Report from Cambridgeshire County Councillor Firouz Thompson – January 2025

Dear Residents,

As January eases towards February, we’re starting to enjoy longer daylight hours. However, if you’re engaging in active travel, such as walking or cycling or wheeling, please remain visible during darker mornings and evenings for everyone’s safety.

Here is my monthly update, which is an edited version of the full report that I provide to the parish councils in my ward.

CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE
New ‘Inclusion for All’ SEND Strategy to focus on early support
The Children and Young People Committee meeting on Tuesday 26 November shared a new strategy to adopt an ‘Inclusion for All’ approach for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Members discussed how children would be supported as early as possible, to enable children with additional needs to engage and thrive in education , whilst making better use of public funds. 

The Committee also noted the update on key activity and progress with the Safety Valve programme, as well as local funding arrangements.

Like many other councils, Cambridgeshire County Council is facing significant challenges due to rising demand for, and the increasing costs of, supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Over the past five years, the council has seen nearly a 50% increase in the number of Education, Health, and Care Plans (EHCPs) required.

To address the resulting financial pressures, local officers are actively working to manage funding constraints. Recently, a revised Safety Valve proposal was submitted to the Department for Education. If approved by Education Ministers, this proposal will help the council address the financial deficit in the High Needs Block while enabling a reform of SEND service delivery over the next five years.

STRATEGY, POLICY & RESOURCES
Council Budget

Cambridgeshire County Council will set its budget on Tuesday 11 February, with recommendations being considered in advance by the Strategy Resources & Performance Committee on Tuesday 28 January.

Each year councils are required to set a balanced budget for the year ahead. This has become more difficult in recent years for several reasons including

  • Growing demand for services and increasing complexity of health and care needs
  • Inflation
  • Market failures in services such as provision for children in care, with high demand, insufficient supply, provider profiteering, and diminished council negotiating power.

The totality of the council’s gross budget, including schools and services funded by specific grants, is expected to be over £1.1 billion for 2025-26. Of this, over half (£567 million) is proposed to be spent on children, education and families, and health and adult social care.

In December, councillors were told that efficiencies and savings or additional income of £34 million would be needed to set a balanced budget for 2025-26, and considered draft proposals to achieve this. However, the coming five years show an overall funding gap of £132 million, of which £73 million is not yet addressed

ADULTS & HEALTH
Social care reform—but not until 2028
The Government has promised to ‘finally grasp the nettle on social care reform’, with an independent commission due to begin work in April.

Proposals on a stable system for the long-term funding of adult social care in England have been needed for years. But these are unlikely to be delivered before 2028 at the earliest, the government has confirmed. The proposed commission, chaired by Baroness Louise Casey, is not due to publish its final report until then.

Meanwhile, councils and care providers across the country are saying this is far too long to wait for reform of vital social care services which are already on their knees.

COMMUNITIES, SOCIAL MOBILITY & INCLUSION (COSMIC)
CAB grant for income maximisation
The County Council’s COSMIC committee has agreed a grant of £800,000 over two years to Citizens Advice in the county for income maximisation—working with residents to ensure they are in receipt of all financial assistance they are eligible for, and helping people out of poverty across Cambridgeshire by providing a long-term solution to financial hardship.

Since income maximisation work began in 2023, 5,455 Cambridgeshire residents have accessed the service, resulting in an income gain of £3,887,844.

HIGHWAYS & TRANSPORT

Winter gritting reminder
With the weather taking a cold turn, a quick reminder about gritting on Cambridgeshire’s roads.

Cambridgeshire County Council’s 37 gritting vehicles cover 44 per cent of the county’s road network. Cambridgeshire is split into three gritting areas:

  • Fenland and East
  • Huntingdonshire and South
  • Cambridge

Which roads are gritted and when will depend on forecast temperatures in each of these three areas, so there may be occasions when some parts of the county are gritted but not others.

Roads on the gritting network are classified as primary or secondary routes. Primary routes are the priority for gritting, because they serve as major connecting routes for communities and allow people to get to work and access essential services. Secondary routes are gritted in addition to primary routes as and when resources allow when there is a forecast of a prolonged cold spell, where road surface temperatures fall below zero, or when snowfall is forecast.

You can find which roads are primary or secondary gritting routes at https://maps.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/
In the Map categories menu to the left of the screen, choose Transport and Streets, then select Primary Gritting Routes and Secondary Gritting Routes from the drop-down menu.

£10 million for road maintenance
The Government has announced how much each council area will receive for highways capital maintenance for 2025/26.

For the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough area it’s £10 million, with a quarter of that amount to be held back until the respective councils have proved they will meet certain—still to be announced—criteria. £10 million sounds a lot, but

  • The Government may hold back twenty-five per cent of it
  • It includes Peterborough as well as Cambridgeshire
  • In Cambridgeshire alone the backlog of highways maintenance is around £600 million. Better than nothing, then, but a long way from what we need

Prioritising the highways capital programme
The council’s Highways & Transport Committee on 3 December approved a new scoring system to prioritise planned capital highways maintenance schemes.

  • Parish councils and county councillors were approached by the council to submit suggestions of roads that needed significant capital work. As part of this process. I put forward all the discussed areas with all my parishes.
  • When it meets in March, the committee expects to receive a proposed three year forward capital maintenance programme and an indicative programme for the following two years. The same meeting will also consider a proposed hierarchy for maintaining walking, wheeling, and cycling routes. Proposals for a hierarchy for maintaining Public Rights of Way is expected to follow in July or October.

B1050 Cycle/Footpath Project
This project, split into two phases, aims to improve connectivity to Bar Hill and Swavesey and beyond?

Phase One: From the A1307 to the new B1050 roundabout, funded by Section 106 contributions. Construction is expected to begin in early 2025.
Note: Section 106 agreement is a legal obligation between developers and local councils to provide funding or infrastructure to offset the impact of a development on the community.

Phase Two: From the new B1050 roundabout to where the Home Farm Road meets the B1050 in Longstanton. This phase has faced delays due to ongoing works, land acquisition, and planning permissions but aims to start in late 2025, all being well.

Transport: Bus Pricing
Recent changes by Stagecoach place Longstanton Park and Ride and Northstowe within the Flexi Travel Plus zone, increasing travel costs. However, the Combined Authority’s £2 cap on bus fares (through to March 2025) and the £1 Tiger Pass for youth under 25 continue to support affordable travel. We await further updates in April.

Thank you for your engagement and for raising concerns that help shape our growing town. Together, we can make Northstowe a thriving and connected community.

Contact Details:

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the above, or any other matters.
Firouz Thompson, County Councillor for Longstanton, Northstowe, Over and Oakington & Westwick
Email: firouz.thompson@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2066298150052161/  – Longstanton, Oakington and Northstowe
https://www.facebook.com/libdems3rdMay18 – Over & Willingham
Report a highways fault – Cambridgeshire County Council
Report a flood – www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/business/planning-and-development/flood-and-water/report-a-flood