I tried to summarise some of the things for a community newsletter but the task seems impossible because there’s so much happening – hence my point about our consultation systems needing an overhaul, and also the need to come up with alternatives to a now broken social media world – such as a revamped TeaCambs
For those of you who need a weekly laugh at politics – and perhaps an alternative to Question Time, see BBC Five Live’s Friday Night Comedy homepage.
The list started off as:
Public Art – Cambridge Station South has proposed a public art package. (See details here – including how to comment)
The Greater Cambridge Planning Service held an event about the future plans for the Cambridge Biomedical Campus (see also Peter Freeman’s comments). It was filmed and you can watch the footage back at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PfZQhAII_4 “
The proposed CSET Busway proposals from the Greater Cambridge Partnership were approved by their Board and also by Cambridgeshire County Council’s full council. I wrote this up earlier in this blogpost which links to the meeting papers– note the public questions at Item 4 which included a statement from the Chair of the CUH NHS Trust (i.e. Addenbrooke’s). The county council will now make an application to the Transport Secretary for authorisation to proceed – which means a public inquiry held by a planning inspector and another consultation.
Members of the Cambs Youth Panel (who read the riot act to adults at EngageCambs) have been speaking at a number of council and community meetings recently, powerfully highlighting many challenges that our young people face. They are always looking for new members. See https://www.cambsyouthpanel.co.uk/join for more information.
The Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service has prepared a new Supplementary Planning Document for the Cambridge Biomedical Campus for the public to comment on. Surprisingly, the document says that the site has never had an overall long term masterplan going back to the 1960s. The draft will be discussed at Planning and Transport Scrutiny Committee before going out to consultation. You can read the papers at https://democracy.cambridge.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=475&MId=4586
The Combined Authority will be discussing a number of infrastructure-related issues including three new electricity substations close to Queen Edith’s – one proposed for by the Babraham Road P&R. See https://democracy.cambridgeshirepeterborough-ca.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=143&MId=120 item 11 for more details.
…and then I think I gave up!
Or rather fell asleep under the weight of fatigue which is why I didn’t get beyond grabbing a coffee over the road earlier, spending most of the day in bed following the usual seasonal inoculations which had worse-than-usual side effects.
Should we revive the old monthly TeaCambs meetings?
It seems like another age when a small group of us interested in using social media for public good (And in the public sector too) had monthly gatherings in Cambridge – have a browse through the old website here.
With Puffles long since retired, society having been put through the mixer, and Cambridge’s population having increased by the equivalent of a town the size of Haverhill – and with Government plans for the further expansion of the city, is it time to bring it back but with a new focus?
“Why bring TeaCambs back?”
Because we’ve lost a critical mass of people who were otherwise scrutinising and debating the things that were coming up – even though all too often it felt like the issues we were raising were being ignored despite the evidence bases people tried to bring to bear. Two of the things that I’ve taken from TeaCambs and other attempts at collective problem-solving and learning are:
- It’s impossible to sustain something like this in an era of austerity – how can you ask people to be enthusiastic about something when they are going through a redundancy process? (I’ve been there).
- It’s impossible to sustain something that can feel so vague at one point, while requiring a huge amount of specialist knowledge at the same time. This could be for society-changing things like AI, through to something as complex as town planning which, while we see the impact of it, the processes look daunting.
With Cambridge changing even more, there’s a huge public interest in the public scrutiny of those decisions. The social-media-based setup we used to have has been crushed by the hotwiring of algorithms by the big firms/brands. It’s no longer the case that anyone can blog, publish, and assume that their content will be displayed for their social media followers. Furthermore, as so many people have backed away from social media (understandable in this toxic atmosphere) important voices with specialist knowledge are being missed out.
By specialist knowledge I don’t mean only academic or technical. I also use that to cover those with in-depth lived experiences. Which reminded me of the book Platformland by Richard Pope, recommended by Emer Coleman. Also there’s the recent publication by Prof Flora Samuel and Gustav Kjær Vad Nielsen featuring the Hartree development in Cambridge.
Above – on involving citizens in planning, in this case citizens’ assemblies
TeaCambs is something far, far more informal than a citizens’ assembly
My initial thoughts are to host it at Together Culture on Fitzroy Street opposite Waitrose near the Grafton Centre. Alternatively, when the Cambridge Room opens their pop-up unit in The Grafton, that could be an alternative. The format should be straight forward: a one hour session where we are introduced to a specific issue on the theme of the collective future of Cambridge – town, gown, and surrounding villages/towns, and then start the conversations – at the end of which we each commit to one small behaviour change or one small one off action (Even if it’s just looking up a website or browsing a book) as a result of participating.
After that, people can be free to go to the nearest pub. (I’m still gutted that the Hopbine was priced out by the landowner – credit to the collective currently occupying it for keeping it in use for the benefit of those who most need it). That could mean we have the gatherings on the first Tues/Weds/Thurs of every month – ideally from 4pm to 5pm (easier that way as Together Culture closes at 5pm) or 5pm-6pm if there is a keyholder co-organising. (I cannot run this alone).
Ultimately I hope a revamped TeaCambs would act as a spark or a catalyst for people from different backgrounds, life experiences, and specialisms to not just to meet and ‘network’ – but rather to start conversations on how to solve collective problems and challenges that affect us all.
Food for thought?
If you are interested in the longer term future of Cambridge, and on what happens at the local democracy meetings where decisions are made, feel free to:
- Follow me on BSky <- A critical mass of public policy people seem to have moved here (and we could do with more local Cambridge/Cambs people on there!)
- Like my Facebook page
- Consider a small donation to help fund my continued research and reporting on local democracy in and around Cambridge.
Below – Join Together Culture here! (And let’s go fly The Kite)
The Cambridge Town Owl 