Labour's campaign to keep Marshall in Cambridge was vindicated today by an announcement by Marshall that they will stay in Cambridge for the foreseeable future, or, as Marshall put it itself in a press release, "in the immediate future, there are no suitable relocation options open to it". This is because the last site considered for relocation, Wyton, has been ruled out.
This is good news for Abbey. Many residents are employed by Marshall. Many apprenticeship opportunities at Marshall are provided to Abbey residents. These jobs and apprenticeships are now, at least for the time being, secure. Furthermore, the east side of the city, particularly Newmarket Road, will be saved from the extra traffic that would have been generated by 12, 000 houses. How the Lib Dems ever thought the east side of the city could take all of those extra homes with no corresponding investment in transport infrastructure and the like passes all understanding.
Consistently, Labour has supported keeping Marshall in Cambridge and opposed the crazy Lib Dem housing development plans for the east side of the city, unlike the Greens, who have never supported any Labour council motions supporting keeping Marshall in Cambridge and have always supported the idea of building on the Marshall site. I myelf have knocked on hundreds of doors in Abbey gathering signatures for the 'Keep Marshall in Cambridge' petition organised jointly by Labour and local trade unions. Support for Labour's campaign has been overwhelming in Abbey.
The big question thrown up by all of this is: where does this leave the Lib Dems housing plans? The answer is: in total disarray.
Since David Howarth, the then-leader of the council, announced back in 2000 the Lib Dems intention to use the Marshall site for the extra housing Cambridge needs, Lib Dem housing plans have been entirely predicated on the assumption that Marshall would move and make this possible. This is despite the fact that the council never had the power to force Marshall out. As a result of this misguided policy - a classic example of putting all of your eggs in one basket - the Lib Dems have no alternative plans for providing for Cambridge's housing needs. There is NO plan B. This is in the context of ever increasing council housing waiting lists.
The Lib Dems have turned around and accused us of not having a policy on housing (when of course they have no policy of their own now either, and they actually run the council!). They claim that because we oppose building on the Marshall site, we have no plans for providing affordable housing - but it is quite possible to reject the validity of using the Marshall site while supporting other development plans to provide affordable housing.
This is what Labour are doing. The Labour group wants development to happen organically around Cambridge, rather than dumping the majority of housing in one place with no provision for its infrastructural needs . We particularly favour development at Waterbeach, where existing transport links are good, and towards the North-West of the city near Girton, among other places.
The Lib Dems have also, unbelievably, tried to blame the Labour government for having some mysterious role in Marshall failing to gain permission to move to other sites, such as RAF Mildenhall. This is fantasy - there are a range of reasons for the other sites not being available for Marshall, but some Labour conspiracy is not one of them; as if a matter of planning and national security would have been decided to frustrate Lib Dem housing plans in a town miles away.
The fact is that the Lib Dems stupidly based their entire policy on an assumption they should never have taken for granted. While they have pursued the fantasy that the Marshall site would definitely be available for their housing plans, nothing has been done to address Cambridge's pressing need for more affordable housing in the past 10 years. Hence why Shelter's latest housing league table ranks Cambridge City Council 242nd out of 323 in terms of providing afforable housing, a dismal performance.
And so the Lib Dems flail around for excuses and attempt to blame anyone or anything other than themselves and their own stupidity for the situation; it's pathetic. For god's sake, let's throw these incompetents out in May and elect more Labour councillors, so that the city council can start to implement a realistic strategy for delivering the affordable housing Cambridge needs.
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