Richard Taylor

Newnham Liberal Democrat Lucy Nethsingha Seeks to be City and County Councillor

It looks as if the Liberal Democrats in their stronghold of Newnham ward in Cambridge have been unable to find a new prospective councillor for the upcoming Cambridge City Council elections. It looks as if their sitting County Councillor for the ward, Lucy Nethsingha, is to contest the City Council seat for the party.

Cambridge is covered by two councils: Cambridge City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council.

The first hint I got of this situation was when I spotted a Liberal Democrat leaflet prominently advertising Cllr Lucy Nethsingha lying on the road in Newnham when I was cycling through the area on the 3rd of April 2016.

Near where I found the leaflet on the road I met two people delivering the leaflets. I asked if Cllr Nethsingha would be on both councils if elected and was told that would be the case. Being elected to two councils brings with it the ability to take home public money via allowances and expenses from both bodies.

Nethsingha personally received a hefty sum of almost sixteen thousand pounds in allowances from the County Council in 2014/15. In addition, as a member of the Fire Authority, Cllr Nethsingha is able to trouser thousands more. Transparency failures mean the sum actually paid by the Fire Authority is not easily accessible. If elected as a Cambridge City Councillor Nethsingha will be able to take at least a further basic allowance of £3,199 on top. Added up this is in excess of what some people earn from a full time job.

I would like to know if Lucy Nethsingha intends to take allowances and expenses from both councils if elected to both; and in particular if Cambridge City Council’s area committee allowance will be claimed given Cllr Nethsingha already sits on her local area committee as a county councillor.

Deliverers were not Liberal Democrats

Interestingly those delivering the leaflets they told me they were not Liberal Democrats themselves. I asked one of those delivering about Cllr Nethsingha’s activities and performance as a councillor but was told they were unable to comment as they weren’t party members. I drew attention to the poor state of the road surface near by on the route towards Grantchester Meadows and suggested that was a sign of Cllr Nethsingha’s poor performance as a local County Councillor. The deliverer agreed with me that there were lots of quite big potholes and said;

That’s right, well she does her best.
Well it is a damm nuisance yes.
Well presumably there are other things that more people are concerned about I don’t know

Commenting on the leaflet deliveries the deliverer added:

I’m trying to give people information so they can make up their own minds.
I am not telling people how to vote or indeed influencing them in any way.
They can read it or not if they like, it’s up to them.

I suggested the leaflet was clearly a Liberal Democrat leaflet, promoting the Liberal Democrats and said I couldn’t see the deliver’s claim making much sense.

I think it’s a very odd position to take to deliver an election leaflet and then claim not to be influencing people.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with non-party members delivering leaflets of course, I just thought what was happening was interesting and notable, it was surprising to me.

The leaflets also promoted Liberal Democrat Rupert Moss-Eccardt’s campaign to become Police and Crime Commissioner and carried a prominent photograph of Julian Huppert.

Transparency over Public Money Councillors Take Home

Political parties receive public funding in the UK and councillors can top up their incomes with paid party roles too, as well as publicly funded positions in MPs’ offices.

There are no such roles included on Cllr Nethsingha’s declaration of interests, last updated in May 2013.

Councillors can also personally take home public money paid to them via the Local Government Association.

That it is not easy to find out how much public money a councillor is personally taking home is significant transparency failure; it’s something I raised during the County Council’s review of allowances but was a point dismissed by officers who insisted the information was already accessible. The only councillor I noted taking up the point was Green Cllr Sedgewick-Jell who asked for transparency on how much councillors get from all sources of public money.

My Attempts to Engage with and Lobby Cllr Nethsingha Specifically

I have recently highlighted the failure of the Fire Authority to publish their report on the appointment of a new Chief prior to the meeting which considered the report. I’ve had no reply from Cllr Nethsingha to my suggestions:

I received some engagement from Cllr Nethsingha over the Fire Service’s policies on assisting those whose homes get flooded, but the exchange was rather unsatisfactory and inconclusive; I’ve written a specific article at:

Cllr Nethsingha’s Activities I’ve Noted

The Leaflet

I have uploaded the leaflet I picked up off the road to ElectionLeaflets.org; I suggest anyone coming across leaflets does the same so we can hold any elected representatives to account for keeping any promises made in their leaflets.

The current leaflet appears to imply Nethsingha has saved the West Fields from development. I don’t know if that is the meaning intended or if “when saving” is meant to be read as meaning merely “campaigning”. The text says:

She has built a reputation for getting the best outcomes; including recently when saving the West Fields from unwanted development

The leaflets also state Nethsingha wants to save streetlights. Nethsingha abstained, rather than voted against the Cambridgeshire County Council budget which included plans to switch off streetlights.

The leaflet also encourages people to vote to stay in the EU in order to, they claim, save £450 per year on shopping.

See also

Richard Taylor

19 responses to “Newnham Liberal Democrat Lucy Nethsingha Seeks to be City and County Councillor”

  4. I do find it odd, and not a little perplexing, that someone can be both a city and a county councilor. (By the way, I hope you also post something similar about John Hipkin who is standing again for the City.) It’s a full on role being either but how anyone has the time and energy for two roles is beyond me and it doesn’t, I’m afraid, seem entirely right.

    As to claims that a councilor has done this or saved that, they’ve been saying that kind of thing for ages now. Unless one has proof that one councilor has taken on local government and won a victory over something then I always take it with a pinch of salt. (This is to accept that such things happen, not to dismiss the efforts of councilors.)

    Reply

  7. Cllr Nethsingha hasn’t commented yet, her biography on Twitter doesn’t mention her candidacy,

    The ward Liberal Democrats official web presence is a Facebook page:

    http://www.facebook.com/NewnhamLibDems/

    The Facebook page doesn’t mention her candidacy, before I came across the leaflet and interviewed the leaflet deliverers and published this article as far as I can tell was the first revelation of what was going on.

    The appropriateness of my actions has been questioned by a couple of people on Twitter. I think I’ve opened up and informed public debate in the run up to the elections, something which I hope may help lead to better councillors and a fairer and safer society. One commenter has focused on the apparent age and gender of the leafleter; I am confident my actions were not influenced by such factors, but this individual’s comments appear to be.

    Reply

  9. It appears Nethsingha’s candidature could have been assumed from photo tweeted by a fellow candidate on the 3rd of April:

    I don’t think anyone spotted the name and confirmed what was going on as a result of that tweet though.

    Reply

  10. Having received a few comments on Twitter suggesting the video shows I’ve behaved inappropriately I’ve watched it again and really can’t see any problem, it simply shows what happened. I had no intention to do anything other then cycle home when I entered the street, I saw the leaflet on the floor, and then wondered if it meant Cllr Nethsingha was standing for the City Council, so on spotting the deliverer went to ask.

    I had some idea that such a candidature might be newsworthy, so recorded the exchange to enable me use it to back up further action such as tweets and this article.

    I was genuinely surprised to find non-party members delivering leaflets.

    I think filming and taking photographs in public places is perfectly reasonable and those publicly engaging in the elections should reasonably expect to be questioned about the candidates they are promoting.

    Publicising the candidature in advance of the close of nominations gives more time for debate before the election and means discussion on this case can occur before many other candidates and stories vie for the public’s attention once the lists of nominated candidates is posted.

    Doing anything worth doing typically means some will oppose it, sometimes vehemently. Just think of Prime Minister’s questions where the Prime Minister faces hundreds of baying opponents. We all have to make our own judgements as to what’s proportional, appropriate and polite. I try to listen to all views, then try and weigh them appropriately and make up my own mind on how to act. It’s hard sometimes not to give too much weight to the loud and insistent and focus on the rational. I get people asking me to do more campaigning, and asking me to film, and publish, more too.

    Reply

    • I walked past my MP earlier today, he was looking a bit dishevelled and had just walked out of his house; perhaps he was on the way to the corner shop to buy a pint of milk; the point is he didn’t appear to be “on duty” so I didn’t seek to engage with him, I just said hello. This occurrence made me realise I do the same when I, on occasion, see local politicians in the supermarket or around the city.

      If someone is campaigning though, holding political material, wearing their rosette, or similar then I probably will seek to talk to them about the state of our society, what their plans are, and if they’re already an elected representative, their performance.

      Clearly lots of these judgements have to be made in an instant; and mine come under lots of scrutiny because I’m open about them, but I think I generally get them right.

  11. Nominations don’t close until the 7th of April; it is possible that the Liberal Democrats will have second thoughts about who their candidate will be as a result of this article and subsequent discussions and comments. It’s possible such a decision could lead to a new person, with new ideas, being given a role in deciding how we run Cambridge.

    Reply

  13. I find your comment about councillors ‘trousering’ more than some people make from a full-time job rather petty. It IS a full-time job, as you know perfectly well.

    Reply

    • Being a councillor is not a full time job. It never was and that fact is reflected in the scale of remuneration. Councillors who are double or triple hatted do so by choice and often play one role off against the other. If a councillor has a job outside of their political career, which is often the case, they cannot possibly have enough time to perform three councillor roles properly, and the allowances they are given can also be seen as inappropriate. The sad fact is that some Councillors cannot carry out one role effectively and there is absolutely no way for electors to have then thrown out unless they breach some very generous rules. Thus we have Councillors with poor attendance records, criminal records etc continuing to serve along with some intellectually challenged individuals who simply cannot perform the role adequately but are useful lobby fodder for their political leadership. Rather than get upset about the phrase ‘trousering’, get upset about the totally inadequate nature of our town, parish, district and county levels of democracy.

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