Cambridgeshire Lib Dems announce candidate to take on ‘aggressive’ mayor
Cambridgeshire’s mayor and the chairman of the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) look set to clash again next year at the mayoral elections.
Cllr Aidan Van de Weyer has been announced as the Liberal Democrat candidate for next year’s elections, which are set to take place in May.
He will face current Conservative mayor James Palmer, a critic of the GCP’s Cambridge to Cambourne busway scheme.
The mayor and the GCP have publicly clashed over the last week after Mr Palmer raised concerns that the scheme will not align with his wider vision for the CAM metro.
Cllr Van de Weyer, who is also the deputy leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council, said: “Our area badly needs a different approach from the aggressive behaviour of James Palmer. He neither listens to people nor achieves anything.”
Cllr Van de Weyer, who grew up in Huntingdonshire and now lives in Barrington, added: “The Covid-19 crisis has shown how we desperately need to reduce inequality across our communities and as we emerge from the lockdown we will need new plans for better and greener public transport.”
When the mayoralty was contested in 2017, Liberal Democrat candidate Rod Cantrill finished second to Mr Palmer.
Mr Palmer launched an attack on the C2C busway plans, saying the GCP was proceeding with an ‘outdated’ scheme.
The GCP has previously said: “The in-built flexibility of our current plans means they can accommodate the CAM and also schemes such as East West Rail, with whom we are working closely.”
This week, it published an open letter hitting back at Mr Palmer, following his attack on the scheme.
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