Cllr Sam Davies MBE said it’s all becoming a blur a few weeks ago here. At the GCP joint Assembly/Board earlier today I dropped in to see what was happening and it only convinced me that the way our city is structured is utterly broken. (You can see the meeting papers here)
Anyway, here are some things I’ve been to that you may want to pass onto groups that you are involved in, or follow up yourselves where they affect your neighbourhood..
Building Belonging Through Music – Sonita Alleyne gives the 2023 Kate Pretty Lecture
Anyone who is interested in music – town and gown, is recommended (by me) to watch Sonita Alleyne’s speech for the Kate Pretty Lecture, and the Q&A that followed. I wrote about what I wanted to ask here, but ended up in A&E instead.
Cambridge – the state of our city: Cambridge Econometrics for the City Council
It’s being debated as the final item on the agenda of Strategy & Resources Cttee here.
The water levels – in particular the summer averages are not looking too good – although statisticians may frown at the ‘graph not starting from zero’ on the Y-axis!
It’s not looking great on access to Green Space – Darwin Green being a missed opportunity to provide Arbury with a large park.
Hence my calls for ‘something to be done – Queen Edith’s lacking on the green space front too. Hence my call for some of the playing fields round the back of Homerton College to be turned into new public parks.
Above from G-Maps – there’s a closer view here, it’s the green patches on the right of the railway line that I think could be turned into a public park and pathway to Long Road and Cambridge South Station.
See also this vlogpost from the first lockdown.
Above – me pointing at stuff. (Actually the old Rattee and Kett building)
I told the [land south of] Coldham’s Lane science park developers that I’d oppose their proposals for redeveloping the site unless they built a new railway station or light rail link for it – in which case I’d support it in principle.
It was the Mission Street representatives and I made my way over to Cherry Hinton on Saturday to cross-examine lots of men in white shirts! (It was a hot day that even property professionals had to take off their suit jackets. I wrote about this before here.
This was on the same day I picked up that the construction sector was still having big problems recruiting women.
“I read an ONS statistic that only 15% of the construction workforce in the UK is represented by women of which only 1% are in the trades!”
From https://www.showhouse.co.uk/news/jtre-phoebe-bird-attracting-more-women-into-the-industry/
Which is one of the reasons I go on about lifelong learning – something that Sonita Alleyne mentioned in her talk – people need the opportunities to switch careers (as well as try out things they never had the opportunity to do as a child). In South Cambridge the opportunities to learn a trade locally if you are an adult are minimal – and are constrained even more if you have full-time responsibilities.
“Want to learn how to sew, cook, fix your own basic plumbing? Discover our exciting range of leisure and community courses from flower arranging to DIY and much more.”
Cambridge Regional College – Adult Learners
Yes please! Just not so far away!
This is where I think the Combined Authority’s Skills Committee (meeting next month on 03 July) should be looking at where in South Cambridge would be suitable for a sort of DIY school – ideally somewhere close to a public transport hub. (Hence my point about Hills Road SFC being a suitable site while dealing with over-crowding of 16-19 y/o places at the same time). Which reminds me – you can still have your say about Hills Road Sixth Form College opening a new site north of Cambridge at https://www.hillsroadnorth.co.uk/our-vision
“The CPCA has said stuff about how skillful Cambridge is, right?”
Yep – covered in a previous blogpost. But note the problem with measuring employment-only skills can miss a whole host of other talents that people have. Part of it is related to what economists might call obsolete models regarding human capital. I remember having a conversation about overhauling the website of an organisation I was volunteering for years ago and suggested it to a computer science student – who bluntly (and rightly) told me he participated in the society to get away from computer science, not to do more of it. Again, it comes back to Sonita Alleyne’s comment that how Cambridge historically treats novice rowers joining their college boat clubs vs anyone wanting to learn a new musical instrument speaks volumes. 20 years ago one of my friends from school who got into Cambridge University mentioned the same thing – people saying they were ‘not very good’ when really they were at Grade 8 for their musical instrument of their choice. This was at a time (very late 1990s) when South Cambridge judged the music made by young people on the grades they achieved rather than the enjoyment that could be derived from making music. A concept I’m still not sure our part of town has gotten hold of.
“Results indicate that about 50% of all students drop out of music lessons and other musical activities by the time they turn 17 years old, with most students quitting between the ages of 15 and 17. Musical home environment is an important factor that is associated with lower drop out rates while conscientiousness and theory of musicality showed smaller significant associations.”
Ruth N, Müllensiefen D. Survival of musical activities. When do young people stop making music? PLoS One. 2021 Nov 24;16(11):e0259105. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259105. PMID: 34818348; PMCID: PMC8612519.
Above – I included the above quotation in Music makes us one. Reminding myself that I still miss group music making that effectively came to a stop during the pandemic.
The Science Parks should contribute towards building a new lifelong learning centre for Cambridge
I can’t remember when/where I said this but I remember mentioning it to someone in a conversation off the back of the Coldham’s Lane proposals.
Above – that’s still a lot of commuters
And that’s only one of the sites along the Cambridge-Newmarket railway line:
- The Beehive Centre where RailPEN want to build a sci-tech park
- Mission Street’s proposals for Land South of Coldham’s Lane / Cherry Hinton Innovation / Project Newton / watch this space for future name changes
- The Longfellow Group’s emerging proposals for Fulbourn Hospital and Capital Park
Note this is on top of the continued expansion at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge Technology Park (the latter won on appeal to a Planning Inspector despite impact on congestion and neighbouring Green Belt) and the further developments including:
“RAILPEN propose a radical change. Asda & the like will move next door & the Beehive will become a technology park with circa 6,000 new jobs by 2025
https://cambridgetownowl.com/2022/06/21/beehive-centre-redevelopment-first-webinar-highlighting-making-space-for-girls/
The problem is RailPEN have taken down their site (at the time of writing) so the only way to access what was there is through the Wayback Machine / Internet Archive here. Which is a skanky move by the decision-makers in my opinion. ***Keep the information up there so the local community can scrutinise what you want to do!*** Especially as they have got a few other developments (the Flying Pig site that gave PACE a windfall at the expense of the community) and Devonshire Gardens next to the railway line north of the Cycle Bridge.
“Any more news on the Grafton Centre?”
Yes
You can read the presentation pack here
Also:
Please tell them they need to provide much more community space and facilities
Above – minuscule teaching space for visiting school children. Clearly the developers don’t seem to have taken into account the average class sizes for state schools after 13 years of Tory austerity.
“Aren’t there design guides and things on how to design and build decent community spaces?”
- ARUP published Proximity of Care
- Hackney (London Borough of) has its own Supplementary Planning Document for child-friendly spaces <<– councillors, please read.
- The literature review of what children want – and their perceptions of neighbourhoods. (Children are seldom asked about such applications – certainly not as a routine action by developers to a standard high enough that it has a significant positive impact on the final outcomes.)
Furthermore, there is no book I can find that is the equivalent of a children’s introduction to town planning. (Can someone write one please?)
The simple reason being that such a book may also teach adults a thing or two mindful. that not everyone has a university degree and can rapidly read through text and make sense of it.
Finally, the Environment Agency has started objecting to large developments on water supply grounds
You can read the article here. Will be interesting to see how ministers and the water companies & regulators respond.
Food for thought?
Food for thought?
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The Cambridge Town Owl 