James Palmer | |
---|---|
Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough | |
In office 8 May 2017 –9 May 2021 | |
Preceded by | Office created |
Succeeded by | Nik Johnson |
Leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council | |
In office May 2013 –May 2017 | |
Deputy | Charles Roberts |
Preceded by | Peter Moakes |
Cambridgeshire County Councillor for Soham and Fordham Villages | |
In office 4 June 2009 –4 May 2017 | |
Preceded by | Judith Broadway |
Succeeded by | Seat abolished |
Councillor for East Cambridgeshire District Council | |
In office 3 May 2007 –4 May 2017 | |
Ward | Soham North |
Personal details | |
Born | James Palmer 2 October 1969 Soham,Cambridgeshire |
Political party | Conservative |
Children | 2 |
James Palmer (born 2 October 1969) is a former politician who was the first Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough between 2017 and 2021. As a councillor,he was previously leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council between May 2013 and May 2017. He was also a county councillor for the Soham and Fordham Villages electoral division of Cambridgeshire County Council between 2009 and 2017. Palmer was elected as the Conservative candidate on 4 May,2017, [1] however lost the subsequent 6 May 2021 election to Labour Party candidate Nik Johnson and announced his retirement from politics. [2]
Standing for The Conservative Party,Palmer was elected as East Cambridgeshire District Councillor for the Soham North ward for the first time in 2007 and re-elected in 2011 and 2015. [3] He was elected as a Cambridgeshire County Councillor for the first time in 2009,in the Soham and Fordham Villages electoral division.[ citation needed ] He was re-elected in 2013. He was leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council from May 2013 until his election as Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough,when the post became automatically vacant. He also vacated his county councillor role at the same time.[ citation needed ] As leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council,he helped secure the funding for the Ely southern bypass to alleviate congestion in the city. [4] Under his leadership the council also developed plans for £13.5 million leisure centre and a cinema complex for Ely. [5] The new Hive Leisure Centre was opened in May 2018.
Then leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council and a Cambridgeshire County Councillor, Palmer announced in December 2016 he would be campaigning to be the Conservative candidate for Mayor and was selected on 21 January 2017 following a hustings event. [6]
In the run-up to the election, Palmer told Cambridge News , that he would invest in transport infrastructure to help business growth spread across the whole of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and make job opportunities accessible to more people. [7]
Palmer was elected Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough on 4 May 2017 with 88,826 votes (76,064 first preferences and 12,762 transfers under the supplementary vote system in the second round), and 56.9% of the final vote. [8] Upon being elected he said: "I am immensely proud to be the first mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and I will do everything I can to make sure everybody is included in the future of this county." [9]
As mayor, Palmer's objectives were to construct the Cambridgeshire Autonomous Metro, including underground tunnelling in Cambridge, upgrade the A47 in Cambridgeshire to dual carriageway, deliver Peterborough's first university with degree-awarding powers and build more affordable homes, including through community land trusts. [10] Palmer has also campaigned to reform the region's education system and for further devolution from Westminster. [11]
Palmer aimed to progress with work on delivering a metro system in Cambridgeshire, with underground tunnelling in Cambridge city centre. [12] Due to the significant estimated cost, Palmer investigated financing it through land value cap and tax increment financing (TIF) and investment from the private sector. [13]
In March 2018 Palmer announced he would be supporting the A47 Alliance campaign for full dualling of the trunk road from the A1 near Peterborough to Lowestoft in Suffolk. [14] He also supported the dualling of the A10 from Cambridge to Ely, and the eventual extension of the M11 north to the A47 to better connect the north and south of Cambridgeshire. [15] [16] In rail policy, he aimed to establish a rail link for Wisbech, build a station at Soham and deliver an interim station at Cambridge South by 2021 instead of the proposed 2025-27 timescales for the full station as proposed by East West Rail. [17] [18]
In 2020 Palmer announced that the Combined Authority had abandoned plans to build a new cycle and footbridge in St Neots, [19] where the Combined Authority was contributing £3.1 million towards the original £4.6 million cost of the scheme. Costs had increased to £7.4 million and the Combined Authority Board in June 2018 concluded it did 'not offer value for money'. £800,000 of the funding had been spent on consultants before the decision was made. [20] [21] [22]
Palmer developed the £100K home scheme which builds one bedroom houses and sells them for below market rate. [23] By March 2021, eight homes had been delivered in Fordham and there were plans to build three more in Cambridge. [24]
In March 2021, it was announced that central government would withdraw £45 million of funding that was earmarked to fund affordable housing in Cambridgeshire due to "insufficient progress" and poor value for money. The scheme was supposed to deliver 2000 new homes by 2022. [25]
In November 2017, Palmer joined other regional mayors to call for the UK government to allow further devolution to mayoral combined authorities. That included public services like skills, training and apprenticeships, as well as fiscal devolution to gain some control over taxes and revenues generated within combined authority areas. [26] Palmer established an independent panel led by the chief executive of Adnams to investigate public sector reform in Cambridgeshire. [27]
In September 2017, Palmer promoted a former colleague councillor at East Cambridgeshire District Council, Tom Hunt (who in 2019 became MP for Ipswich), to the combined authority as his chief of staff. [28] In July 2020, Conservative Minister of State Simon Clarke wrote to Palmer criticising the appointment, stating "the legal advice behind the appointment of Tom Hunt contained significant omissions". [29]
After concerns surfaced about the way the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) was being run, resulting in the Government holding back funding, Palmer wrote an open letter in September 2017 saying the organisation was no longer able to fulfil its purpose of supporting the area's business community. [30] Palmer would later support its merging to with the Combined Authority, where it was proposed to operate under an independent Business Board. [31] [32] The Business Board, he said, "will involve the public and private sectors working together closely will provide a powerful business voice for Greater Cambridgeshire and Peterborough." [33]
In September 2018, Palmer was accused of concealing the truth about whether the chief executive of CAPCA had resigned or been fired. Palmer insisted that he had resigned, but council leaders said that they thought "the evidence points to it being a dismissal", a decision which Palmer was not allowed to make unilaterally under CAPCA's constitution. [34] It was later revealed that the chief executive received 94,500 in severance pay despite serving no notice period. [35] Palmer approved the payment without consulting other members of the board and when challenged about it suggested the public were not "even slightly interested" in the circumstances surrounding it. [36]
When running for Mayor, Palmer estimated the running costs of CAPCA would be £850,000 but by November 2018, costs had spiralled to £7.6 million in 2018, including £5.6 million on staff salaries. Palmer admitted he underestimated the cost of running the new combined authority and said his original predictions "were never going to be realistic". [37] After the increase in costs was announced, Palmer sacked the chief finance officer of CAPCA. [38]
In July 2020, Conservative Minister of State Simon Clarke wrote to the Mayor criticising him on a number of issues "…which suggest that the delivery capacity of the combined authority requires improvement." He was particularly concerned about "…disagreements between CAPCA and the Greater Cambridge Partnership…" which he feared might hinder delivery of projects. He also stated in the letter that "…a number of historical problems had been identified...", including the appointment of Tom Hunt as his chief of staff. Palmer blamed civil servants for the criticism. [39]
Palmer stood as the incumbent in the 2021 Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayoral election, held on 6 May of that year. Standing against Labour's Nik Johnson and Liberal Democrat Aidan Van de Weyer, he secured 40.5% of the first-round votes. [40] With no candidate reaching the 50% threshold a second round was held between Palmer and Johnson. A large majority of supplementary votes went to the Labour candidate and the final count saw Palmer receive 48.7% of the total, with Johnson winning on 51.3%. [40] [41]
Following his defeat, Palmer announced that he would be retiring from politics. [42]
His cousin is the Burnley FC and England international goalkeeper Nick Pope. [43]
Cambridgeshire is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west. The city of Cambridge is the county town. Following the Local Government Act 1972 restructuring, modern Cambridgeshire was formed in 1974 through the amalgamation of two administrative counties: Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely, comprising the historic county of Cambridgeshire ; and Huntingdon and Peterborough, comprising the historic county of Huntingdonshire and the Soke of Peterborough, historically part of Northamptonshire. Cambridgeshire contains most of the region known as Silicon Fen.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary is the local territorial police force that covers the county of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough unitary authority. It provides law enforcement and security for an area of 1,311 square miles (3,400 km2) and population of 856,000 people, in a predominantly rural county. The force of Cambridgeshire includes the cities of Cambridge, Ely and Peterborough, the market towns of Chatteris, Huntingdon, March, Ramsey, St Ives, St Neots, Whittlesey, and town and Port of Wisbech. Its emblem is a crowned Brunswick star containing the heraldic badge of Cambridgeshire County Council.
A civil parish is a country subdivision, forming the lowest unit of local government in England. There are 264 civil parishes in the ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, most of the county being parished; Cambridge is completely unparished; Fenland, East Cambridgeshire, South Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire are entirely parished. At the 2001 census, there were 497,820 people living in the parishes, accounting for 70.2 per cent of the county's population.
Cambridgeshire County Council is elected every four years using the first past the post system of election. As of 2021 the council consists of 61 council seats, representing 60 electoral divisions. The Conservative Party is currently the largest party bloc on the council.
Fenland District Council in the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England is elected every four years. Since the last boundary changes in 2015, 39 councillors are returned from 24 wards. The elections are held concurrently with the local government elections for Chatteris Town Council, March Town Council, Whittlesey Town Council, Wisbech Town Council and the other parish councils in the district, when the general election was held with district elections and the town and parish elections were pushed back to 24 May 1979.
Peterborough City Council is the local authority for Peterborough in the East of England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. The City was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1874; from 1888, it fell within the jurisdiction of the Soke of Peterborough county council and from 1965, Huntingdon and Peterborough county council. In 1974, it was replaced by a wholly new non-metropolitan district, broadly corresponding to the Soke, in the new enlarged Cambridgeshire. In 1998, Peterborough became independent of Cambridgeshire as a unitary authority, but the city continues to form part of that county for ceremonial purposes as defined by the Lieutenancies Act 1997.
Cambridgeshire County Council is the county council of Cambridgeshire, England. The council consists of 61 councillors, representing 59 electoral divisions. The council is based at New Shire Hall at Alconbury Weald, near Huntingdon. It is a member of the East of England Local Government Association.
Soham railway station is a station on the Ipswich–Ely line, serving the town of Soham in Cambridgeshire. The original station operated between 1879 and 1965. It was reopened in 2021.
The 2011 Fenland District Council election took place on 5 May 2011 to elect members of Fenland District Council in Cambridgeshire, England. The whole council was up for election and the Conservative Party stayed in overall control of the council.
An election to Cambridgeshire County Council took place on 2 May 2013 as part of the 2013 United Kingdom local elections. 69 councillors were elected from 60 electoral divisions, which returned either one or two county councillors each by first-past-the-post voting for a four-year term of office. The electoral divisions were the same as those used at the previous election in 2009. No elections were held in Peterborough, which is a unitary authority outside the area covered by the County Council. The election saw the Conservative Party lose overall control of the council.
The 2017 Cambridgeshire County Council election was held on 4 May 2017 as part of the 2017 local elections in the United Kingdom. All 61 councillors were elected from 59 electoral divisions, which returned either one or two county councillors each by first-past-the-post voting for a four-year term of office.
The inaugural Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayoral election was held on 4 May 2017 to elect the Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. The supplementary vote system was used to elect the mayor for a four-year term of office. Subsequent elections will be held in May 2021 and every four years after.
Nik Johnson is a British Labour Co-op politician and paediatrician who has served as the mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough since 2021.
The 2018 Huntingdonshire District Council election took place on 3 May 2018 to elect members of Huntingdonshire District Council in England. This was on the same day as other local elections.
Thomas Patrick Hunt is a British Conservative Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ipswich since the 2019 general election.
The 2021 Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayoral election was held on 6 May 2021 to elect the mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
The 2021 Cambridgeshire County Council election took place on 6 May 2021 as part of the 2021 local elections in the United Kingdom. All 61 councillors were elected from 59 electoral divisions, which returned either one or two county councillors each by first-past-the-post voting for a four-year term of office. The election was held alongside a full election for Cambridge City Council, the Cambridgeshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and one-third of Peterborough City Council.
The Cambridgeshire Autonomous Metro(CAM) was a rapid transit proposal in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It suggested that the project would be delivered between 2023 and 2029. Proposed by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority mayor James Palmer in 2017, it was scrapped when he lost the 2021 election to Nik Johnson, who cancelled the project.