Start writing those wish lists of civic and leisure facilities!

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The Chair of the Cambridge Growth Company Peter Freeman invited local councils to send in their ‘wish lists’ of civic and leisure facilities (amongst other things) when I put some questions to him at a recent planning event. Now that the Chancellor has re-launched the OxCamArc, time to take him at his word?

Image – Cambridge&, because they invited the impossible (even though it’s not for them to invite me to my home town! Anyway, here goes!

“Hang on! Haven’t we been here before with wish lists?”

Turns out we have – have a browse from 05 May 2021 here. My top five items in that list were:

We know we won’t get the last of those because Cambridge City Council told me in a response to a PQ. But since then there have been some huge changes – including the general election and the announcement of the Devolution overhaul.

Coming to TeaCambs2 to talk about it all?

Because of the Chancellor’s announcement, I’m running an extra TeaCambs2 event at The Rock Pub, Cambridge, on Sunday 02 Feb from 2.30pm. It’s free, and I normally bring along print-outs and a handful of books for people to take away. The gatherings are free although you are responsible for your own food/drinks orders. If you’re willing/able to help me with the costs of materials etc, please see my Ko-fi page here.

Above – Puffles the dragon fairy with coffee – spot the group with Puffles, that will be us.

(I feel really uncomfortable soliciting donations – I’d much prefer a Universal Basic Income, or perhaps more ideally given my long term limited mobility/ill health, a permanent part-time role in an institution that would give the me the ‘dignity’ of paid work. (Mindful I’m a product of the 1980s/1990s and we were brought up as a cohort to believe that it was our occupation that defined us. Such mindsets are hard to shake off)).

Over 40 Cambridge Town Owl blogposts in less than a month

That’s a reflection on how many announcements have been made on the future of Cambridge, along with the publication of large planning applications that also need far more scrutiny than they are currently getting – especially when you consider the population of our growing city.

There were two statements of note today:

The only county MP asking a question was Sam Carling MP (Lab – NW Cambs) here. Because of his ministerial office, Daniel Zeichner MP is unable to ask questions in the Commons of a government of which he is a member. It would have been nice for the other MPs (from all three of the main parties) to have tabled questions – especially on the risks associated with the proposals some of which I listed in an earlier blogpost, including:

  • The capacity of the building industry post-Grenfell revelations to meet the demand
  • The lack of a lifelong learning / adult education / skills retraining plan for adults who might be willing/able in principle, but are prevented by existing financial and caring commitments to undertake the full-time training needed
  • The climate emergency, ecological, and water crises
  • The governance and accountability structures of the towns, cities, and regions before, during, and after the work is done
  • The risk that private sector interests will extract most of the wealth gained, leaving new communities without nearly enough of the essential infrastructure needed to ensure the new and expanded settlements can function.

The chronic skills shortages remains a significant risk – and I’m surprised that ministers have not brought forward far more substantial proposals for adult education and lifelong learning facilities that Parliament called for back in November 2020, and that Cllr Iva Divkovic (Labour – Arbury) kindly followed up on my behalf with her question to the Chair of the Combined Authority’s Skills and Employment Committee here. It seems that the grant funding conditions are extremely narrow and do not account for pooling resources with third parties – nor have the conversations about the possibility of pooling those resources actually taken place, but are likely to in a forthcoming workstream that the CPCA has funding for. (Andrea Moore MBE – Asst Director for Skills and Employment at the CPCA confirmed this in a follow-up email).

Before starting with the civic wishlist, it’s essential that the public authorities and us activists ensure we have done some background reading first.

The framework for any wishlist for a fast-expanding place is sort of provided for us by Rob Cowan in his book Essential Urban Design, which I strongly recommend.

Above – does the above feel familiar?

Above – from Essential Urban Design: A Handbook for Architects, Designers and Planners, (2021) by Rob Cowan / RIBA (currently on sale at RIBA too!)

The diagram in the top left gives an indicative catchment for the population needed to sustain each amenity. In reality those numbers will not be static. They will be dependent on a whole host of things, including the state of the economy and the phase in the business cycle it is in. (Growth or recession?) Ditto public transport links, to attractions that might bring in visitors from much further afield than settlements of a similar size.

Whenever a major developer puts in a serious planning application in, they normally commission an army of consultants to do ‘independent’ reports for them on a whole host of things in order to provide an evidence base for planning committees. The same goes for planning authorities when putting together their local plans. In the case of what has become the Hartree Development, the consultants LDA Design were commissioned to deliver two reports.

Above – Community & Cultural Facilities Audit Provision, which I wrote about in this blogpost, alongside their Cultural Place Making Strategy.

And that’s not the only evidence base they collect things on. Browse through the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service’s document library here.

At the same time, the Combined Authority – which will be taking on a new strategic planning role once the looming legislation is enacted and commenced, will be bringing forward things like the assessment of private commuter bus services – again something I persuaded the CPCA might be a good idea through the medium of a public question. And all of the traffic jams in my neighbourhood caused by the growing sci-tech developments along Fulbourn Road. It’s not only the giant dinosaur-sized freeze-dried vertical poo installed in the name of public art that concerns me!

Above: Pong-tastic! ARM’s giant dinosaur-sized vertical poo sculpture just off Fulbourn Road / Robin Hood junction, which I moaned about here.

We need to talk about the civic gap. Again.

I mentioned it here – still waiting for the Cambridge Room to open so we can get going. The reason being is because too many of our civic amenities and public services are already not fit for purpose, and certainly won’t be for the extra 150,000 homes ministers want. One of the reasons why I want a new grand city hall for Cambridge is because I think couples and their families deserve a grander registry office than what they currently have.

Above – Ben Hatton in the Cambridge News featured in this blogpost

Other issues I’ve raised for which there are multiple possible solutions include but are not limited to:

Didn’t the Hopeful Towns report given anyone…hope?

It feels like another report from another consultancy that was printed out and quickly forgotten. Yet there is still a host of useful info in it – not least the table below

Above – stackloads of reading

Which makes it feel like at Cllr Seb Kindersley, Chairman of the County Council said last week

*Everyone is busy making plans for Greater Cambridge – but they appear not to be talking to each other*

Part of that challenge is having a common, shared information base so that different groups are not using their own ‘special’ information as a means to get their own way. Hence the need for the Cambridge Room to get up and running asap.

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:

Want to talk about these issues with someone in Cambridge? The Trials of Democracy in Cambridge is back for 2025

“Aunty and Pink with be back outside the Guildhall with their inviting sofas and listening ears on Saturday February 8th from 11am – 12 noon.” (And if you can’t make that, Puffles is back at TeaCambs2 on 09 Feb from 2.30-4pm at The Rock on Cherry Hinton Road – on top of the one on 02 Feb)