Comments from the councillors should be publicised more widely – if only to let residents know more about what building work is happening in our city
There were two important debates at The Guildhall earlier this evening for Planning and Transport Scrutiny Committee (see the papers here), but sadly few were there to observe online (only 20 views at the time of posting) and even fewer in person. And me along with Cambridge Green Party’s MP candidate Sarah Nicmanis hardly count as ordinary members of the public when it comes to local democracy! I covered two of the substantive items in earlier blogposts:
- On house building and completion statistics for Cambridge
- On the maps showing East West Rail’s approach to Cambridge
What matters now is what the councillors said. With that in mind, you can watch the following time-stamped sections:
If you have any thoughts about who said what, please let your local councillors know (see https://www.writetothem.com/). Because they cannot read our minds!
The decline in local media
In a city with a vibrant local democracy and civic society fully engaged with and driving the improvements to the built and natural environment, the debates and contributions would be being shared across social media as well as being written about in local newspapers. The problem is that everything is imploding. I vaguely remember someone commenting in response to this news that the print press is the only industry that responds to falling demand with both rising prices *and* poorer quality products.
The daily edition for passing buyers of the Cambridge News is now greater than that of the weekly Cambridge Independent (digital subscriptions may be of interest for those of you who live outside the paper distribution area). Which is depressing but utterly predictable for ReachPLC stable. Made even worse by their bosses imposing online page view targets for their reporters. Looking through their corporate Birdsite page, it’s striking how no one is reposting their content anymore – which correlates with the proprietor’s gaming of the algorithm regarding posts that link to external websites. For more independent alternatives that keep an eye on the Combined Authority and Mayoralty, see John Elworthy’s CambsNews. And for a more detailed take on all things rail transport, see Rail Future East
“So…where are we going to have the online and offline conversations?”
That’s what troubled me in this post – we’re in a position where trust in the media, already not great, is taking another battering due to the decisions of a few chaps in another country. Not surprisingly the Competition and Markets Authority has finally decided there’s something to be investigated about the relationship between news providers and big name search engines. Although what a regulator of a medium-sized ex-colonial power can do vs one of the biggest multinational corporations on the planet is another question. Maybe we should have stayed inside the EU. Or wait for them to sort it out first?
Back to housing statistics
As mentioned earlier, have a look at the links in this blogpost. The part that Sarah Nicmanis of the Cambridge Greens picked up on – and asked a public question about, was on the very low number of net affordable homes completed in 2023/24.
“523 affordable dwellings completed in Greater Cambridge in 2023 – This is 33% of all completions which is above the plan period average of 31%. However, only 20 of these affordable dwellings were in Cambridge. This low figure was due to demolitions reducing the net increase, schemes completing in the previous year and edge of Cambridge large sites building new homes over the border in South Cambridgeshire”
“Why so few net affordable completions?”
“There were only 20 affordable dwellings (net) completed in Cambridge. The net total was affected by the demolition of 36 dwellings as part of a redevelopment scheme at Aylesborough Close which will ultimately result in 70 new affordable dwellings.“
GMaps has been updated recently enough to show those completed new homes – you can see the higher-density housing units in the four story buildings. Due to the nature of Cambridge’s housing situation, many of the sites coming through in Cambridge will involve some demolition of housing stock that no longer meets Building Regulations and the standards required in the face of the climate emergency. Furthermore, the housing crisis means that 20th Century housing stock built to low densities will inevitably be replaced by higher density housing – which brings with it the opportunities and requirements to build more social amenities that previously were unsustainable in low density housing estates. My concern however remains that Cambridge is not building the sorts of facilities needed to serve the much larger city that we are due to become. It’s hard to appreciate the situation in the midst of economic downtimes in the middle of winter and still in the shadow of a once-in-a-century pandemic, but at some stage soon we’ve got to go beyond vague concepts and start drawing solid proposals on plans and maps.
Talking of which, there’s an interesting-looking planning conference in Cambridge on the morning of 15th Jan 2025 – if you receive this before it starts/finishes.
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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The Cambridge Town Owl 