The looming Devolution White Paper has to overhaul over-complicated and convoluted structures described in the document published earlier this week. You can discuss how to improve these at The Trials of Democracy project on 23rd and 30th November at the Central Library and the Mill Road Community Centre respectively – see here
Above – starting at 10am this and next Saturday (23/11 and 30/11)
Travel and transport to/from the CBC…
I was going to say: The other reason why it’ll fail is that it makes no provision for light rail. But as it’s only for 2025-29, it’s a short-medium term plan within which there is no way a peacetime government would be able to construct such a thing.
You can read the objectives on p33 of the report (also screengrabbed below)
Above – p33 of the report – the objectives over five years
However, for this blogpost I’m interested in the structures.
Governance, Responsibility, Delivery (including funding)
From p49 of the report you’ll find the section that really makes or breaks the proposals: governance structures. The report states:
“The Travel and Transport Plan has been designed to facilitate decisions and actions required for delivery. This includes:
- Costs: estimating the broad range of cost associated with implementing specific deliverables.
- Benefits: estimating the magnitude of quantitative and nature of qualitative benefits associated with deliverables.
- Prioritisation: derived from the initial understanding of costs and benefits, and indication of prioritisation for delivery.
- Responsibility: identifying the organisation(s) responsible for successful implementation of given deliverables.“
“However, to provide focus around the delivery of the measures in the Travel and Transport
Plan, it is proposed that the Campus Delivery Group would continue to own the delivery
process.“
Style guide complaint: “It is proposed…” Who is proposing what? Whoever has written the report really needs to take ownership of it. If it is a corporate decision taken by a board or committee, use a phrase to show this. “We propose that the….etc”
“Who is the Campus Delivery Group?”
The report lists a core membership of:
- CBC Ltd,
- the Travel and Transport SubGroup Travel and Transport Coordinator,
- representatives from the LOCG and representatives from External Partner Agencies and Local Authorities such as:
- Cambridgeshire County Council,
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority,
- Greater Cambridge Partnership
- East-West Rail.
- Consultants supporting these organisations including CBC may be required to attend the Campus Delivery Group.
The district councils are conspicuous by their absence given their development control and development plan-making responsibilities – as are the bus companies, train companies and Network Rail
Also – no police representative. Public safety? Ask a random selection of women about what puts them off using public transport or active travel and see how many raise the issue of safety and fear of crime.
“The County Council is a weak link”
The entire local government sector is a weak link after 14 years of austerity. With further cuts demanded (unless the Devolution White Paper and the Spring Budget come up with something new) none of the tiers of local government have the capacity to send staff to attend all of those meetings and provide briefing for elected councillors to make informed decisions. And while councils have their hands tied by existing legislation, the buck stops at ministerial desks – as I implied in my public question to Cambridge City Council’s Strategy and Resources Scrutiny Committee on 21 Nov 2024.
Public Question – Cambridge Civic Quarter: 21 Nov 2024
The reference to Florence Ada Keynes by Cllr Simon Smith (Labour – Castle) relates to this blogpost – Florence as Chair of the Guildhall’s reconstruction committee throughout the 1930s was instrumental in getting the modern frontage of the guildhall built – in the face of stiff opposition. I tabled my PQ to get specific ‘on the record’ statements on why each suggestion I stated in this earlier blogpost were ruled out – I didn’t spot them prominently in the consultants’ report.
“I urge councillors to tell the minister for housing that these proposals…do not match his ambitions for our city…and that they reflect Cambridge having a globally recognised city run by an institution structured for a small market town”
“A bit harsh?”
Not when you look at how small the area of office space in the plans are that have been allocated to the city council.
Lack of corporate memory
“The Campus Travel and Transport Plan was developed in partnership with KMC Transport Planning, who also conducted most of the engagement and consultation with local groups, individuals and government stakeholders.”
Above – at the foot of the report’s landing page
The problem with commissioning consultants like this is the commissioning institutions relinquish the ability to build up an in-depth corporate/collective memory. In previous eras there have been a critical mass of long-serving officers and councillors that have been that corporate memory. But austerity and time have diminished those numbers and that capacity, and as a result ‘town’ is desperately short of that internal corporate memory within institutions. Former Councillor Sam Davies MBE, now having moved out of the area, stated the following
Above – Sam Davies MBE, 21 Nov 2024
“I have worked as hard as I could to do my bit, but it is more apparent than ever that, without a major overhaul of local government structures, financing and powers, our council will struggle with relentless demands to maintain current levels of service and protect residents’ quality of life.”
Above – Cllr Sam Davies 09 Oct 2023
The Cambridge Biomedical Campus is not the only major employment site in and around Cambridge
It may be one of the largest and most prominent, but if we were to replicate that model across say West Cambridge (“Yeah – where’s that swimming pool you said repeatedly was a priority?!?”), the Cambridge Science Park (the original one) or even the redevelopment of the Beehive Centre and Cambridge Retail Park, then we’re in trouble. Big trouble. Because the officer capacity needed to manage all of those relationships is unsustainable for the county council which at the northern end of the county in Wisbech, to the western end of the county around Huntingdon and St Neots, have got their own unique challenges that won’t be on the radar of the influential and powerful interests in Cambridge’s sci-tech sector.
And that’s not fair.
It’s not fair on the people of the rest of Cambridgeshire for ‘Greater Cambridge’ to be sucking in all of the officer capacity when the problems of multiple economic deprivation and woeful transport connectivity have had devastating impacts on the people in north Cambridgeshire. To get an idea of that impact from a couple of generations ago, have a look at Fenwoman by Mary Chamberlain, and the impact that an almost non-existent bus service has on the career and life chances of teenage Fenland women. Then add to that the still not-great broadband connections and you can see how and why inequalities between northern and southern Cambridgeshire are so wide.
This is why I’ve stated repeatedly that local government for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough needs to find a structure and systems that enable the Cambridge economic sub-region to have a municipal government institution (i.e. a Unitary council) that can tax the huge wealth we’re continually told is generated here, to pay for the desperately-needed infrastructure, and enable central government to make direct grants to a council/councils for Peterborough & Fenland given their sub-regional economies could not raise nearly the same amount of revenue.
The unitary councils issue will be debated by Cambridge City Council at its full council meeting on 28 Nov 2024 at The Guildhall.
For some background reading, see Cambs Unitaries at https://www.cambsunitaries.org.uk/how-will-it-work/ – otherwise, feel free to email your questions over to the city council’s democratic services (see here, scroll to the end)
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:
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Below – The Trials of Democracy workshops continue this weekend at the Cambridge Central Library (Sat 23rd Nov) followed by one at the Mill Road Community Centre (Sat 30th Nov) – Both sessions are free.
The Cambridge Town Owl 