The snow before Christmas was not unexpected. It was not unimaginably heavy. And it should not have been impossible for the County Council to deal with.

Yet for days afterwards walking in Cambridge was taking your life into your own hands. Even in the centre, major thoroughfares remained coated in incredibly slippy ice, whilst pavements in outlying areas like Chesterton and Cherry Hinton became ice-rinks.

Mac McGuire, the county council cabinet member for highways and access, insisted that “By [Wednesday, 23 December] the busiest Cambridge city centre paths will have been gritted for four days with more than 50 tonnes of rock salt”, yet to anybody in Cambridge, and especially the staff at Addenbrookes who had to deal with a spate of injuries, it was clear that this was simply not enough.

This isn’t a problem for Mac McGuire, however. Cllr McGuire did not get his position due to any connection with Cambridge. He represents Norman Cross, just outside Peterborough, on the County Council. He owes his position to the Conservative majority on the County Council which dates back to 1997.

Yet whilst Cambridgeshire votes overwhelmingly for the Conservatives, not one Conservative county councillor comes from Cambridge. Cllr MacGuire may be in charge of keeping transport moving in Cambridge, but if he fails we have no sanctions against him, because nobody here voted for him and nobody from his party is elected from Cambridge.

It’s not a problem if your elected representative does not belong to your favoured party. That’s just British democracy. But it is a problem if one section of the community with a different set of views and needs from the rest of the community is persistently disenfranchised and ignored. And that is the situation Cambridge finds itself in within Cambridgeshire.

The solution is simple. Cambridge needs to become a Unitary Authority, which would remove it from the jurisdiction of the County Council and allow its own representatives to take charge of its transport network, police and schools. Cambridgeshire, meanwhile, can continue to elect its own representatives dealing with its own needs. Peterborough became a Unitary authority in 1998 and this system has worked well for it.

It’s a simple solution, but one that the Lib Dem-run City Council has refused to take up. Daniel Zeichner has promised to assist the City Council in gaining the parliamentary approval it would need to become a Unitary Authority, but the council has continued to delay, preferring to criticise the Tory County Council than to take responsibility itself.

As an MP, Daniel will continue to press for Cambridge to become a Unitary Authority. In the meantime, he will rise above the squabbling between City and County Councils and provide real leadership for Cambridge.