The Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) is planning to introduce congestion charging into Greater Cambridge which will cost essential workers, students, hospital visitors and shoppers £5 per visit. Motor cycles and scooters will also be charged £5.
On Saturday, October 29, the GCP held its only planned consultation in East Cambs between 10am and 1pm in a private room hidden out of sight at the back of Ely Library and it was not clearly signposted.
I attended for about just over two hours and there were about 10 visitors. The market was busy and The Cloisters was also busy, but nobody knew what was going on in the almost private back room.
Many East Cambs residents cannot afford to live in Cambridge, but have to drive into the city to carry out essential work that keeps the city viable.
They cannot cycle from, say Haddenham, and often work odd hours. A £5 daily charge would be an unreasonable cost for the many people who need to access Cambridge. Families are in many cases already suffering extreme financial stress.
At the so-called consultation in Ely, a printed handout called 'Making Connections' was handed out but was so clearly a confidence trick that GC P should be utterly ashamed of themselves. How can a semi-secret consultation with maybe 20-odd attendees be said to be consultation for 70,000 residents.
The residents of Fenland and Huntingdonshire have also been very badly treated.
If readers agree with me, please make your feelings known before it is too late.
If the Cambridge centric members of the GCP want to introduce congestion charging (which I strongly oppose) there must be proper and well publicised consultations in all communities.
Literature should be fair-minded and no decision should be made without a referendum for all Cambridgeshire residents.
Bill Hunt
District Councillor Stretham Ward.
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