The Co-op Group (who have convenience stores dotted about all over Cambridge & beyond) recently appointed Naomh Campbell as their membership pioneer for our part of the world (Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire) in what could be the start of the re-emergence of the Co-operative Movement as a social force in local communities.
I should declare an interest as a member of the Co-op – light blue card and all!
The movement used to be ***huge*** in Cambridge. At the time Co-operation in a University Town (illustrated by Ronald Searle) was published in 1938, one in five residents was a member of the once-mighty Cambridge and District Co-operative Society.
It used to have grand headquarters on Burleigh Street where P r i m a r k now is.
Above – the 1930s vision on Burleigh Street
There was a hope for improved success in the mid-1980s on the Beehive Centre.
Above – Cambridge Evening News 07 Nov 1984, in the British Newspaper Archive
…but that was short-lived as heavy borrowing and high interest rates led to the implosion of many businesses.
Above – doomed. April 1990 via Mike Petty MBE
What was significant about the closure of the once-mighty Cambridge & District Co-operative Society was that it ceased to be the social force in the city that it once was, the national society effectively taking over.
In the mid-2010s the Co-op employed former Government Digital Service chief Mike Bracken (now back in Whitehall with HMRC) to overhaul the digital side of the Co-op, where he spent two years transforming the institution as he wrote on his blog back in 2017.
Fast forward to the mid-2020s and Cambridgeshire & Huntingdonshire start organising events
You can see what’s happening on their webpage here. I’m assuming it includes Peterborough given that’s what their Facebook Page refers to! (Also there’s no separate Peterborough listing on their national membership activator site)
I went to their meeting held at the Museum of Cambridge on 28 Nov 2024
It was a freezing cold day in the middle of an outbreak of a winter vomiting bug (I know of at least one person hospitalised by it) with public transport all over the place. Combined with the fragmentation of social media platforms and the downgrading of event sharing (unless you pay to advertise), the turnout of just over a dozen people seemed reasonable in the circumstances.
Above – Naomh Campbell, Co-op Organiser for Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire introducing her role.
Several of you will be familiar with supermarkets inviting customers to pop a token into one of three boxes to indicate how much of a pot of money donated by a big store should be given to a local community group.
Taking membership contributions to community groups a step further.
In one sense it’s going back to its roots – the whole idea of a co-operative is reinvesting its profits back into its members and their communities rather than paying dividends to shareholders. It’s expanding its presence from simply paying out a series of one-off payments to whichever community groups and local charities put in bids for funding. Both Acorn Cambridge the community union, and CamCycle are past beneficiaries of funding for specific projects. In the case for the latter as they explain in this blogpost, their funding paid for a superbly-designed outreach cargo bike, and for materials in support of a new campaign to encourage people to know the law and to cycle safely.
Two ideas I discussed with Naomh and participants
- The local history of Cambridge and District Co-operative Society
- Sponsoring a Cambridge Societies Fair at The Junction
With the latter, ‘A freshers’ fair but for town people’ is something I first wrote about back in 2012 here. The concept is simple:
- Hire a big hall
- Invite community groups, charities, and campaign groups to set up stalls
- Invite the city and surrounding district to come along
- Have interactive public service outreach stands (eg from local councils, local NHS etc) where people can suggest ideas on how to improve our city, and also indicate what actions they would be prepared to undertake to make their idea happen
In terms of membership outreach there are two Co-op convenience stores either side of the venue.
One serving the student accommodation and CB1 estate, the other serving Hills Road Sixth Form College and The Rock Estate (the western side of Queen Edith’s and Coleridge wards). From an event sponsorship perspective, having a welcome stall and handing out vouchers to existing members and those who sign up feels like a win-win. Ditto doing what they did at the Museum of Cambridge event with samples of various food and drink items. (A late afternoon/early evening wine tasting session in one of the Junction’s meeting rooms anyone? Only that Co-op Argentinian Malbec is crackingly-good superplonk as my late Uncle might have once said!) (The Guardian used to have a wine column by the name Superplonk 20+ years ago)
From The Junction’s perspective, encouraging longer term residents to sign up as members and supporters at a time of crisis in the arts world. Especially for children and young people – in whose interests the venue was established in 1990 as arts and music venues collapsed like skittles in 1980s Cambridge. It was only after teenagers and young adults had a riot on East Road in a disused warehouse that the authorities finally got the point – having been ignored repeatedly despite asking nicely on numerous occasions prior to this. (I still think we were robbed of an upside-down flying saucer venue by the County Council in the 1980s).
Above – there’s a local history/extended project waiting for teenagers looking for topics to cover for school or college – search Cambridge Venue Group in the British Newspaper Archive
Expanding the membership of existing groups, and finding out what residents would like to see more of that we don’t currently have
For participating groups holding stalls at such an event, I strongly recommend doing ‘before and after’ surveys to see what their membership and participation numbers were like before the event, and in the month or so after. Thus encouraging them to have their own meeting or gathering for the people who sign up. One huge area of potential for me is music – and music for adults who want to learn/relearn a musical instrument but in a social environment. (The East London Late Starters’ Orchestra being one model worth looking at). A few of us go along to the Irish music sessions at The Rathmore on Wednesday evenings, learning to play the violin in the Irish folk tradition. I.e. learning through ear rather than looking at a sheet of music, and not having an exam at the end of it. (A five-string violin that I bought nearly 15 years ago with some of my civil service redundancy money is finally getting to be heard as a result!)
Finally, I hope that suggestions for, and discussions on a single city-wide listings like in the olden days could become a thing again. At the moment it’s too fragmented, having to go through multiple sites in the hope you might stumble across something. Again, this reflects the barriers that various social media/tech firms are now putting up in order to financialise and capture the social value that people get from using their sites. As Birdsite is finding out the hard way, press too hard on the financialisation and extraction and you create an incentive for someone else to come up with something better that does the nice things long since taken away. (I’m on Bluesky too).
That was sort of the point I wanted to put to Full Council (but buses-cancelled-culture stopped me) last Thursday. (See item 10, Q5 on p10 here) I wanted to ask the city council on the back of my discussion with Ms Campbell of the Co-op about the council and Co-op working together with The Junction to host such an event given that the Co-op has some funding available to support it. (See Cllr Mike Davey’s response here).
In the meantime…
Devolution White Paper looming…
The Deputy Prime Minister and MHCLG Ministers have their monthly cross-examination by MPs in the House of Commons on Monday 02 December from 2.30pm – you can read the pre-submitted questions here, one of which is on devolution. Given the media speculation (eg this from BBC Cambridgeshire earlier today) I wouldn’t be surprised if the White Paper is launched straight after that session. And if not on Monday, then some time this coming week.
If you agree with the principle of overhauling local government in and around Cambridge and Cambs, see https://www.cambsunitaries.org.uk/
Because we’ll soon have some firm proposals to scrutinise and comment on – such publications are always accompanied by a consultation. (Another consultation! Yay!)
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.
The Cambridge Town Owl 