A written statement to Parliament dropped in earlier today – which will also make for intense debate in the reoriented constituency of South Cambridgeshire too
You can read Michael Gove’s statement here
“Part of the Cambridge Delivery Group’s [CDG) strategy is to focus on enabling and accelerating key developments that align with the overall strategy for growing the urban area of Cambridge, while ensuring we protect overall green space and that the wider region benefits from improved transport, better access to services and enhanced amenities and employment prospects.”
“Do we know who is on the Delivery Group’s Board?”
Nope. Phil Rodgers asked but was told the following in Jan 2024.
“The CDG is an informal advisory group, no formal meetings have been held and therefore we do not hold meeting minutes or agendas. Engagement with local leaders, partners and communities is at the heart of this vision and the Delivery Group is engaging extensively to secure the right approach for Cambridge.”
It’s worth following this up with a new FoI Request about the CDG here – only I’ve never heard of an informal advisory group having a strategy before.
All of that said… We do know that East West Rail has an internal civil service growth board chaired by The Treasury. This comes from an FoI request here.
Structure
- The board will be chaired by HMT.
- The board will meet every 2 months, unless otherwise agreed.
- HMT will provide the secretariat for the board, including circulation of papers
and minutes. - The board will invite local stakeholders where appropriate.
Attendees
- Stuart Glassborow, Director, Infrastructure and Growth, {HM Treasury] (chair)
- Cavendish Elithorn, Director and [Senior Responsible Officer for] East West Rail, [Department for Transport]
- Kay Withers, Director, [Department for Levelling Up, Housing, & Communities – which covers local government too]
- Ed Whiting, Director, [Department for Business and Trade]/DLUHC (Cities and Local Growth Unit)
- Oliver St John, Deputy Director, [Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology]
- Stephen Dance, [Independent Projects Authority]
In the grand scheme of things, it’s no huge deal. Whitehall is full of cross-departmental boards. (I was a project officer on one back in the mid-2000s with twice as many Whitehall departments as the one above. It’s heavy going!)
If anything, the names of the different government departments show how all-over-the-place successive governments have been about the machinery of government – and how badly managed it has been by successive prime ministers. It’s no surprise that MPs on the Public Administration & Constitutional Affairs Committee concluded as such, calling for an overhaul of how England is governed (which would influence the structure of Whitehall as well).
“What else did Micky-G say?”
“The Cambridge Biomedical Campus is one such strategic site, as Europe’s leading centre for medical research and health science… …the Government is satisfied that the national importance of the Greater Cambridge life sciences sector is sufficient to prompt, in principle, the early expansion and coherent delivery of this foremost UK life sciences cluster.”
“What does completion of the Cambridge Life Sciences Cluster look like?“
I don’t think even he knows. I don’t think anyone knows. Why? Because the local governance structures have not even been mentioned. At some point, ministers are going to have to take a step back from micromanaging Cambridge. Otherwise they will become the main unstable part of how Cambridge [however defined] functions/malfunctions simply by virtue of their regular turnover. Which used to be 11 months but is probably in single figures with the present administration. [And that could be measured in weeks].
Gove also said:
“In particular, the Government is satisfied that the imperative to support this key sector provides sufficient justification for immediate collaboration between key stakeholders on development proposals coming forward ahead of the emerging Local Plan, to address the coherent enhancement, intensification and expansion of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus adjacent to Addenbrooke’s Hospital.”
Well ***This could be fun!***
That’s not to say the other candidates got an easy ride from the audience – listen to the responses from each of them and judge for yourselves
The particularly difficult problem Chris Carter-Chapman has as the Conservative candidate is that he is effectively repudiating the decisions made of his party predecessors in central and local government – in particular those who were on the GCP Board from 2014-21. That said, he has every right to say that his party got given policies wrong because the electorate punished them for it at the ballot box – and for any party that wants to win power, the onus is on the party to change its policies accordingly rather than continue with the same failed approaches.
“If, as is likely there is a Labour government, and if – as the Liberal Democrats claim, their candidate Pippa Heylings is the current favourite to get elected to South Cambridgeshire don’t their views matter more?”
Hence inviting readers to listen to all of the responses and judge according to their consciences and criteria they choose.
“Has the much-talked about growth company been established yet?”
Not that I’m aware of.
“One of the first priorities of the new Growth Company will be to support immediate collaboration between key stakeholders at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. The Growth Company will also help to address any barriers to the early expansion and coherent enhancement of the campus, including through the accelerated delivery of any associated housing development and the provision of appropriate levels of affordable housing to meet the housing needs of those working at the campus.”
You can see who is who at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus here
Private wealth, public squalor – crumbling Addenbrooke’s A&E unit
Guess where I was recently!
They sent me upstairs because the main A&E section (that has not been expanded since 2001) was getting crowded. I got talking to a porter who had been there for decades and he told me about the Addenbrooke’s 2020 vision – which you can read here.
Above – published in 2004 ****Did anyone remember to evaluate this before starting a new vision?!?****
Actually, they published a follow-up in 2010.
Above – Vision to Reality, from Feb 2010 which you can read here.
It said:
“In 2004 as part of the NHS Plan reforms, Addenbrooke’s became one of the first NHS Foundation Trusts in the country. With more control over the budget, the ability to borrow – within certain limits – and the involvement of a Trust membership, CUH has responded more quickly to patients’ needs and been able to invest in more rapid service developments such as the Emergency Assessment Unit.”
Above – Vision to Reality (2010) p8
Then Labour went and lost the election, the Coalition came in, and the then MP for South Cambridge was appointed Health Secretary and it all collapsed.
The document concludes:
“Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT) is running a major fundraising campaign To help turn the vision for development into reality, the Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT) is running a major fundraising campaign, the 2020 Vision Campaign, to secure new investment from philanthropic sources. Through to the year 2020 ACT will roll out dedicated fundraising campaigns for major projects such as, the Rosie Hospital Extension, the Children’s Hospital, the Neurosciences Centre, the Emergency Department and the Cancer Centre.”
Why is A&E [The Emergency Department] the cinderella service when so many of us are dependent on it?
I’m not talking just about Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire, the catchment that Addenbrooke’s serves has always gone beyond that ever since its early days a couple of centuries ago. Hence why I think the public needs to make our under-resourced A&E an issue at the general election for all of the constituencies that are covered by it.
Above – the Addenbrooke’s catchment (which I wrote about here)
Back in August 2022 Healthwatch Cambs & Pboro wrote about what some of their members had said. Yet as we have seen, the growing population on the back of house building combined with the Government’s continued chronic failures on health and social care policy mean the problems are only going to get worse. Even under a new government of a different party, the time lags involved in turning around new organisations mean that things will inevitably get worse before they get better after the general election.
The water scarcity problems have not gone away
This was discussed in depth in the planning minister’s decision to approve an appeal by one of the most controversial developers in Cambridge (you know the one) and also in Simon Ricketts’ blogpost here, to build The Great Wall of North East Cambridge despite the water issues and bland architecture that is par for the course for profit-maximising developers. Which makes a mockery of Gove’s rhetoric against ugly buildings (that I wrote about here). He could have drawn a line in the sand saying ***No ugly s–t*** but chose not to.
The final word goes to the former Combined Authority Mayor James Palmer
“I am delighted to see that Land Value Capture is included in the document. Nowhere could benefit from LVC more than Cambridge and if there is to be development in the Greenbelt, it must be on this basis. The uplift in land value could pay for the infrastructure needed to link all parts of the city and beyond.”
Above – James Palmer 25 April 2024
This is a long-overdue policy-change by ministers – something Mr Palmer pushed for unsuccessfully during his tenure as CPCA mayor. Had he not got sidetracked by the disastrous CAM Metro proposals and instead focused on the Connect Cambridge Light Rail plans based on existing ‘off the shelf’ technology, he might still be mayor and construction may well have started by now. I’m of the view that any further expansion of Cambridge will require a new light rail – one that involves a central pair of tunnels under the city centre.
Instead, we haven’t even got to the stage of putting shovels into the ground of the long-delayed busways – ten years after the GCP was signed off.
But hey – don’t blame me! I was only the cameraman!
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Which reminds me – we should have a Queen Edith’s Community Forum event given Gove’s announcement. (And if you live in the ward or division, do get involved!)
The Cambridge Town Owl 