Mr Howarth not seeing residents of Windsor Road as city centre residents surprises me; one of the challenges the new City Centre partnership will have is to engage with people like Mr Howarth who live slightly outside the historic core encourage a sense of ownership and responsibility for the city centre.

There appears to be a split here within Cambridge’s Liberal Democrats. Cllr Colin Rosenstiel put forward the same argument Mr Howarth has used when he spoke at a presentation about the resident representation on the Love Cambridge board, saying that the representative should live right in the core of the city. This was rejected there by Cllr Cantrill and others, including many residents present, who wanted the new Love Cambridge board to have no boundaries to its area of operation. I believe independent retailers were also concerned initially about the new partnership focusing too narrowly on the historic core.

It is kind of you to suggest that I might consider putting my name forward for the residents’ representative on the Board. But since I live in Windsor Road, rather than the city centre itself, doing so would have the problem of denying residents more directly affected of the opportunity of participating in the affairs of the city.

I hope that there will be plenty of people willing to put themselves forward to serve on the board from all the sectors you mention and wish the project every success”