker 5:Riverport Radio Radio. Riverport Radio. Riverport Radio. Well, yes, I did stand in the July 24 election for the Huntington constituency, of course covering St Ives, neddigworth, holywell as well. Yeah, I think it's very big. People ask me would you want to run again? I think it's very difficult to say that. What I can definitely commit is the local level, because I've done this job before. I know I can do it. I can do it even better than I've done it for the last four years. But I think, in terms of the next general election, depending on when it is, I think it's very difficult to say what happens in five years time and whether you want to fight it again.
Speaker 5:I think my motivation to stand for the general election as well as the local elections initially when I first stood in 2021, was really the same. I see very few people with kind of my background and my experiences in politics locally or nationally, and I think we need more active and proactive politicians across the board. And, yeah, I'm actually quite pleased that now, even if we're from a different political party, we do have an MP who's much more active than the previous MP we had in the Hanley-Duncan constituency.
Speaker 4:I think that's an improvement. It wasn't a difficult task.
Speaker 8:Well, but it is an improvement.
Speaker 1:It wasn't a difficult task.
Speaker 5:I'll give credit where credit is due.
Speaker 4:He is trying hard. That's very true. He's trying hard. That's, that's very, that's very true. Yeah, it's true. You were the first I think the first romanian person to be elected as a councillor, a county councillor, in the country yeah so I mean, I have been to romania once, um fascinating.
Speaker 4:I went to cbu, a lovely town, um, um. But often we we have a more negative opinion of Romanians of late in this country. But you obviously are not an exception, but you do Romania a credit really, because you've had to learn a foreign language and navigate politics in this country. Quite difficult really, do you feel? How do feel, how do you go back to Romania much?
Speaker 5:no, I mean, I have to say I think everyone has their own motivations of why they live. A country means, I believe, due to war and like circumstance outside their control. Others live due to economic reasons and others do the more personal reasons. I left home at 18 and I have been back, like once at 19 and I haven't been back since, and that's kind of my own personal reasons of doing so. But equally, I have friends who go back very often. You know perhaps have a business there as well as our property there.
Speaker 5:I don't own anything in Romania. I have a Romanian citizenship because I was by birth, right, but I'm a British Romanian citizen because since I was 18 I've lived on my adult life here, you know, only worked in the UK. So I went through the whole citizenship process because I really feel, you know, my home is here. I always have, you know, a little bit of an accent because I was born in the country and grew up there in a different country, but I feel very much at home in the UK.
Speaker 5:I know there's sometimes negative views on immigration. Often it's easy to be affected by some negative comments, especially online space, but I think everyone should really, you know, show what they can do. Like I, often, it's easy to be affected by some negative comments, especially in the online space, but I think everyone should really show what they can do. I will say what I'm doing. I'm doing my best and I'm also very supportive of having better integration policies.
Speaker 5:We can do very little in the council because a lot of the immigration legislation is national, but, for example, english provision locally. I would like people who move to an area to have access to learn English quicker because it improves their employability. It improves, you know, they can match their skills to the jobs that they do. And, yeah, I think there's a lot to improve. We have, for example, english classes in some libraries, at some of the colleges in Cambridge and in Huntington. I think we should expand that provision to make sure, if someone moves to an area, actually have the the support to, you know, get the job as quickly as they can support themselves, actually feel part of the community and you know, be um.
Speaker 4:Yeah, be welcome here. It certainly improves integration. Yeah, if they can speak the english better. Yeah, there's no doubt about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, something you touched on there, both of you, as as labor candidates in the general election, whatever it was. Now they did labor actually sort of an amazing turnaround on where we were and they've been swept into power with a great majority. But since that happened there's been quite a lot of negativity come out of it, from various issues that have been brought up since. Plus, I think there's been one or two international things which have not really actually helped. Just one or two, the odd one. It certainly actually put our government under pressure. You're listening to Riverport Radio, riverport. Radio Riverport Radio.
Speaker 1:So have you found, in canvassing, in speaking to people on the doorstep, wherever have you found a sort of a what's the word? A slight more negativity towards the Labour Party as such?
Speaker 7:So, while there will be negativity toward any party, you know, as we discussed before, that people have difference of opinion in a different way. Hate is different than being politically different than someone else. Hate for the sake of hate is another thing. What I would like to say is that time to time people do come across they don't want to talk to us based on the party representation, and I always try to explain that we don't have control over the national policies. We don't have control over what is happening nationally, but locally, at the county level, we have control over it if we are elected and we can go out and make a real difference in our communities across Cambridgeshire. While there will be that difference of opinion and, you know, hatred rather than difference of opinion sometime as well, we will carry on doing what we believe is best for our community and what actually people want from us to do within the community and that's what we both standing for, to represent the people at the county level.
Speaker 7:I wish we would have any any say in the notion national politics or could change thing nationally? Probably we would. We would go and do things a little bit differently, but locally we are committed to what people want us to do yeah, I think also sometimes having local representatives, I mean it does help with the message across to government, right?
Speaker 5:I don't think there were any Labour councillors apart from Huntington North on the district council, huntington District since maybe the 80s or the 70s maybe the last one.
Speaker 4:Back in the 70s there were quite a few yeah, they even incented yeah.
Speaker 5:And I think it actually does help because, first of all, I think obviously every person who's standing for a political party no candidate completely agrees 100% with everything. There are conservative councillors who might not agree on their current immigration policy, who are more of a one nation type conservative by standing for the conservative party. In the same way, perhaps some liberal democrat candidates don't agree with every single liberal democrat national policy liberal democrat national policy. I think people generally go for a party because I'm looking at the different options and say this is the part I mostly like, find my values aligned with. But the advantage of being a local representative is that you can be you can be quite critical. I'll give an example. Like the incinerator, our labor members voted against on the planning of the company. I'm very much against it.
Speaker 4:I'm not afraid to say yeah actually it's a bad idea, right and actually have your home secretary will approve this. Yeah, and it's actually disappointing.
Speaker 5:That's something I didn't. I think we should listen to the local. You know committees and the decision of taking at the County Council and I think. But that's why having local representatives helps, because you can not only write the relevant minister and perhaps being taken more seriously, but also you can actually have perhaps a different not necessarily critical, but a different view and say, actually, because I'm on the ground here, because I speak to people everywhere, because I have my local councillor surgeries, I can advise you. It's not the greatest idea to pursue.
Speaker 4:Could you please reconsider that, and I think that could actually help in some cases I think historically the Labour hasn't been as strong as it could have been. In Huntingtonshire I think Liberal Democrats have been a little bit stronger over a period of time. But in St Ives, until the last District Council elections there'd never been anyone that wasn't a Conservative elected either on the County Council or the District Council in St Ives. You're listening to Riverport Radio. Riverport Radio. Riverport Radio.
Speaker 4:And it's quite refreshing in a way to see now that we've got independence Labour and the odd Conservative involved in the local discussions. So I have to put forward to you. The two independent candidates have stressed that being independent gives them an opportunity to say what they want at any time without the fear of party politics intervening.
Speaker 7:I'm not sure how that will play out at the county level. When you need numbers behind you, the party supports when you move a motion and when you want to do certain things within the community. And sometimes you go across the party lines and you ask from the different party to help pass certain bills.
Speaker 4:I mean, I think the strength of the argument is the thing. It doesn't matter whether you're an independent Tory or a Labour person. If you've got the right argument, you can persuade the other councillors to take your point of view. And for that to be frustrated because a particular party can't do that for another reason is a frustration on a lot of people.
Speaker 7:Yeah, but the way I see it, I think you have to. For example, as you said, that rather it's actually the point that you're trying to make there again, again, you will need support. You know, realistically, to have that support, for example, if it is a party-based, you know that message can go across really easily on a realistic basis. We're talking about not some theoretical way. You know, while having an independent, it will take a lot of effort to persuade every single councillor to vote in favour of that bill, whichever is presented.
Speaker 5:I have to say on this argument about having a whip or no whip, first of all, not all decisions have a party whip, whether it's Conservative or Labour. The second thing is I would just say to people look at the record. Like Cambridgeshire County Council is now a Liberal Democrat Labour Independent Coalition. Look how many independent councillors actually voted against. Maybe Councillor Steven Ferguson twice. It tends to be that the general administration independents vote with the majority group, which is the Liberal Democrats, both on Huntingtonshire district and on county. So I'm not sure how much well I can do whatever I want and I will just be against everything that actually happens in practice when you have kind of a joint administration agreement with Labour and the Lib Dems or the Greens in the case of Huntingtonshire district. But I also say, just being in the park doesn't mean you can't be critical of things.
Speaker 5:So we had a debate on farms, for example. I actually abstained on that because, whilst I thought it's not the place to bring it because it's a national issue, I didn't disagree with the local ask of the county engaging more with the farmers communities, including the young farmers I attend and others, on the latest changes by government. So I actually thought I can't vote against this. I can't vote for it because I don't think it's a local specific issue. So I I can't vote for it because I don't think it's a local specific issue. So I said I will abstain on this and I'm happy to do so. You know and argue and actually speak in the debate and argue why I'm voting in a particular way. So, yes, it's interesting. I think it's quite a strong argument. But yeah, being independent doesn't mean you're not part of a joint administration.
Speaker 4:Sometimes I mean my longevity, particularly in the non-political. Now I don't hold a political party, but for many years I was for 10 years, and I I think it's refreshing that there are more voices on the councils now. Um, you know, I was a lone voice many times on the town council, uh, in particular because the conservatives decided that was the decision and you, it didn't matter what you say, you could never change the opinion. So it seems that it seems to be more democratic now with so many different parties and people represented, and particularly more independents being represented. You're listening to riverport radio. Riverport radio. Riverport Radio.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean I agree with you and I think my prediction for the County Council is that it's most likely to be an overall control again, especially with reform potentially gaining some seats in.
Speaker 5:Finland and other areas. So I think one of the qualities I would look at from a voter perspective is who is the best person to also work with others, because, at the end of the day, when I got elected in 2021, I had to work and I worked effectively with Liberal Democrat colleagues and with independents. I'm the vice chair of communities. For example, the chair is councillor Tom Sanderson. He's independent and we work very closely together. We might disagree on certain things, but we say, okay, we have the community's portfolio. We agree we have to invest you know this over one million invested in libraries, or do more anti-poverty work, more support for citizens, advice bureaus, whatever it might be we like agree on what can we do together, and I think also including the mayoral actions that are happening. I think I would like the next mayor to be a person who is able to work with others, because you might end up with a mayor from a particular political party with various councils run differently and you have to work with others.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there was going to be my final question to you, really, which was currently Nick is the mayor. He's coming tomorrow for an interview, by the way. Very good which would be nice to find out how he feels over the last four years as mayor and what his achievements are, what he hopes for the future. And obviously one of the other candidates is an ex-MP Barclay, the Conservative. How do you feel about, I mean, do you think it's really important that we retain a Labour mayor?
Speaker 5:Well, I think the advantage I work very closely with Nick, especially on buses and I think I'm really pleased that we got the bus franchising approved, for example. I think that would make positive changes and a range of other things like I'm really keen on the Tiger bus passes, the one pound fares for under 25s, being able to use concessionary passes before 9.30am, like lots of things, and I think that often with the combined authority, I think often we have seen over the last since the authority was set up how politics can get into in the way of progress and I think it's very frustrating. I'm not sure if this will change with having unitary authorities not a big topic in the future whether they'll be able to work more effectively.
Speaker 5:But at the moment a lot of things take too long, unnecessarily too long, because you can't agree politically, because you have different layers of district councils, county councils, you obviously Peterborough City Council, and you can't agree on things that we badly need, such as on transport and infrastructure. So obviously, from a Labour and co-politician perspective, I would say yes, I would find it perhaps easier to work with the Labour mayor. At the end of the day, the public will have a say. If the mayor ends up being from a different political party, I will still be very persistent and pester them on vast improvements, regardless of who it is.
Speaker 4:Yeah, well, obviously, when Nick became mayor, he overturned the previous mayoral and conservative things that he'd been doing, particularly the housing schemes that we were planning and the metro, and overturn that. So the fear is that the good work that Nick might have done in the last four years could be overturned more or less straight away.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean, that's a fear I have as well, and also one of the things that is quite frustrating in politics is, when it comes to election time, many candidates and this applies to different political parties as well make promises that are either completely undeliverable or need a lot of funding that is not only local funding without really explaining how you get that funding. So I think it's very good for me to say yes, I want an underground system in Cambridge. Okay, how do I fund this? I don't want any of my leaflets for percent. I saw the needy words. I'm not saying I will fix all the potholes, because I know I won't be able to stand in front of you at the end of the four years and, like, every single road is completely surface because I know how the budget works.
Speaker 4:So they have to be realistic about we can achieve.
Speaker 5:I think if you achieved that you could become prime minister maybe if I just go out and do it myself, I'll have the permit to do so well, I think I've covered most
Speaker 8:topics.
Speaker 1:Well, I think you've I think you've covered it very well, but I hope our listeners think so too. Yeah, yeah, but you know, alex and sajid, thank you very much for being here today. We appreciate it very much.
Speaker 3:We'd love to hear from you. Please get in touch with us if you'd like to feature on our Riverport Radio podcast, whether you're a business or an individual, and you've got something to say or something to share. Please contact us using the following details. You can text us direct from our podcast. You'll see the send us a text prompt just under the following details. You can text us direct from our podcast. You'll see the send us a text prompt just under the play button. You can message us direct from our Facebook page. Search on Facebook for Riverport Radio Podcast or write to us via email. Editor at theriverporteruk. We look forward to hearing from you.
Speaker 1:Right. Well, welcome back this afternoon. That's it for our candidates for the election this edition. But we are joined this afternoon with a special guest. We have Dr Nick Johnson, who is the. Can I call you the outgoing mayor of the combined yes, I think it's very tiring. The Cambridge Combined Authority Not quite the former. Yeah, he's coming to tell us all about his role as mayor and what he's been up to this last few years. And yeah, let's see what he has to say. Good afternoon, nick.
Speaker 9:Good afternoon Nick, good afternoon gentlemen, and thank you for inviting me to this lovely hostelry in the middle of St Ives. You know it's good to be here and congratulations. Have you had all the candidates speaking?
Speaker 4:Well, all that would come. We've contacted our candidates, but, yes, pretty much most of them. Well, it feels not to. Yeah, and yesterday afternoon afternoon you'll be interested in this interviewing the two Labour candidates.
Speaker 9:Oh well, Alex and Sajjan Fantastic well, I have actually been out in Needingworth with Alex on one occasion.
Speaker 8:I'm low-level, as you say.
Speaker 9:I'm leaving the door, I'm going. The door is.
Speaker 4:There's an exit door, of which I believe, but there are still a lot of friends I support well, as you know, we've been in touch with you well really, since you got elected through the Riverport and we've often contacted you, and before, yes, when you were district councillor.
Speaker 4:Yes, and it occurred to me, having watched what's happened over the last four years, that there's obviously a nice little story there. You went into what I appear to be a bit of a cauldron at the time, yeah, and so we thought we'd like to know, you know, what was it like for you when you started, how have you got on and, in particular, what you feel you've managed to achieve in?
Speaker 9:four years, oh, so many questions. Well, there's definitely a book in it. A lot of people have said to me what are you going to do? And there's a part of me saying that you know I really should sit down and write a book, right? What did you start with? Your first question? Well, what was it like getting in when I first walked through the door? That moment I can still see footage. It's, in fact, been repeated at the moment, obviously, as the mayoral elections are coming around again, I can see how excited I was and I was very proud moment ironically, because there was a bit of a hangover from Covid, because there wasn't very many people at the count it was a bit touch and go as well, if I recall you weren't certain of winning.
Speaker 9:Oh god, no, I mean God.
Speaker 4:I think you've been generous Were. You surprised. You've been generous Were you surprised?
Speaker 9:I've been asked that question many times and the answer is I always knew I could win it because I knew I'd been successful as a district councillor and been elected you know, the first Labour councillor in St Leeds for many, many years and around Huntingdon Shire, because I'd campaigned. As I said, I've stood in a lot of elections, I'd lost a lot of elections, but the one thing was I was visible in terms of standing for elections and general elections and I think people knew me, certainly in Huntingdon Shire and slightly wider. But back then, of course, there was the, the second preference voting system. So the argument was well, as long as you could get to second place and you could kind of convince enough people whose first choice wasn't successful or in the first two, that was Aidan's and Adrian's the Liberal Democrat candidate and that was it.
Speaker 7:That was an amazing thing.
Speaker 9:I mean I didn't really quite believe it when it happened because it was almost like to some extent you call it a moonshot, but I always knew I could win. I also think it represents a change in what's happened over Cambridgeshire in the time that I've lived in this area. I mean, I'm not from around here but I can see in the way that the politics are displayed. I mean Huntingdon I only knew about because it used to be John Major's seat and he was a very phenomenally popular.
Speaker 9:MP. But you know that narrative has changed in terms of the wider Cambridgeshire, particularly in the south of the region, and the narrative is that the idea that Cambridgeshire is forever blue, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 4:Well, that's particularly pertinent to St Ives. We only ever had district and county councillors who were conservatives until the last two elections, and hallelujah to that, the district council, no tories, yeah yeah so you know, and it'll be interesting to see what happens on the first of may.
Speaker 9:I absolutely think that what was happening in fact, one of my frustrations, going back to the mayoral results in 21, where I won was at the time that Labour was perceived to have had a very bad local election. They hadn't won many seats and there was this one mayoral team which I know people didn't expect me to win. You're listening to Riverport Radio. Riverport Radio.
Speaker 9:Riverport Radio I don't think even the Labour Party expected me to win and in some ways that was part of the problem. Then going into my job, my new job. So what was induction like? On your new job? There was no induction. Let's be clear. There was no formal induction. In fact, I know one of the greatest things I can say now to whoever's coming in as the new mayor, you know even, you know, look, obviously I'm going to say I want Anna Smith to win, but even though she's been a deputy and in fact ironically, I mean she's been the mayor when I wasn't the mayor for my health reasons she has a formalised induction and hopefully she'll be taking up as opposed to any of the other candidates.
Speaker 9:But no, I mean that's the point about the combined authority. It's completely changed. You know, from the challenging organisation I walked into and it wasn't challenging because it was previously had been run by James as a Conservative, it was I've talked about it. It was on life support and I struggled, you know it was I've talked about. It was on life support and and I struggled, you know, I literally struggled you know I didn't have enough state staff around me.
Speaker 4:But, nick, you were a doctor. You know about life support, surely?
Speaker 9:but that's what I said. So, when all this trouble that I had to deal with, and I said I am a doctor and my doctor who's never walked away from a challenge, yeah, you know, and you know I've been in situations. Yeah, yeah, I've to deal with life support. So you know that there are challenges where you had to do it. But I had a huge amount of negotiation of understanding local government Because, of course, the other thing was, although I'd been a district councillor, I hadn't actually been in a position of kind of running district council, and so there, was people I needed support from.
Speaker 9:I needed support from the Labour Party, I needed support from the board, the constituent members and, in all honesty, I didn't necessarily ask for the help in the right time and the people. The construct of the office being in Ely, which was it was also post COVID, so there wasn't the staff in themselves, they were still working from home it was quite a lot. Well, it was. It was a very lonely place and, coming from a place where I was very supported and I had all my kind of support networks of the NHS around me, in fact working that one day a week.
Speaker 4:I was going to say did that help.
Speaker 9:Absolutely, it kept me sane. It was the one thing that in the first year and a half that kept me sane. It was the one thing that in the first year and a half that kept me sane because it was battling with senior officers who just weren't up to the job. Battling some of it was politics. There was quite a lot of politics, wasn't there? Lots and lots of politics.
Speaker 9:I don't want to go back there because the real point has covered it quite extensively in the past about things, but it, it, it wasn't um, it couldn't have been easy the trouble was devolution's great and it's going to be really, really good and in fact one of the sadnesses of me leaving is that I just think that the organization now, and indeed all combined authorities that are already established, be it you know your greater manchester, your you know south south yorkshire, you know there's some real places that are set to. I see a lot at the moment people saying, oh, another tier of government. You know, when you understand it and I say the Combined Authority has to make it self-understood. You know we actually get more money into the area because we've got a Combined Authority. People see it and say we're going to give that area, because they've got a combined authority, more money to use in a strategic way.
Speaker 9:The difficulty was you look at the devolution deal that was set up. It was a wish list of nice things to have and some of those have been delivered and indeed were delivered by the previous mayor. He wanted a sower train station. Well, he did. He was a sower boy and these were the things that initially. And there was more money in the system. But it wasn't done strategically and that's the way. If you want to do government properly, be it local or national government, first of all, you've got to work cross-party, which is what you have to do with the Combined Authority Board, and then you do it in a strategic way.
Speaker 4:And that's what we're doing Just to explain that to some of our listeners about how the Combined Authority is set up, because you're actually working with representatives of all the other councils, aren't you?
Speaker 9:Absolutely, and decisions about investments, decisions about strategy, not theoretically. It is a board-level decision. It's interesting to see everybody out campaigning and I would argue the only person who's getting it again I would say this is Anna is that there is this you know, the mayor can't do everything they want to do. I only wish they could. You can only do stuff with the consent and with the working decisions of your board members. Now there is an argument yes, mayoral decisions, but mayoral decisions were used very badly in the first four years, and I would argue this I'll say this now on record if the number of mayoral decisions suddenly rockets up with the new mayoralty, then there's a problem with the system. That's a bad sign. That's a bad sign. That's Trumpism.
Speaker 4:I was going to say that's what's happening in America at the moment, isn't it? You're listening to Riverport Radio, riverport. Radio Riverport Radio.
Speaker 9:The one thing the mayor does have, and the only time I ever used it it was almost kind of by default is a default. So if anything came to the board which they said we're never going to, I don't like this. Well, there was one thing that once came to very early doors the business board at the time one of the you know members they were the business board used to meet in private. Can you imagine that Public funds business board was meeting in private and decisions, and you know what? Some good decisions were made, but some also, I would say, very questionable decisions. But the decisions were made, but some also, I would say, very questionable decisions. But the thing is, the business board now is an important part of how the business community in Cambridge and Peterborough works with the Combined Authority. It's all in public much more strategic. You know, the problem is we don't have the money that we used to have.
Speaker 4:I'm going to say something probably a little bit controversial on that now, which is that prior to the more recent situation where there are more independents Labour and Liberal Democrats on councils because they were dominated by the Conservative Party, let's be frank it's not unusual for decisions to be made behind closed doors a few years back in virtually every council, and that, as you say, can be good, but it can also be bad, and I think there's less chance for that now. There's more debate going on, isn't there?
Speaker 9:absolutely more debate. But the governance, the way it's structured with you know the whole thing about how we've got proposals which are worked up not just with the combined authority officers working in their kind of individual Constituent group. No, they, you know. We put a message out to you know Hunterdon District Council. We put a message out to the family district with City Councils and the city. What are the investment strategies that you want to do and where we go?
Speaker 9:Greatest thing we do at the moment, I think one of things we're Developing the county of culture narrative and we've got for the first time this area is going to have a local visitor economy plan. We're about the only part of the country which doesn't have one. You know this is this, is this, this is visit England, working with all the constituent areas and we're developing a narrative where we can. You know we sit in a lovely St Ives and we can develop a sort of tourism strategy which brings that in there. But then you then build up on a whole kind of narrative where you celebrate everything that is great about the area from the north to south, east west.
Speaker 9:Didn't have that before.
Speaker 4:So it seems like one of the things that you've been successful at is changing how the Combined Authority works from Australia. What else do you think you're pleased about?
Speaker 9:Well. I don't think. Oh yeah, am I pleased? I don't think many buses come right down to the centre of St Acter. No, they're not.
Speaker 4:We've been having a debate about that, by the way because when the town council redesigned back in around 2000, it was always envisaged the guided bus was come through the centre of town. Really, yeah, it was always envisaged and they put in little posts that were meant to be. You know, a bus would come along and the receptor would tell the post to drop, so the bus would go just down there at the edge of the market there, market Square, and that never happened and it's always really annoyed me that it's never happened.
Speaker 9:Well, I mean, in some ways St Ives has benefited significantly from having the bus way, and I swear I parked and I walked into town from here. But the point is, cambridge public transport is a challenge, but it's not as much of a challenge as it could have been two and a half years ago when the main operator decided they were going to take about 25 routes away, just like that.
Speaker 9:Because that's what they can do when you've got a deregulated bus system the operator is in a very, very powerful and it's an unequal position and when we the, the consumers, we are not in a position to kind of influence in the same way we are. But we are now because of the mayoral power that was given through you know statute and one of the combine authorities, and it took far too long, probably not helped by that, you know. The truth is I can give you examples where officers have now told me junior officers that I was going in saying can you move on with the bus franchising, andy, we want to take that control of the buses and there were senior officers who were going don't bother with that. Absolutely unforgivable, that should never have happened. You're listening to Riverport radio riverport radio they've all gone.
Speaker 9:We've got some of the people who've come through, who've absolutely come on the journey with myself and and actually annabelle as well as my deputy, and we've now got the delivery. We've done everything that we have to do through the legal process of the consultations, whatever. Not only do we save the buses and loads of bus routes across the whole area, we then invested more. Okay, take a political hit. You know, sometimes asking people to pay more in terms of a mayoral preset is not without political challenge.
Speaker 9:And I was told you know, is that a good idea? I said, look, if we are meaningfully going to change the narrative around public transport in cambridgeshire, we have to start with the buses. You know we have to start with the buses and we're now seeing that with also the investment which allows people under 25, the tiger path to travel for one pound. Anybody's on concessionary fares. You don have to wait until 9.30, you can get on the buses anytime you want and our ridership is going up and that is a game changer. Now, how are the authorities following your example? People are getting in touch with us, the number of people who are saying what's this Tiger Pass? It's one of my proudest things. You know that we think it's not going to necessarily affect here, but one of the frustrations for the people who live in Huntingdon it was when they want to get onto the guided bus.
Speaker 7:How it takes time to get to Huntingdon and St Ives and it kind of takes away.
Speaker 9:But if you live in St Ives, great yeah, but we're not going to have an Express. There's gonna be an Express that will go straight down from Huntingdon, join the bus way around Swasey area, yeah, and that'll get more people out with the cars and the buses, affordable transport and then the whole narrative of you know. Take it further across some of the more rural areas. You go into the Fens, go into sort of East Cambridgeshire and the innovation around Tiger on Demand, you know the sort of. Is that the Ting? It was the Ting, the Ting moved on. Do you know how they got the name Ting? It wasn't my idea at the time, but the Ting, the Ting moved on the Ting. Do you know how they got the name Ting? It wasn't my idea at the time, but the Ting was because it was Huntingdon. Ah, right.
Speaker 4:I thought how have you got the name? Well, because obviously I live in Hamilton and that's where the Ting comes from. It does yeah, yeah, yeah, well, yes.
Speaker 9:Hamilton. Yes, so the narrative that was. In some ways it was an ongoing trial, but it has been successful. It still needs tweaking. We've rolled it out now in East Cambridgeshire, in Fenland, south Camden as well, and different people use it in different ways, but it's a way to change people's perception of what public transport is. But a lot of people say I'm just obsessed about buses. I do think buses are the main building block of what you need to develop a kind of connected public transport. But I was, just as you know, passionate about making sure that you have good improvements around the trains. You know, and if I'd been standing I would have talked about Tiger trains, tiger trams. I'm very pro the idea of those things that could be done in both Cambridge and in Peterborough about sort of you know, call it trams like rail, but you can't promise people stuff that you can't deliver straight away.
Speaker 9:You know, leeds hasn't even got a tram station. You know, at the moment, you know, we've got to be honest with people and say let's get the public transport build from the bottom and then we'll do the investment the right way.
Speaker 4:I've got a sneaky feeling. I was a student in Leeds in my early days but there's still a tram running.
Speaker 9:If you speak to Tracy, one of her big wishes is to make sure that trams come to Leeds.
Speaker 1:Can I ask the mechanics of the issue If you've got a commercial company running a bus route and they say it's not profitable, we don't want to do it. And they say it's not profitable, we don't want to do it, and you say, well, actually, but the route is a good local community support route, we want it open, what happens? Do you just pay them for the route?
Speaker 9:So there's about 88, I think it's about high 80s of commercial routes in Cambridgeshire. So in other words, people, businesses, operators, are making enough, enough money. I'm not saying they're making hundreds of thousands, you know, but they're operating a service which is working at a level that is sufficiently profitable.
Speaker 9:But it's sustainable at that level? Yeah, but there are. There are an increased number now, uh, of what we call the subsidized routes. Yeah, but that was always the way, you know, when you had, you know, before we had deregulation, there would always be some routes that were immensely much more profitable, because often they've got more, they're serving more people. But the idea was that you know where you were making profits. Elsewhere you would then subsidise. I mean Eastern Counties, whatever. You know, we used to have that in the Northeast and you know I grew up in rural Northumberland, even more rural around here, yeah, but when I was a kid I could get buses to Newcastle you're listening to Riverport radio.
Speaker 9:Riverport radio so you know and that all fell apart because you know you follow the market you know the market will solve everything. Well, it'll solve one problem It'll get rid of what are unprofitable routes. It'll also then cause rural isolation, and nobody gives a monkey's. So that was my challenge. So let's take that on. You know. So when we, you know, when the combined authority, when the future mayor is in charge of bus routes, by God you're going to be listening to all the rural challenges, but at the same time you're going to drive efficiency.
Speaker 9:Now what you've got to do is get that kind of corporate responsibility, but without having a narrative where you're always having to think bottom line, it's always about the finances. I mean, of course you don't want to run things that are gratuitously unprofitable or anything like that, but you've got to be accepting that there's more to this, because people who can still use the buses, who were previously haven't had access. You know they can then get to jobs, education, opportunities, and then you can be very clever, because the best thing we've done is increasingly, is combining school transport and public transport. So currently, county council, you know they're paying out money and saying, oh, we're going to run buses for this, we're going to run for that. But you know, if you don't have to do that because the kids, you know, still get on the bus for free, Then that supports the bus and then there's a bus service for a rural area and between school times people can still use it. It's it's.
Speaker 4:It's just trying to get the system is there sort of economy of scale the more buses you have, the better it gets, or or the other way around.
Speaker 9:Yeah, you know, you keep chopping away the buses yeah, people don't believe in them.
Speaker 9:They're not reliable so, yeah, there is. This is a definitely a sweet spot. Yeah, and that's the beauty, I think, of Cambridge and Peterborough, because we are trailblazing, because a lot of people and I go back to that point the story I got was when I was coming in saying you're going to have to move towards franchising, he says you'll never do it, you can't do it, it's too rural. He says rubbish, we didn't prove the point. Yes, we've had to put a bit of money into the system. Or I say we, I mean that's our community. But if you want something that really works, you work together and different people play different levels. You know band E, you know band G, you know depending on the council tax, you know, and sometimes people say, well, I never used buses, and I say well, go on. You know you will if you realise that they're more increased. A choice, yeah.
Speaker 4:I think a lot of people in St Ives will use buses more than most because of the ease of the guided busway. Yeah, I stopped going driving into.
Speaker 1:Cambridge years ago. Yeah, the busway is brilliant. Yeah, and you are lucky it had all its objectors right at the beginning, as I understand it. But these days I think it's brilliant and uh, I use it to cambridge.
Speaker 9:Every time it's yeah, it's a definite win.
Speaker 4:So we've got reorganization, we've got transport anything else that you're proud of, in particular.
Speaker 9:Well, I mentioned about, belatedly, we finally got that county of culture stuff up which I think I'll watch to see how that develops. Look, I've gone on record and talked about how my absolute it comes from, maybe my medical background dealing with road traffic accidents and something called the Vision Zero ambition that there should be no road traffic deaths, serious accidents on the road. You know you should, you should try and design the system so that people are safe. Now I know people say, well, that's almost impossible, but you should be aiming for that thing. So there was money which is in within that narrative of public service about we, you know, got to be careful of how we invest it and it was all pulled. You know, this stuff that the police and crime commissioner was doing couldn't find the money.
Speaker 9:So I, with the combine authority, we've moved in and we've got a narrative where there's a whole group of people working on that. But I guess you know for me that's important. You know, knowing that, you know people work as an organization differently. But we've done some really good stuff. You know, with businesses I've made much more evidence. You know, if we've got money that comes from central government to work with business, why, why do we always think about? You know, working with the, the big companies. You know going out of the way to work with cooperatives, cic's. The investment we've done with the blanket, uh plunkett foundation means that down in south cambridgeshire the Ickleton Lion, you know that's got a pub.
Speaker 7:You know these community assets which get a little bit of money, a bit of thing, and they work together.
Speaker 9:There's loads of, I believe, and I would say this wouldn't I. But I always said if you want to change policy, you've got to demonstrate a care, a compassion for what people are trying to achieve. Now, I'm not the expert in how to do business, I'm not the expert in how to save the environment, but if you give people the opportunity and say, look, I really care about that, you tell me how we do it, then you get the cooperation, compassion, cooperation. Then you deliver for the community. This whole narrative of tweeness or three Cs I've talked about. I think that's something that the organization has kind of moved into. They talk about their own civil values and I think it's a great place you're listening to riverport radio riverport radio.
Speaker 1:I think that brings me to a point which I picked up off of your combined authority website, actually this one. I just thought yeah is this the news night question it says here the mayor is committed to delivering the vision of the region. Great, got that. The first one says helping the region thrive by doubling the size of the economy by 2041. Yeah, yeah, how's that going?
Speaker 9:it's doing all right, you know it's, you know. No, I mean it's measured by gva. I mean that's a put actually kind of answered the question in a way. When I first turned up again, I told you about the narrative that was the Combined Authority was set up through you know legal process statute, but it had three measurements and one of them was GVA, gross value added, then how many houses and how many new jobs it created. And that was it. And I remember saying is that it Is that what we're measuring and that's what they did for the first four years. And we've got a whole host of KSI's and I said, look, we've got to be a bit more savvy about this, because it's just how many houses? Obviously the whole housing thing. We'll come back to the housing stuff because there's a whole story there.
Speaker 9:okay, you know, but um, and of course within it it was a 25 year mission in that covid as well.
Speaker 9:So the drop-off but no the. There are challenges, I say, with regard to the economy of the united kingdom, um, and actually we have been held back a little bit in cambridge and peterborough. There are some of those things that you know surprisingly lack of productivity and actually we have been held back a little bit in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. There are some of those things that are surprisingly lack of productivity and some of that's put down to restrictions around the housing market, issues around transport connectivity, particularly around Cambridge. But at the same time we've had some good successes and companies are beginning to grow and you know we've tried to develop the opportunities for more apprenticeships and but it it works. Devolution works because you can find a way to spend the money that we all give to government through our taxes, but by delivering it at the more local level, it's more effective, I believe I see on the same website uh, you speak of devolved powers there, but it says that, uh, you have the dissolved devolved powers to spend up to 800 million on local housing.
Speaker 1:Has that been changed now with central government's cutbacks?
Speaker 9:yeah, well, housing, so that that sort of figures were over a whole sort of 25 years. So you're going to kind of put it back into that sort of narrative and for those and let's move on to it. You know, one of my biggest frustrations was discovering what the hell was going on with the housing that was a major part of parlor's strategy. It was yeah, that's what's the metro.
Speaker 9:We'll touch on that well, we can't, because that's the first thing you one of of the first things you cancelled, yeah, the two things you know. Sort of Well, we'll come to that. So there was this narrative that there was an expectation that there was 2,000 affordable homes would be delivered alongside the work that was being done by other authorities. And there was a lot of money. There was a lot of money, there was a lot of money, hundred million and we didn't get it all. And we didn't get it all because a conservative government was seeing what the previous mayor and his team were doing and said, look, there's something not right about the governance here. And I've got we won't go into it now if you don't mind, but I, you know, I've made it very clear that one of the reasons that I have was how can I say, targeted. I was kind of called out, my life was made very, very difficult was because, you know, I blew the whistle on them. I said, look, you know, the government, the conservative government's right, there was a lot of bad stuff going on here. Yeah, it wasn't right and you know that's still coming out bit by bit. You know I no secret of it. I went to the police. I'm still open-minded. We'll wait and see what happens.
Speaker 9:But the frustration was that some of the money that was meant to come to the Combined Authority never did, because they said we don't trust the Combined Authority because of the previous behaviour. And trust the combined authority because of the previous behaviour and one of the things I know is that you give a home to somebody that can have huge implications in terms of turnaround and the big challenges we have in terms of affordability. So not being part of that has been really difficult. The good news is you talked about it. We've now got a memorandum of understanding with Homes England. We're about to move forward and, going back to the point you made about, there is an expectation, not just on the combined authority, but we'll be strategic. But we'll work with all our board partners, be it the city councils of Cambridge, peterborough and all the district councils, to deliver enhanced housing targets, because there is a need there and I think we're all in agreement about that. You're listening to Riverport Radio, riverport. Radio Riverport Radio.
Speaker 9:So, but there isn't a direct line of money yet. I reckon, you know, if I'd stood, if I'd been lucky enough to be re-elected, I think that would have been the thing that may have been forthcoming. It may still happen, but the biggest thing would be the whole idea of a strategy around putting houses with the right level of infrastructure connectivity you know that's infrastructure not just about transport, but it's about water, making sure the reservoir gets delivered in a timely manner. Power networks you know the grid has to be able to provide enough power. Everybody wants electric cars now and that puts more drive onto the. There's so many things you know. When I start talking, I can just go in, you know.
Speaker 4:It's quite a big job, isn't it?
Speaker 9:It's a brilliant job, but it is a big job, but it's a job that has to be. I mean to be fair. I had some brilliant lead members, particularly Anna who helped with the transport. But, you know, again, working cross-party, bridget Smith and South Cams took a lead member role for the environment Lucy Nestinger she was the lead member for skills. And then, you know, then working with Sarah, sarah Conboy, the leader of Huntead, about trying to bring on the kind of what we call the shared ambition.
Speaker 4:Is that three Lib Dems in a row there.
Speaker 9:It is, but that was the narrative. Excellent, yes, the whole thing is you know if you're on a board you've got to work with it. No, you've got to work with it before and things have changed. You know you can't do it on your own.
Speaker 4:And you on your own, and, and you know it's, and I think the world benefits from that. I've got to ask you this I'm sorry but um, we still keep seeing the odd phrase from and invariably they're councillors of some description. Yeah, you know, they refer to you as the disgraced yeah, yeah I mean, does that go back to the housing thing? Is that where it all comes from?
Speaker 9:Well, I'll leave them to decide why they think I'm disgraced. I don't see it like that. I've made my apologies in terms of I accept that the kind of leadership that was required and the support I needed, I didn't have that at the time and in trying to deal with the situation and trying to blow the whistle on it, but you know, shoot the message out.
Speaker 4:Really, yeah, absolutely. So the question then follows on from that having sort of gone through that and hopefully come out the other side better and more aware, why not stand again? Is there a particular no, it's very simple.
Speaker 9:There's no secret about it. I know I'm going to Tomorrow. You know I've got health problems.
Speaker 4:Oh really, oh yeah, yeah, I mean, obviously I took time out two years ago. Yes, I know, I can show you my scar to prove it, but I've got a zipper.
Speaker 9:I was opened up twice and serious, serious complications. So that's still ongoing a bit, isn't it?
Speaker 4:It'll never be over.
Speaker 9:You know, and you know I've said on record, you know I've said on record I'm sure the absolute, constant strain and stress of doing the job will not have made it easier for me. I don't regret it, I'm just saddened that my health Also, in all honesty, the way four and a bit years ago when I was standing there was an element of I was kind of left to it to get on with it. You know the world has changed. The mayor's are very important and all the big parties I mean you can see it the way it's coming out, yes, you know are very, very focused on, you know, the success.
Speaker 9:You know, getting out the vote to win a mayoralty why not? I mean this is where the direction of travel is going and obviously that central control is important because if they're going to put the money, they want more control of the situation and I accept that. But I just my narrative was you know I'm proud of what I've achieved in four years, as a part of me would love to see and be at the helm going forward and let hope you know, you know some of the narrative and the, the policies that we put in place continue um are you still going to continue as a doctor uh for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 9:Yeah, yeah, I've said that will you do more than one day a week. No, not a lot more, no, no, I mean, I'm, I, I've been, I've actually got quite serious health problems. Although I can present myself here, I need to be very careful.
Speaker 4:Well, you're not enthusiastic still?
Speaker 9:Oh no well, look, you know, if you can't look at.
Speaker 4:you know you've got to be positive, but I'm.
Speaker 9:You know the set of circumstances and the kind of it's do it now or not? You know, and the conversations I had both with the Labour Party and myself and also with my family. Yes, you know, there was a moment where, you know, the light came on and I thought you know what? I don't have to keep doing this. No, no, I mean that phrase, you know. Responsibility, political power, call it what you will, it's very addictive. Yeah, oh it it what you will it's very addictive.
Speaker 9:You could easily see it, but being able to walk away from it, that's the skill. You're listening to Riverport Radio, riverport. Radio.
Speaker 4:Riverport Radio. Can I suggest then that you're going to be a bit concerned? Who wins takes over the role.
Speaker 9:Yeah, I'm concerned in that. Obviously, I would love the kind of narrative to remain, but I would say left centrist, well thought out, collaborative, compassionate policies. I worry about the way others have presented. I mean, I don't know, I don't really know Paul, I don't really know Ryan. You know they've got their own style, they've got their own belief. Good for that. But you know, what I'm not worried about is the combined authority in terms of the way that it's structured and the governance, because that was the problem. It wasn't when I turned up, it wasn't set up, it was kind of well, we're always going to be conservative, why would we? And it was just the complete disbelief. Who are you? Why are you here?
Speaker 9:I said well, well, I've got a democratic mandate, you know, as I say, interestingly because at least I could always say people said no, you've got him by the back door. I said no. More than 50% of the people who voted. They voted for me. I know second preference it's not going to be second preference, is it no? No no, no.
Speaker 4:It's gone, hasn't it?
Speaker 9:It's gone, no, no no, that's one of the big things Interestingly people talk about that.
Speaker 4:Why did that change then?
Speaker 9:Because I won. No, I mean, I could be very.
Speaker 4:Was it changed by the Conservative government? Of course it was oh.
Speaker 9:God, I miss that. The irony is is that actually, because of the circumstances now and with the rise and rise of the reform on the right, the fact that if they had second preference, possibly, you know it would have played more into that? Now, who knows? I'll tell you something. It's exciting here. You really couldn't, you know. I look I'm going to say Anna's going to win, but you know it's going to be whatever it is. Even all the campaign literature says it's going to be tight yes, yes, absolutely, yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 4:So don't go to the count. I am not all the campaign. Literature says it's going to be tight. Yes, yes, absolutely, yeah, absolutely, um yeah, so don't go to the count I am not.
Speaker 9:I I'm not the moment. No, no, no, no, I I know I look after myself. Yeah, I need just to make sure I'll look after myself. Yeah, and people, and people are looking after me.
Speaker 1:So have you got any sort of plans for the future of things you'd like to do or get it I'd?
Speaker 9:love to be more of an advocate for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. You know there are some real. I'm particularly very fond of the Fens. I'd love to see campaigns around. I don't even see the Fenland flag campaign. I'd love to see more Fenland flags campaign and working with groups like that. I'll stick in with my Labour Party colleagues. You know I'll support them. You know as much as I can I'm still passionate about my medical job and I mean you asked about doing one more another day. There's a, there's a chance I might end up doing some work around child safeguarding which is kind of it's the, it's the. It's the hard part of the more gonna the, the difficult part of looking after children. You know in that people hurt children sometimes and having to deal with the fallout from challenges.
Speaker 1:Medically is I'm sorry, you're a pediatrician. Yeah, just yeah, just a children's doctor.
Speaker 9:So don't people think I'm a GP, you know, because GPs do see a lot of children back. No, no, no, no, no. If you ask me to see an adult, I'd really struggle nowadays. I mean, my role was my main, what a lot of people know me as was a neonatologist, so I was involved in premature babies. Now I go back into the hospital and suddenly be on call and getting up in the middle of the night to a labouring mum and dad expecting parents and dealing with either a difficult delivery or a premature delivery. There are younger, more up-to-date consultants at the Hinching Brook who are more than well trained and adequate can do the job. They don't need me.
Speaker 4:Thanks ever so much for coming to see us and explain. It's been quite fascinating.
Speaker 1:It is very interesting. It's great to meet you, thank you.
Speaker 4:Thanks for coming by anyway, and the best of the future.
Speaker 3:Thank you to the Riverport, very generous thank you and to play us out this week we have the excellent Split Whiskers, who will be performing again this year at the Jazz and Blues Festival in St Ives in September. Thanks for listening and we'll be back again soon with another podcast here on riverboat radio.
Speaker 8:The sun streams through my dirty windshield, a cold half cup of black coffee and me Rolling down the highway I'm gonna get there soon. Big trucks run down and I keep sneaking up from behind. One flicking the wrist and I'll go rattling by. Each part of my motor is trying to shake loose. It's a liquid diet gets plenty of juice. Old town highway I'm gonna get there soon. Well, my mother told me to keep on bumpin' strong. Just about everything I could really dig around. It rolls and it shakes, squeaks and it moans. Nothing much works, but it keeps on going. Going down the highway I'm gonna get there.
