Leader’s Blog – Cllr Bridget Smith

Thank you for visiting my blog. Through my blog I’m aiming to give you a better insight into what I am doing behind the scenes to represent you and make sure the Council is delivering on the priorities you have helped us set.

If there is anything you want to know more about, or topics you want me to cover in more detail, please get in touch – cllr.bridgetsmith@scambs.gov.uk

Best wishes
Bridget

Wednesday 29 November 2023: Local Climate Action Conference 2023

Yesterday, I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with community leaders and parish councillors at our Local Climate Action Conference. Seeing the work our communities are doing to tackle the environmental and climate crisis was inspiring and demonstrated how all of us across South Cambridgeshire can help do our bit.

Highlighting a couple of schemes that were particularly exciting and I’d love to see more of in the future:

• Steeple Morden Parish Council have installed a new community electric vehicle charger point. This fantastic scheme, which was part funded by our EV Charge Point Grant, is helping to remove EV blackspots and making EVs more accessible for people without off-street parking. Thank you to Malcolm Bird for coming to speak to us and I’d love to see more parishes following in Steeple Morden’s wake.
• Alison Giles from Natural Cambridgeshire spoke to us about Girton Village’s local nature recovery plan. Alison spoke about her work engaging with young people and how people can get involved in their communities’ work to support nature on their doorsteps. These brilliant efforts show how we all can make a difference and I implore everyone to look into the work your parish or town council is doing and see how you and your family can get involved in protecting nature.

Thank you to all the other speakers and everyone who came along to share ideas and work together for a greener South Cambridgeshire.

Tuesday 14 November 2023: Diwali celebrations in Cambourne

It was the nicest possible way to spend a Saturday night to attend the beautiful Diwali celebrations in Cambourne at the weekend. The community centre had been stunningly decorated and everyone was dressed up in their finery. They even found a sari for me to wear. We had absolutely splendid entertainment from traditional drumming which got everyone on their feet dancing (including me) to Bollywood and traditional dancing. My evening ended with a delicious meal, though I think every one else continued to party until very late. A more welcoming community you could not imagined. It was my first Diwali and I hope it is not my last. Thank you very much

Thursday 5 October 2023: At the cutting-edge at CMR

It was a pleasure and extremely interesting to visit CMR Surgical in Ely yesterday. This is a company that leads the way in medical robotics devices. It was another clear example of the leading role that our region plays in one of the world’s most advanced and important industries.

This company aims to help patients and surgeons by producing incredibly sophisticated, portable robots that are used during surgical procedures – with a focus on minimally invasive during surgery. Minimally invasive procedures help aid recovery and outcomes for patients. These precise machines are also important because they are portable too. This is so important because despite all our technological advances, I heard how there are 270 million operations carried out worldwide every year but still one million deaths owing to surgical error.

We heard how the UK has an excellent reputation for start-ups but is less good at ensuring all those start-ups mature and develop into established, world leading companies like CMR.  As a country the UK clearly needs to be more focused on turning innovation into real-life outcomes.

The company is also extremely aware of its impacts on the environment; I heard how it aims to send zero waste to landfill, doesn’t use any bubble wrap and 40% of their workforce get to work using public transport, by walking, cycling or in an electric vehicle.

A hugely interesting day – and our role is to ensure we are providing the space and opportunities locally for companies like CMR to start-up, develop and benefit people locally and around the world.

Friday 12 May 2023: New electric buses for Greater Cambridge

Finally the start of the bus improvements for Greater Cambridge with the launch of 30 all electric buses at a cost of £17mil. Look out for them travelling to and from all the Park and Ride’s. They are a lovely comfortable ride and will play a massive part in reducing our transport related carbon emissions and help improve our air quality.

 

Friday 17 March 2023: A visit to Ouse Fen

It was lovely to meet up with the RSPB team this week. They are doing the most inspirational work at Ouse Fen Nature Reserve to restore a massive site to nature rich wetland. This exemplar project is being run with Hanson and the County Council and is the largest project of its kind in Europe. Even while material is still being extracted from the quarry, bitterns, bearded tits and marsh harriers are populating the parts that have been restored. There are 19km of trails to walk and you can see for yourselves where the sand and gravel is being removed and get a sense of the scale of the wetland that will eventually be there for future generations to enjoy. Much of the routine maintenance is done by local volunteers and the local community continue to be heavily involved in the site’s development. What excites me most of all is the potential for this model of partnership working between the private sector, local authorities and the a national charity to be rolled out across the country thereby greatly improving our landscape and bio diversity.

Wednesday 8 March 2023: International Women's Day

It was a huge privilege to be asked to speak today at the Local Government Association’s Women’s network on International Women’s Day. I focused on how our four day week trial at the Council could help to support women (and men) with caring responsibilities. There was a very interesting debate about how women’s progress through employment hierarchies can still be impeded, and a long conversation about how we deal with ‘micro aggressions’ which for many of us are a daily occurrence. These can so easily be normalized but which should be routinely be called out.

Monday 13 February 2023: MAGPAS Air Ambulance Future 50 Appeal launch

It was a huge privilege to attend the launch of the MAGPAS Air Ambulance Future 50 Appeal on Friday at their new, and nearly completed headquarters, at Alconbury, in the presence of their president, HRH Princess Anne, the Princess Royal.

HRH Princess Anne unveiled a plaque dated just before the passing of The Queen which reminded us why this celebration was postponed. 

We were taken on a guided tour of the fantastic new facilities, that will even include a family room where patients can meet the clinicians who most likely saved their lives. 

The Charity must raise £6 million every year but the work it does is absolutely invaluable - and as one of the speakers said, you never know when you might be very grateful for them being there.

We were able to talk to supporters, volunteers and staff all of whom were absolutely passionate about what they do.

The highlight was when the helicopter, just returned from a mission, landed on the grass outside the pavilion at Alconbury.