Councillor Gordon Gillick of the UK Independence Party, representing the ward of Waldersey just South West of Wisbech spoke at a meeting of Cambridgeshire County Council on the 16th of July 2013.
Cllr Gillick, who, as councillor, is now one of those responsible for running the county of Cambridgeshire, expressed a rather bizarre view of the academic and knowledge based industries which thrive in and around the city of Cambridge. Cllr Gillick said:
Cambridge doesn’t sell anything that’s bulky.
People come here. People whisper in their ears, they tell them stories, they tell them the facts, they tell them fairy tales, they teach them to speak English. Off they go again, no packaging, no transport, nothing. They do it all.
And if they forget it it’s their fault they’re stupid.
Perhaps it was this kind of speech which David Cameron had been listening to from UKIP when he described them as fruitcakes and loonies.
In the just over three minute speech Cllr Gillick also admitted to almost driving on the the busway saying:
The busway which is hilarious. I almost drove down it the other day by accident.
Cllr Gillick made his own proposal for solving the problems with the A14 saying:
What you need to do is build a road down the busway for the local traffic, people, from Fenstanton, Fen Drayton and St Ives all the way down into the town and and just leave it as it is because we can’t afford, we shouldn’t afford and it won’t make any difference.
The speech was made during debate on a a UKIP motion which would have required a referendum on proposals for the council to contribute funds to infrastructure projects such as the proposed A14 upgrade.
Cllr Gillick claimed that a businessman would not put money into the A14. This was countered by council leader Martin Curtis, who interjected with a “point of information” saying that the business led Local Enterprise Partnership has committed to put up “twenfifty million pounds”.
What the Local Enterprise Partnership have offered is £50m of future business rates income, which is public money raised through taxes, not businesses volunteering to invest cash.
5 responses to “Bizarre view of Cambridge from UKIP Cllr Gordon Gillick”
Cllr Gillick’s page on the council’s website states:
Following his election he Cllr Gillick was reported as saying:
You are right about the fact that it is public money, but the LEP is a business focussed organisation and its contribution is based on a clear understanding of the benefits to the LEP area’s economy of an A14 upgrade. Interestingly the Greater Anglia LEP are also contributing for similar reasons.
Are you sure the LEP is business-focused and not just a home for crazy political views backed by private company money? From up here in King’s Lynn, the northern edge of its area, the Greater Cambridge/Greater Peterborough LEP seems like ideological evidence-free supporters of the failing 1960s-style slash-and-burn road-building that we’re only recently recovering from.
The LEP even supported the failed “Lynnsport New Access” road bid in King’s Lynn which would have turned part of the international North Sea Cycle Route (which is also NCN 1 and EV 12) into a road, downgrading the cycle route to a lumpy drain bank on a diversion crossing the new fast straight road twice. That’s despite sustainable tourism and travel choice being key parts of Norfolk’s long-term 2011-2026 economic plan.
Unsurprisingly, the Department for Transport declined to fund that particular road.
I’m disappointed that the LEP representing such big cycling cities appears to show such little support for cyclists. I’d see if we could go ride up to their doorstep and protest, but they’re based behind the security gate at Alconbury Weald in an area which isn’t even on the Open Cycle Map!
Please don’t let the out-of-touch LEP capture Cambridgeshire’s councils!