I was out and about in East Chesterton today. Specifically around the Church Street area. Thanks to all those nice people I spoke to. It can be a bit hard knocking on doors sometimes. One guy was very agressive to me, but the very next door was opened by a lovely lady who had a great chat with me. It was very clear to me that traffic was the big issue today.

I spoke to quite a few people about when I was on the County Council before and led the Transport Innovation Bid. On lot of occasions I said at the time, that congestion charging was not going to be on my agenda, but I was trying to convince the Government that they should invest in the transport infrastructure in Cambridge. I still stand by that. Cambridge is a great little contained City, and there are loads of innovative things that could be done to help us all move around Cambridge better. They just cost loads and loads of money. Which with the current economic situation, bequeathed of course by the Labour Government, money is very thin on the ground. I would encourage officers of the County to continue to work on innovative ways to deal with the transport issues, and be right at the front of the queue when money does become available.

I have already talked about keeping the A14 project alive, and I was really pleased to see that the Leader of Cambridge County Council has been trying to do just that http://jilltuck.blogspot.com/

It is absolutely vital, and many of you agreed with me today.

I will be out and about tomorrow again, so I will look forward to meeting more of the residents.

See you soon.

Matt

Data protection.

To follow up from my earlier post, I now have another reason to enjoy canvassing. Tonight as I was coming to the end of my round I knocked on a door and was invited in for a chat. A big thank you to the couple who took the time to discuss the issues with me and in particular for the gin and tonic they provided.

After we had finished we were all in need of refreshment, colleagues who had not been so lucky more so than me. So we repaired to a local hostelry for a drink. An excellent pint but not too many otherwise we might have repeated the mistake of the Liberal Democrats at the last election.

Minor niggles reported to the council.

Call me funny but I like canvassing. Knocking on the door of complete strangers, asking them what particular local issues concern them and where possible trying to help them fix it. But that is not all. When you are out pounding the streets you often notice little niggles that the council could easily fix but they might not know about them. Often local residents don't have the time to report them, or do not know who in the council to contact, or indeed which council is responsible. An excellent website FixMyStreet makes this easier. We made a number of reports after canvassing the other day.

An abandoned refrigerator on Maple close.

A broken street sign on Maple close.

A blocked drain on Milton Road.

Graffiti on a give way sign.

A crumbled pavement.

A pile of green waste.

You can follow progress on these issues by clicking on the links above.