Lib Dem council leader responds to MP: Now is not the time for blame over Tiers

Following a tweet by South Cambs' Conservative MP Anthony Browne, which effectively blamed the cities of Cambridge and Peterborough for putting the county in Tier 2, the Lib Dem leader of South Cambs District Council, Bridget Smith, has said that now is not the time to be divisive.

Bridget said: "This is absolutely not the time to be divisive and to blame other districts for the Tier we find ourselves in. It is the time to follow the experts’ advice. South Cambridgeshire wraps all around Cambridge, with many people living or working in both districts, so it would be ludicrous for us to be in different Tiers.

"We know that all of our local hospitals are at or near to capacity. While our rates may be lower than the average, we recently saw very rapid increases and this could very easily happen again. We want to support efforts to avoid this happening, so that we reduce rates and transmission as much as possible before the five- day Christmas break.

"The Tier 2 rules are going to hit the village pubs in our district particularly hard. The support currently provided by the government is far from adequate, and I fear that many will just not survive.

"Along with our brilliant community groups and parish councils, we continue to focus on supporting any residents and businesses in need, whether through financial support or in practical ways, and also encourage any business concerned by today’s announcement to get in touch with our new Business Support and Development Team."