Debate ahead of mayoral election

So the new mayor will certainly have power, but do people care? There’s no doubt that interest has been creeping up as the election gets closer, but with any new role it’s always hard to get the message out that the election is happening, and I meet people every day who still have no idea.   

The mayoral election is being held on the same day as the election for Cambridgeshire County Council, which usually gets a turnout of around a third, so we can expect around the same for the mayoral election. 

But it’ll be interesting to see what happens in Peterborough - it’s a unitary authority so doesn’t have any elections this time round. The candidates will have to work even harder there to get people to come out and vote for them.

As expected perhaps, the two main parties performed well, but it was Rod Cantrill, with his insistence that homes in Peterborough were just as unaffordable as those in Cambridge, who won a fraction more applause from the audience.

His Lib Dem campaign is being run by the same team that won the Richmond by-election last year, and it shows.

Whether that translates to more votes here remains to be seen. In a county that typically votes Tory, James Palmer will be feeling confident.

Although the debate seemed to go down well with the audience, some questioned the role the mayor would have and if it would actually make any difference. 

One audience member said: "What I am hearing here is absolute rubbish because you as mayors are not going to have the money to do anything.

"(The) government has massively cut money to local government, and Peterborough needs more money."

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The general consensus from the panel seemed to be that they won't have enough money, but they will try and ask for more.   

One of the most repeated words in this debate has been "apprenticeship". 

It seems like all the candidates think training young people in certain skills will help unlock Cambridgeshire and Peterborough's true potential. 

Rod Cantrill, for the Liberal Democrats, says if he's elected he will "put jobs back into Fenland".

He thinks this will happen by making sure young people can build the new homes that we will need to live in over the coming years. 

He's also promised to reinstate funding to pay for the bus fares of 16-18-year-olds so they can travel to colleges to undertake their further education. 

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Party campaigners have told me that, on the doorstep at least, the election of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s first mayor has been somewhat overshadowed by the snap general election. 

But it’s worth remembering that in terms of our everyday lives, our new mayor has the potential to make a big difference to people living in Cambridgeshire. 

Transport and housing are two of the biggest issues for Cambridgeshire. It’s no coincidence that they are the areas that the new mayor will have control over, and are the two biggest battlegrounds for the election.

There is £170m to spend on affordable housing, but what this will look like, where this will go and who will be able to live there, is something the candidates have been debating over the last couple of weeks.

Similarly, there are many transport projects being talked about as part of the devolution deal, from the reopening of the Wisbech rail link to upgrading the A47. 

But these are costly projects - and even with £20m available for the next 30 years, it’ll be up the mayor to decide which projects should be prioritised, and again the candidates differ in their ideas. 

The front page of today's Ely Standard also looks at the candidates vying to become the first mayor for the new combined authority of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough: 

Here's a flavour of your reaction to the debate between the mayoral candidates last night.

Helping the next generation get into work lies in training. 

This is the view of Peter Dawe, the independent candidate who says training has to shift "from education establishments to employers and the employed".

You get skills "by doing the job and doing it next to someone who knows how to do it", he says. 

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Stephen Goldspink, for the English Democrats, also believes apprenticeships are the answer as "there is a mix of people out there".

He doesn't think everyone is made to go to university so alternative training needs to be in place. 

On the subject of skills, Julie Howell, representing the Green party, said she would like to get rid of these "awful unpaid internships".

"That's something I would knock on the head," she said.

She said this is because too many people are getting to 30 and not properly working. She said she wanted to help them "get into something meaningful".

Paul Bullen, for UKIP, said more young people needed to learn technical skills.

"We need skills trade people, then businesses will come here," he said.

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So far we've covered housing and transport, next up is the subject of skills. 

This is because the mayor's job will be to also look at investment in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and supporting job growth. 

So how do we get there? 

James Palmer, for the Conservatives, says the answer lies in apprenticeships and he wants to work with local schools to reward young people to go down that career path. 

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He's not the only one who thinks this, Kevin Price representing Labour believes the role of apprenticeships will be "vital" as that's how he got into the workplace. 

He said training young people so they can build houses, railways and key work skills would help support the county's growth.

If where you live is overseen by any of these seven councils - you get to vote on 4 May for the new mayor.

• Cambridge City Council 
• Cambridgeshire County Council
• East Cambridge District Council 
• Fenland District Council 
• Huntingdonshire District Council 
• Peterborough City Council
• South Cambridgeshire District Council  

The new Cambridgeshire and Peterborough combined authority is one of six regions in England to choose a mayor: 

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For a county with its own north-south divide between Peterborough and Cambridge, it was inevitable that inequalities over transport would lead to division among the candidates.

They all agreed that if elected they would spread the wealth of Cambridge to address the very different needs of Peterborough and Fenland. But how?

UKIP's Paul Bullen seemed committed to upgrading the A47, insisting that a rural county "needs cars", while the Greens backed investment for public transport. It was left to the Conservative's James Palmer to insist on both.

And it was the Conservative candidate who also won murmurings of support from the audience when he pledged to reward schools for putting children through apprenticeships.

Skills as well as education, he argued, would help create a workforce for the 21st Century.

According to Kevin Price, the Labour candidate, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough's transport issues could be partially solved with buses. 

He says the answer is bringing in a "bus franchise". 

If needs be, he says go to the government and demand more money. But first and foremost he wants to "speak for bus users and provide a decent bus system for them",

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On transport, Julie Howell, from the Green Party, said: "I want to break up this love affair with the car."

She says dualling roads is not the answer and we need to start "having an affair with public transport, buses and trains".

She added that she is "all about trains", so is for reopening the March to Wisbech railway line. 

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Earlier in the debate Stephen Goldspink from the English Democrats said councils needed to "make the most of what they have got", and he believes this is the same with transport. 

He said "residents know the problems" so they need to be listened to.

He believes all sorts of things can be sorted out without spending vast amounts of money, and rerouting buses slightly would work, also making sure trains stop where they need to, not just where they do at the moment.

Carrying on the subject of transport, the panel were asked how they would improve rail and road links across the whole of the county. 

Rod Cantrill, for the Liberal Democrats, said he would bring in an "integrated strategic transport plan". 

He says the money currently on offer in the mayoral budget to deal with transport is "not enough" and he would ask for more.

He said they needed to plan for the next 40 years and not the next four. 

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UKIP candidate Paul Bullen said as mayor he would look at the transport budget and "look at what we have and put it right".

He said the most important thing was to "get views of local people" and listen to them.

On the subject of improving rail or road links in the Fens, the Conservative candidate, James Palmer doesn't see it as an "either or" approach.

He believes it's "imperative" to expand the county's rails and connect other parts of the county which would hopefully bring much needed growth to areas like Whittlesey, March and Peterborough. 

He says he'll be "pushing for it" and money should be spent on rail and roads. 

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Host Janine Machin then asked the audience for a quick show of hands to see if they were for the reopening of the March to Wisbech railway, and more than half showed that they were. 

One audience member went as far as saying it was a "pie in the sky" idea, and the A47 and bus services in Wisbech needed to be improved.

So far we've covered the issue of housing, next it's time to turn the spotlight on to transport. 

Audience member Nick Dubbin, from campaign group Rail Future, wanted to know if reopening the now closed March to Wisbech rail line was the key to unlocking development in Fenland? 

Peter Dawe, the independent candidate, responded straight away with "no".

He believes that improving the A47 is the answer as "Wisbech needs business", and this will deliver it.

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While the panel agreed that "affordable housing" was a misnomer in one of the most expensive places to live, their solutions to the issue varied widely.

Whether it was Peter Dawe's Fenland factory "churning out modular homes by the dozen" or Stephen Goldspink's pledge to "bring back empty homes", there were clearly different approaches to tackling the housing shortage.

"Just build more council houses!" shouts an exasperated audience member.

"I will," says Labour's Kevin Price. As Cambridge City Council's lead on housing, he'd be well placed to honour that pledge... 

So how do we solve the county's housing problems? 

Stephen Goldspink, from the English Democrats, said there were still many properties in the county that were not occupied and local authorities had the power to take them over and bring them into the housing stock.

He said councils had already failed to make the "most of what they have got" and he would change this. 

James Palmer, the Conservative candidate, said as the only leader on the panel he already had the housing solution, and that lies in homes built on community land trust, which is homes built in conjunction with the community.

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He said it's "not a one size fits all problem" but they needed to look at all options.

An audience member then responded that this would only work if there were "affordable rents", and Mr Palmer said that community land trusts do offer affordable rents.