Our Governance
Cambridgeshire County Council is committed to shaping a greener, fairer, and more caring county through transparent, committee-led governance. We operate under a committee system, ensuring that decisions are made collectively and in line with the values and needs of our communities. Following County Council elections in May 2025, our Council comprises 61 County Councillors, led by the Liberal Democrat and Independent Group, consisting of 33 out of 61 members. Since May 2021, Councillor Lucy Nethsingha has steered our strategic direction as Leader of the County Council.
We work alongside five city and district councils - Cambridge City, East Cambridgeshire, Fenland, Huntingdonshire and South Cambridgeshire, to deliver essential services for more than 678,850 residents across the county.
Our Corporate Leadership Team
Dr Stephen Moir has been the Chief Executive of Cambridgeshire County Council since February 2022. The Chief Executive is the principal policy advisor to the 61 County Councillors and the statutory Head of Paid Service, accountable for the Council’s half a billion-pound budget as well as the work of officers.
The Council is led by the Corporate Leadership Team who guide officers responsible for providing professional support across all county services.
Please view the Corporate Leadership Team
Our Council
Cambridgeshire is not a place that ticks along quietly, It’s a county of contrasts, work-leading assets, intense national focus and extraordinary opportunity. This diverse demographic of Cambridgeshire underpins the importance of our inclusive and collaborative approach under the committee system, where councillors and members of the public engage directly in decision-making.
Our Council proudly holds Council of Sanctuary status, awarded in March 2025 by City of Sanctuary UK, recognising our initiatives to welcome and support refugees and people seeking asylum. From multilingual library story times and board-game events to ESOL courses and the Cambridgeshire Migration Forum, our work reflects our ambition to foster integration, solidarity, and belonging in every community we serve.
Sustainability is at the core of our work. Through our Climate Change and Environment Strategy, we have reduced our direct carbon emissions by over 50% since 2018 and achieved a 32% overall reduction in our carbon footprint. Major investments including low-carbon heating schemes, biofuel use in fleet vehicles, air-source heat pumps in council buildings, solar carports at our New Shire Hall corporate hub, and biodiversity and woodland strategies have delivered over 3,000 tonnes of CO₂ savings.
Climate Change and Environment Strategy
Our commitment to improving lives is informed by the Quality-of-Life Survey, which gathers residents’ views on health, transport, community, and public services. With thousands of responses annually, this survey shapes our priorities and ensures that decisions reflect what matters most to local people.
Quality of Life Survey 2025 Report
We also work in partnership to deliver long-term prosperity. The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Local Growth Plan sets out a shared vision for inclusive and sustainable economic growth, focusing on skills, green technology, and infrastructure.
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Local Growth Plan
Through the Greater Cambridge Partnership, we collaborate with local authorities, universities, and businesses to deliver transformative transport and infrastructure projects that support growth while protecting our environment.
Place and Sustainability Directorate
Place and Sustainability Directorate Structure Chart
The Executive Director of Place and Sustainability will work closely with members from all political groups and, particularly, with the members of the Highways and Transport, Environment and Green Investment and Communities, Social Mobility and Inclusion Committees to drive meaningful action. These committees oversee strategic priorities such as sustainable transport networks, environmental resilience, and community wellbeing, ensuring that policy decisions lead to tangible improvements in the lives of our residents.
Together, our governance structures, community engagement, and strategic partnerships underpin a shared vision, a county that is responsible in its stewardship of the environment, equitable in opportunity and services, and compassionate in welcoming everyone from long-term residents to newcomers.
Draft Business Plan and Budget Setting 2026-27 and 2028-29
Place and Sustainability impacts on the lives of everyone living, working, learning and travelling through Cambridgeshire every day. Our core aims are to support sustainable economic development and growth, protecting and enhancing the environment and enabling effective transport and connectivity for all communities.
We maintain the County’s highways ensuring that roads, carriageways, rights of ways, signals, signage, drainage systems and structures are well maintained. The directorate also manages and delivers a range of projects to create new infrastructure and to improve transport across Cambridgeshire as well promoting safe and sustainable transport. We keep the local highway network moving and manage key transport facilities such as the guided busway and park and ride sites.
We have a range of strategic planning responsibilities and assess significant infrastructure projects to ensure the county secures the maximum benefit from these scheme. We provide flood risk management, as the Lead Local Flood Authority, and provide ecological advice to enhance biodiversity for the natural environment, which complements our archaeological advice for the historic environment. We are also the Waste Disposal Authority, delivering waste and recycling treatment services for residents and businesses across Cambridgeshire. The directorate is also leading on the County Councils Economic Framework.
Furthermore, our teams are meeting the challenges of climate change head on by leading the county’s development of a local energy plan and delivering a range of schemes to enable the council to meet its net zero carbon ambitions.
The Connecting Cambridgeshire programme is continuously driving improvements to Cambridgeshire’s digital connectivity infrastructure for fibre broadband, mobile and public access Wi-Fi using smart technology, ensuring that every community benefits from digital inclusion and innovation.
Our Community Development and Resilience Service is at the forefront of our work in our communities. Communities Libraries, Adult Education services, Coroner and Registration Service and Trading Standards all work to ensure that our regulatory services protect our communities whilst enabling vibrant community hubs and stronger integration of services at neighbourhood and place levels.
Local Government Reorganisation
The Government wants to reduce the number of councils in England and has an ambition to abolish all remaining two-tier areas of local government (those covered by a County Council and District Councils) by April 2028. These will be replaced by new unitary councils that will provide all council services in the areas they serve.
For Cambridgeshire this means the existing county council, its 5 district councils and the neighbouring Peterborough City Council (an existing unitary) will be replaced. This process of change is known as Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) and the Government has set of criteria for LGR, against which Cambridgeshire County Council has developed a proposal known as ‘Two Councils. One Fairer Future.’ This was submitted to Government in November 2025 alongside three other proposals for the area submitted by district councils and Peterborough City Council.
The Government intends to undertake statutory consultation on these options during Spring 2026 with a decision expected about which proposal will be implemented in Summer 2026.
Your Future Councils - Your Voice - Cambridgeshire County Council - Citizen Space
