Just about everyone was disappointed with the national results with no party gaining an overall majority. The onus is now on the two of the three party leaders to come up with a workable solution. This gives the Lib Dems an historic opportunity to influence government policy at the highest level. Now’s the time that Nick Clegg will really earn whatever it is he’s being paid!

Locally though it was different. Jonathan Chatfield did not win the SE Cambs seat but he did increase his vote by about 6% with a swing from the Tories to us of about 2.5%. Well done Jonathan! Sebastian Kindersley recorded an almost identical result in S Cambs. And of course Julian Huppert held the Cambridge City seat.

In the district council election Edd won!  The result was:

There was an amazing 82.5% turnout.

Edd said: ‘This is truly amazing. I am new to this game and I learnt so much from Jonathan Chatfield and his team during the campaign. On election day itself I was still ‘knocking up’ well into the evening.’

‘I know that my real challenge now starts. I am taking over from a councillor with quite a reputation and I need to do at least as well. I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues on Histon Parish Council and to supporting Impington Parish and Orchard Park Community Councils. I am also excited about the prospects of working in the local Lib Dem team with our 2 county councillors and with Jonathan Chatfield who is one of the other district councillors.’

This Thursday, 6th May is Polling Day. Polling stations will open 7am and close at 10pm, so there is plenty of time for you to vote. 

The location of your nearest polling station will be listed on the front of your polling card. If you can’t find your card, your local council will be able to tell you where your nearest station is. You do not need your polling card to vote. 

If you have a postal vote but have not yet returned it you can do so until 10pm on Thursday to any polling station in your constituency. 

If this is the first time you’ve voted, the Electoral Commission has a guide which walks you through the process which you can see at http://tinyurl.com/67a7s9 

Prior to polling day, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg has made a personal guarantee to use all support for the Liberal Democrats to deliver fairness for Britain. Nick said: 

‘We need a fairer tax system. I will use your votes to cut taxes for those at the bottom and in the middle and close the loopholes for those at the top.’

‘We need to support our children. I will use your votes to ensure extra funding for schools, to cut class sizes and give all children a fair chance.’ 

‘We need to clean up politics. I will use your votes to reform Parliament, to deliver a fairer voting system, protect your freedoms and give you the right to sack corrupt MPs. ’

‘We need a new economy. I will use your vote to split up the banks, get them lending again, invest in green infrastructure and so create jobs. ’

‘This election campaign has shown us that millions of people want us to do something different this time. Politicians should work together to solve the nation’s biggest problems. ’

‘That is why, whatever the outcome on Thursday, I believe we should be prepared to work together to fix the terrible state of our public finances and ensure economic stability. ’

‘These are the key steps to a new, fairer Britain. Give me the power of your vote and we can make it happen. Together, we can make the difference.’

 Of course we’d like you to vote Lib Dem, for Jonathan Chatfield for parliament and for Edd Stonham for the district council, but even if you don’t please vote. It legitimises the system and gives a meaningful mandate to those elected.

Click here for a copy of Nick Clegg’s personal guarantee that’s big enough to read!

It was also the day of the Impington 5K fun run so there were lots of people on the Rec so it wasn’t just the children who got to inspect the new facilities. There seems be a consensus that it’s a job well done and one that fills a gap in our villages’ provision of public play opportunities for children.

It’s an exciting looking facility with lots of different pieces of equipment. There’s also a covered area for older children to ‘hang out’ and chat.

Edd was on duty. He has been involved at the heart of the work to bring this project to fruition and in the morning he was there just to make sure that everything was OK.

Edd said: ‘There was a lot of work to be done to make sure that the new playground met all the safety criteria laid down by the government but this doesn’t mean that it has to be absolutely safe. There is ‘risk’ built in so that children don’t just play they also learn. Because of this there must be adult supervision and to some extent that’s why I was there on the first morning’.

But Edd was up to it! Being a candidate for election requires many attributes and the ability to fight through dense jungle-like undergrowth was one of them yesterday. Anyway Edd marched in and emerged triumphant with our lost boards. maybe its a metaphor for the election.

Edd said: ‘It seems that there was nothing sinister going on. All the candidates with boards suffered, the Lib Dems suffered most because we seem to have more boards than anyone else. We’ve been victims of  ‘anti-social behaviour’ which is always disappointing and somehow we have to find a way of connecting with those responsible for this and similar acts.’

‘ I ‘m not saying that it’s necessarily young people but we can be doing more to support them. The parish councils do their best but there is never enough money or resource to do all that we’d wish. The Connexions Bus is another excellent facility but we only get it once a week. ’

Parliamentary candidate Jonathan Chatfield joined Edd and other local activists (Impington parish councillor Vanessa Kelly, also in the picture, and county councillor David Jenkins) to meet residents on the street and to hand out Lib dem election literature.

Edd said: ‘It was a very encouraging event. Many people indicated their support. There is certainly a gathering momentum of support for the Lib Dems and with the effective absence of a labour candidate SE Cambs has now become a very winnable seat’.

There’s a certain honour amongst thieves and that applies to politicians as well. We attack each other in our literature and on the door step but we don’t engage in ‘dirty tricks’. We don’t nick each others posters. So whoever did this is not from one of the major parties, he or she may simply be anti-politics. Who ever it is the action doesn’t achieve much.

Edd said: ‘this is disappointing. It’s not just an affront to the Lib Dems (and the Tories) but it’s also a denial of the right of free expression of political opinion to the people who chose to display the posters. I’m more concerned about the latter than the former.’

If anyone knows where the errant stakeboards are perhaps he or she could contact us. See the contact details on the right.

The package itself is at the top end of reasonable but is inflated by a first year’s relocation package and the need to pay 19% into a pension fund in line with statutory obligations.

However the £50K for head hunters seems absurd. It wouldn’t seem to be a difficult task to identify a score of potential candidates within the region and to process them at a fraction of the cost.

Edd said: ‘ With the savings that councils are going to have to make spending £50K like this seems profligate. Given that councils are supposed to be co-operating these days to save money surely a way could have been found within Cambridgeshire to avoid this expense.’

We know of course that there should have been an announcement mid April about when trials would start. Then last week the Council issued a press release, click here to view)  which gave a number of dates whereby various ‘snags’ would be sorted so that, again, a date could be set for handover and the start of trials.

With the busway being well over a year late and described as costing more than £30 million more than had originally been expected there never seems to be any good news.

Edd said: ‘this was an unpopular project which nobody wanted. But it has been built so let’s at least take advantage of it. The more people see this unused strip of concrete the more they think of it as a white elephant’.

That was before Sue Gymer, Lib Dem county councillor, took up the challange. She determined that most of the night time traffic was from Lincolnshire delivering to Premier Foods in Histon. Fortunately Premier Foods has a good record of community relations and already had good lines of communcation with Histon and Impington’s other county councillor, David Jenkins.

Sue met Premier Foods and it has agreed to route its night-time deliveries via the A14 even though this will increase its freight bill.

Edd says: This reflects well on Premier Foods and is a credit to the hard work which Sue has done. This means that a residents’ problem has been solved without the need to spend any tax payers’ money!’

For more information click here.

It’s difficult to understand why the cash-strapped council is doing this. The current system is working perfectly well. People are used to it and the green boxes are more convenient for people to use within their dwellings.

Edd says: ‘This is another crazy waste of money and comes so soon after the Council has failed in its efforts to develop money-saving partnerships with neighbouring councils. And it’s not thought through. People have got used to the 2 bin solution; it will be difficult for many to accommodate a 3rd bin, especially for people with smaller gardens or living in terraced housing’.