The background to our 2015 city council election in Queen Edith’s is here. This is the fifth part in a series of introductions to each of the five candidates.
Labour
Management consultant and history student Matt Worth came to Cambridge about 18 months ago but has been a long-standing Labour Party campaigner. He’s found Queen Edith’s to be a ward where people are well-informed on local issues, and are aware of its transitional nature between city and country, and the pressures on both sides. “There are challenges with planning and with local services where I think people would appreciate a new voice”, he told Queen Edith’s Online, “and I think Labour can help here”. He believes the ward is an area which we need to take care of.
Matt says that the problem with having all three city councillors from the same party is that if your view differs from their policy, “then you’re at risk of finding yourself without a voice”. He is the only candidate who brought up the issue of having a county council which, in milder words than Queen Edith’s Online would use, “doesn’t do a tremendously good job for South Cambridge”. Matt says that he would make a priority of advocating the city’s perspective to the county council.
From a city council point of view, Matt is proud of the Labour Party’s first year back in charge. In terms of defending services and fighting to avoid inequality in Cambridge, he believes that genuine progress has been made in the direction they would like. He was not in Queen Edith’s when Labour’s only councillor here ever, Sue Birtles, was complaining about a lack of support from the party, but has not had any problem in that respect and says that whatever happened in the past, Labour is certainly now taking Queen Edith’s seriously.
Full list of candidates and their introductions on this site:
- Matt Worth (Labour)
- Andy Bower (Conservative)
- Joel Chalfen (Green)
- Candido Channell
- George Pippas (Liberal Democrat)
City Council election 2015 in Queen Edith’s – the background
Matt Worth was the only candidate that knocked on our door, introduced himself and spend time discussing our concerns and important local issues.