Susan van de Ven

Susan van de Ven was elected Liberal Democrat District Councillor for Meldreth and Shepreth in 2004, and was re-elected in 2006 for a four-year term. She is also a campaigner on issues concerning the wider Melbourn County Council division. This covers Foxton, Heydon, Melbourn, Meldreth, Shepreth and the Chishills.

During her service as District Councillor, Susan has worked to bring new affordable housing to Meldreth, with the new 24-unit development at Burtons opening in May 2007. In Shepreth, she campaigned successfully for free Cambridgeshire County Council school transport for Shepreth residents attending Melbourn Village College, a provision that is to remain in place until a safe pedestrian crossing is provided at the A10/Frog End Shepreth junction. Efforts to enhance safe cycling routes to Melbourn Village College have included a successful request to Cambridgeshire County Council for a bicycle wheeling channel at Meldreth Station bridge – a facility that benefits also Meldreth and Melbourn rail commuters.

Following serious household flooding in Meldreth in July 2006, Susan has worked to instigate a new Flood Avoidance parish council subcommittee, tasked with action on flooding hot spots and investigating the revitalisation of a historic drainage system that once utilised the River Mel. Concerns about the future of the District Council’s drainage service, and its ability to cope with extreme weather events brought about by climate change, have emerged through this project.

At South Cambridgeshire District Council Susan has been a member of the Scrutiny and Overview Committee, where she worked successfully to change council policy on planning appeals, bringing a higher standard of local participation in the appeals process.  She was a founding member of the Council’s Climate Change Working Group, and in that role initiated a successful bid to the Local Strategic Partnership for funding for a climate change awareness pilot project at Melbourn Village College.  She has strenuously challenged the Council on its bin charging policy for social rented housing and is keen to work for an improvement in recycling provisions for secondary schools.

Susan has stood up for fair and equal treatment for minority groups in the district, and has participated in Council programmes that engage young people in democracy, supporting writing and debating competitions.

She represents the District Council on the North Herts Citizens’ Advice Bureau, and is a member of the South Cambs Magazine Editorial Board.

Personal

Susan was born in 1958 in Beirut, Lebanon, and was raised in the Middle East, North Africa, England, France and the United States. Since 1988 she has lived in South Cambridgeshire, first in Foxton and then Meldreth, with her Dutch-born husband, Hans, who is a Professor of Modern Chinese History at the University of Cambridge. Their three sons have grown up locally, attending Thriplow Primary School and Melbourn Village College, where Hans is vice-chair of governors. The family has also spent several study years in China and Taiwan. Susan has been involved in tennis, toddler and playgroups at Foxton, Thripow and Meldreth, and is a member of Friends of the River Shep. Through her children, she has supported the Melbourn Dynamos Football Club and community service ventures for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme. Susan and her family became British citizens in 2004.

Education

Susan received her BA in History from Oberlin College in the United States, having studied also at the American University in Cairo. At Harvard University, she received an MA in Middle Eastern Studies and a doctorate in Education.  Her doctoral dissertation was a study of the politics of world history textbook publishing for the American secondary school market.

Professional Work

Susan has taught primary school at St. George’s School, Jerusalem, and Waterside School in Bishop’s Stortford, and has worked also at Cambridge University Press as a copy-editor for books in Arabic and Oriental Studies. She became a full-time mother when her first two children were born.

She is the author of a book, One Family’s Response to Terrorism: A Daughter’s Memoir, which explores the quest for legal justice in the aftermath of her father’s assassination in Lebanon in 1984, where he served as president of the American University of Beirut.

Voluntary Work

Since 1999, Susan has run a creative writing programme for children at Thriplow Primary School, centred around the production of a school newspaper, The Thriplow Times, which has received attention in the local and national press for its themes on community citizenship. The project is grant-funded by Thriplow Daffodil Weekend Trust.