Susan has lived in South Cambridgeshire since 1988, and served as a District or County Councillor or since 2004.   She has served as County Councillor for the Melbourn and Bassingbourn Division (which includes Meldreth and Whaddon) since 2017 and was re-elected in May 2021. In May 2022, she was also elected District Councillor for Bassingbourn Ward, which also includes Litlington.

Previously she represented the Melbourn County Division which included Foxton, Meldreth, Shepreth, Heydon and Great and Little Chishill. 

Since the formation of a Liberal Democrat/Labour/Independent Joint Administration at Cambridgeshire County Council in May 2021, Susan serves as Vice Chair of the Adults and Health Committee, and Chair of the Cambridgeshire Health and Wellbeing Board.

Rail Service Campaign

In 2010 Susan established the Meldreth, Shepreth and Foxton Rail User Group which lobbies on train service issues. The RUG created gardens at all three stations, maintained by local residents, businesses and schools and recognized by British Transport Police as helping to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour.

In December 2011, First Capital Connect responded to the RUG’s long-term campaign for a reduction in station car park charges and announced that from January 2012, charges would be dropped by 50% to £1.50 per day at Meldreth, and abolished completely at Shepreth.  The RUG lobbied successfully for the retention of Meldreth Station booking office, and twice-hourly off-peak services which commenced in 2018.

South Cambs District Council has supported the formation of the Meldreth Shepreth and Foxton Community Rail Partnership as a means of enhancing collaborative working with local schools, businesses and parish councils on strategic improvements to local rail service. 

Extensive work lobbying for safety improvements at Foxton Level Crossing culminated in persuading Network Rail to commission and publish a feasibility study setting out a comprehensive redesign of the crossing including a bridge or underpass along a small bypass. Details can be found here.

In November 2012 Susan received Railfuture’s national award for ‘Most Outstanding Individual Campaigner’ and the Meldreth, Shepreth and Foxton Rail User Group was awarded ‘Most Effective New Group’ honours.

Education Transport

Susan’s identification of anomalies in post-16 student rail fares served as a catalyst for a 2009 agreement between Cambridgeshire County Council and First Capital Connect on a student discount rail fare. Students from across Cambridgeshire are now entitled to access this fare which is 50% off the adult fare (as opposed to 33% off previously). In anticipation of the end of FCC’s franchise, Susan worked with the new train operating company, Govia Thameslink Railway, to ensure that the 50% student discount would be continued. This has been approved and endorsed by the Department for Transport as a revenue generating scheme that benefits all concerned. The scheme has been featured in The Guardian and the Campaign for Better Transport.

In Shepreth, Susan campaigned successfully for free Cambridgeshire County Council bus transport for Shepreth children 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.

In Melbourn she was active in helping to recruit a new School Crossing Patrol Officer for the crossing in the High Street near The Moor and to protect the future of the post.  In Bassingbourn she is working with the County Council and local residents to find improvements for walking to school, at what council officers describe as one of the most complex school crossing junctions in the county.

At the County Council Susan proposed a scheme providing free transport for young people who are out of education, employment or training, inspired by First Capital Connect’s Job Seeker’s transport scheme.

Cycling

Susan launched the A10 Corridor Cycle Campaign in January 2013, with support from Sustrans, the Cambridge Cycling Campaign, and Cambridgeshire County Council. The purpose is to improve cycling conditions between Cambridge and Royston and the villages in between. The Cambridge-Royston A10 Cycle Scheme was shortlisted in Tranche One City Deal, but not successful in the final cut. Instead, working with the A10 Corridor Campaign and County Council Cycling Team, efforts to secure Department for Transport ‘Cycling Ambition’ funding for much of the corridor were successful. Segments of the scheme have now been completed between Cambridge and Melbourn. Efforts are now focused on a bridge over the A505 between Melbourn and Royston.

A significant step forward was achieved when in June 2020 the Greater Cambridge Partnership approved the Melbourn Greenway scheme for improved active travel connections between Royston and Cambridge – consisting of significant enhancements to the existing multi-use paths now in place along many segments of the A10 corridor, and specifically including a path and bridge connecting Melbourn and Royston

Bus Services

Since 2010, when the Cambridgeshire County Council Conservative administration announced the elimination of all bus subsidies, Susan has been working to maintain support for basic bus services.  A welcome change in policy saw some services retained, but with continuing austerity cuts the future of council-supported bus transport is uncertain.  

In April 2017 Susan launched the Cam Vale Bus User Group, designed to provide a collective voice for people in Bassingbourn, Litlington, the Mordens and Ashwell, as well as Whaddon, Meldreth and Melbourn, and the route of the 127 bus who rely on bus services. The Group works closely with the operator and local authority bus officers. In April 2021, Operator A2B announced it would run the service on a commercial basis.

Access and Rights of Way

Susan is working closely with Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire County Councils on efforts to create a new legal right of way over the Hertfordshire CC-owned Ivy Farm Bridge. The current status of these efforts is outlined here under ‘Crossing the A505 without a car.’

Flood Avoidance

Following serious household flooding in Meldreth in July 2006, Susan worked to instigate a Flood Avoidance parish council subcommittee, tasked with action on flooding hot spots and revitalizating of historic drainage systems that once utilized the River Mel.  Focus on District and County Council drainage services, and their ability to cope with extreme weather events brought about by climate change, emerged through this project. A number of snags in the drainage network have been identified and corrected, and work continues on an annual basis. 

Community Groups and Campaigns

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 is a supporter of Polls Apart, a campaign for better disabled access to polling stations, and has worked with young campaigners from Meldreth Manor for disabled access to rail service.

She has worked alongside Cam Sight on practical support for people living with visual impairment.

Together with District Councillor Jose Hales, Susan helped kick-start a new mental health drop-in service at the Melbourn Hub provided by CPSL Mind. During the Covid pandemic she proposed and helped launch new community volunteer mental health training, with funding from Cambridgeshire Community Foundation and delivered by CPSL Mind. She supports the school counselling service Allyance, for Melbourn and Bassingbourn Village Colleges and area primary schools including Bassingbourn, Meldreth and Melbourn.

Susan chairs the Melbourn and Bassingbourn Practical Solutions Groups, which bring village, council, police and youth work representatives together on a regular basis to support initiatives for positive community activities especially for young people.   She helped set up Melbourn Area Youth Development, a cooperative effort by Melbourn, Meldreth, Shepreth and Foxton Parish Councils, and now also North Herts District Council, to provide a youth club and associated activities for young people in the area.

At South Cambridgeshire District Council, Susan worked against officer recommendation to bring new affordable housing to Meldreth, with the 24-unit development at Burtons, opening in May 2007.   Susan was 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 South Cambridgeshire District 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 challenged the Council on its bin charging policy for social rented housing and has supported improvements to recycling provisions for secondary schools. 

At Cambridgeshire County Council she successfully proposed that a declaration of Climate Emergency be incorporated into the council’s Climate Change and Environment Strategy.

Susan has supported successful church roof fundraising efforts by St Mary’s Church Whaddon, following the theft of its historic lead roof in 2019.

In December 2020 Susan helped set up the South West Cambridge Action Group, in response to a speculative proposal by Thakeham developers for a new town of 25,000 homes outside of the South Cambridgeshire strategic growth plan.

Citizens Advice

A member of North Herts Citizens Advice, Susan worked alongside Melbourn District Councillor Jose Hales to bring its branch service to the Melbourn Hub.

Bassingbourn Barracks

Since the reopening of Bassingbourn Barracks, Susan has worked with the Barracks Welfare team on efforts to boost the community garden and stay and play facilities for young families living on site, and with Whaddon and Bassingbourn Parish Councils toward safety improvements to the main entrance along the A1198.

Local press and communications

Susan writes a monthly community newsletter: please contact her at susanvandeven5@gmail.com to join the distribution list. She was a regular contributor to BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s Sunday Paper Review for several years.

Personal

Susan was raised in Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, England, France and the United States. She and her Dutch-born husband, Hans, who is a Professor of Modern Chinese History at the University of Cambridge, have three sons who have grown up locally, attending Thriplow Primary School, Melbourn Village College and Long Road and Hills Road Sixth Form Colleges. The family has spent several years in China and Taiwan and became British citizens in 2003.

Education

Susan studied Arabic and History at the American University in Cairo and Oberlin College in the USA.  At Harvard University, she received an MA in Middle Eastern Studies and a Doctorate in Education.

Professional Work

Susan 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 Middle Eastern Studies.

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

Susan chairs the Meldreth Cares – Community Support scheme.

Why the Lib Dems?

“The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.”

(Preamble to the Liberal Democrat Constitution)