Let East Cambridgeshire District Council Fix our Rural Roads
With local government reorganisation “paused” we at East Cambs have been taking time to think again about the opportunities presented by the Government’s devolution drive.
I am taking a motion to our Council meeting in October to ask for the Council’s backing to request that central Government ends its plan for local government reorganisation and instead considers alternatives – stronger collaboration, service-level devolution and district-led partnerships.
I want Government to consider East Cambridgeshire as a pilot area for the devolution of responsibilities currently held by Cambridgeshire County Council. I want East Cambs District Council to take responsibility for maintenance of our rural roads, and for adult social care.
Some people might think this is “bold”, some people may see it as political game playing. It isn’t either of those things. I am serious and this is a serious proposition.
Our rural roads in East Cambs are in a dangerous, unmanaged state of collapse and repairs are badly carried out, wasting millions of pounds. East Cambs gets a raw deal in terms of how money is allocated to road maintenance across the county and the spending priorities of Cambridgeshire County Council do not match those of our residents.
Adult social care is inflexible and inefficient. The Neighbourhood Cares pilot I spearheaded when I was lead member for Adult Social Care at the County Council is the right way to go – local, patch-based delivery, responsive, nimble, flexible and tailored to the needs of individuals and communities.
This is about delivering services at a manageable scale, where solutions are properly tailored to what is needed.
I have always believed in small local government; residents are best served by strong local councils that know their communities. East Cambs District Council has a long proud record as a small council that delivers high-quality services, remains financially resilient and continues to innovate. We are one of only two councils nationally with no external borrowing and we have frozen our share of Council Tax for 13 years with no cuts to services.
We continue to provide free car parking, free garden waste collections and comprehensive face-to-face customer services that include practical, in-person support for the prevention of homelessness, debt advice and help for vulnerable residents. The Council has not spent a single penny placing families in bed and breakfast accommodation for well over a decade.
The Council has used its highly successful trading company innovatively to deliver housing, including affordable housing, and to support community-led schemes such as Community Land Trusts. Since its inception the company has returned £6.2 million to the Council and a further £4.5 million in social value.
The countywide local government reorganisation survey in 2025 found that East Cambridgeshire consistently had the highest service satisfaction, strongest sense of community belonging and the highest perceived value for Council Tax.
We have demonstrated that small, efficient, local teams are better at getting things done, to higher standards and with better outcomes.
If you needed any more persuasion, take a look at Rutland County Council – the smallest Unitary Authority in England with only around 41,000 residents (less than half the size of East Cambridgeshire). The evidence from Rutland demonstrates that a small unitary authority is well capable of managing highways to a high standard, despite a smaller population and resource base. And in 2025 Rutland County Council was ranked 1st out of 150 English local authorities on four separate measures of adult social care outcomes and it had the highest quality of life score of all English local authorities. This is no coincidence.
Right now, we have a rare opportunity for a reset, to fight for a better deal from Government and to get it right for our communities.
Cllr Anna Bailey
