The Zone has been a little quiet of late, things to do, places to go.

However, it seems some local Councillors have been repeating the myth that Cambridgeshire didn’t get some funding owing to “insufficient commitment to road charging”. This needs to be squashed, so a quick musing to cover this off.

Why?  Presumably, because they are simply ignorant of the facts.  Please feel free to provide them with any of the following verifiable facts so they may correct their public record. It would be excellent if they could provide verifiable evidence to support their statement. The Zone is sure the CPCA would be grateful for anything, as they have no record of where this came from.

The infamous statement was put into a report to the CPCA overview and scrutiny committee back in October 2022.  

This was challenged, FOI requests were made, and it became apparent that this statement had no link with reality. No supporting evidence was forthcoming. You can see the extensive notes and minutes of the call where, apparently, this was all discussed. Of particular interest are the clear notes that this was the DfT reason. Clear, as in it was written in such a way as to be invisible, so unreadable to us mere mortals outside of the local corridors of power.

So on January 19, a question was asked in Parliament. The record from Hansard by Anthony Browne (South Cambridgeshire) (Con) shows the question and verbal response. Followed up with a full written response. Full written response to the question from the Department of Transport.

In a Cambridge Independent article, the CPCA agreed to rewrite the report. The Zone wonders if this ever actually happened, as the public record is still incorrect.