Some of you may have heard about what the Peterborough chapter of Citizens UK has been doing of late. The creation of a Greater Cambridge chapter has been bubbling away for some time, and it looks like they will be having their first gathering at Long Road Sixth For College in November 2023
See the video below from a decade ago.
Above – from Citizens UK
While time has moved on, the principles of community organising are still broadly the same, and the issues may also sound familiar.
“How is Citizens UK different from Civic Voice?”
Civic Voice is the national umbrella body for the civic society sector in England, of which Cambridge Past, Present, and Future is the local member organisation. (You can join CambridgePPF here <<– Useful if you are interested in responding to planning applications but need expert help).
“This is the first Public Assembly of Cambridge Citizens. The event will include a roll call of founding institutions; stories of campaigns being run by our sister chapter Peterborough Citizens; a celebration of living wage week; and the commissioning of the leadership to found the chapter. If you are curious about organising, and want to get a sense of what a civic alliance does, come along!”
Citizens UK Cambridge event
It’s hard to know what the difference is likely to be without seeing and meeting the people involved. That said, CambridgePPF has a very long history, owns land, and is a standalone institution that does its own thing. Citizens UK’s focus appears to be about working with existing institutions and bringing them together with their local communities to solve whatever social problems they are affected by.
“We build positive working relationships between communities, elected power-holders and businesses, making sure everyone is heard and no one is left out.”
https://www.citizensuk.org/about-us/who-we-are/
It will be interesting to see what comes about from the gathering. At the same time, the over-complicated governance structures of Cambridge and Cambridgeshire will remain a huge barrier to getting things done. Something not helped by additional sub-national structures that get little publicity. What Gove has in store remains to be seen.
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The Cambridge Town Owl 