St Ives councillor ‘humbled and honoured’ to be UKIP’s mayoral candidate

The leader of UKIP in Huntingdonshire has been unanimously elected to be the party’s mayoral candidate for the new combined authority.

Cambridgeshire County Council member, Councillor Paul Bullen was voted into the position after a meeting of members from the county.

“I am humbled and honoured that my party has picked me for this position. It was a unanimous vote as well and now I am looking forward to the election, Cllr Bullen, from St Ives, said.

Despite now being in the running to take up the newly-created post of mayor for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Cllr Bullen is opposed to the position, which has been created as part of the devolution deal.

“People will say to me that it is ironic I’m standing for this position. I am not opposed to devolution but I didn’t like the deal because of the directly elected mayor – politics is a strange game if a majority vote something through we still need to be involved,” Cllr Bullen added.

Cllr Bullen added that from now to the election, and even if he wins the seat, he will be trying to demonstrate that the authority does not need to be headed up by a mayor.

He said: “I am opposed to big government, at any level, I will fight to reduce the amount of government tiers as I believe we have far too many.”

The combined authority will have responsibility for transport, key roads, strategic planning and control of a £100million housing and infra-structure fund.

The mayor will also be given control of an additional £20 million funding allocation for 30 years to boost growth.

The government will give the county a further £70m million over five years to meet housing needs.

Also standing in the election is independent candidate Peter Dawe, with Conservative, Labour, and Liberal Democrat parties yet to select their official candidates.

Full elections for the mayor of the combined authority will take place in May.