Monthly Archives: February 2026

Can you remember the Quango that was operational between 2004-2011? I can! (Sort of.) It was very early in my civil service days and us young early-mid 20-somethings would watch lots of people going into meetings with lots of papers to discuss things that …had lots of long words and big concepts in them butContinue reading “Cambridgeshire Horizons vs Cambridge Growth Company”

In designs I’ve labelled as ‘worse than communism’, the developers who are meant to be partners with Cambridge City Council are now saying they cannot proceed with the affordable housing element because it won’t make a big enough profit for them Hence…their proposal to apply to Homes England for a subsidy It’s the regeneration ofContinue reading “Will Homes England subsidise council flats redevelopment?”

The papers for next week’s Transport Committee meeting of the Combined Authority has been published, and it contains an independent report on the state of transport in and around Cambridge. It doesn’t pull its punches. Image – London’s sleek buses from Buses Magazine in 2022 The meeting papers here. The deadline for public questions isContinue reading “Independent report published into Cambridge Transport”

…according to the latest statistical release from the Office for National Statistics for the period covering January 2026 Above: “Proportion of adults reporting how often they felt lonely often, always or some of the time, Great Britain, March 2020 to January 2026” ONS Feb 2026 The data in the above-mentioned graph is interrogated in theContinue reading “Almost one in four adults reported feeling lonely…”

With Haverhill and Royston located just beyond the boundary of South Cambridgeshire, could both towns be included in the remit? (A separate question: Should they be included?) Reminder: The consultation on a development corporation is still open This is not a new question – it was a point of discussion in the 1960s when theContinue reading “Could ministers add sites beyond South Cambridgeshire to the Development Corporation’s remit?”

In an eight-point battering, the influential group strongly criticised the failure of politicians over ‘poor transport options and lack of consensus on future solutions’. How do things look nearly 12 years after three councils and The Government signed the City Deal in June 2014? Image – Neurodiversity pins, because no one in their right mindsContinue reading “Cambridge Ahead slams transport shambles”

The Cambridge North planning application – outline permission for which was controversially granted on appeal by ministers in the dying days of the Conservative Government in 2024, is back with detailed proposals. But how will they deal with Anglian Water’s new policy of routine objections? See the BBC Cambridgeshire summary here, and see me andContinue reading “Detailed plans for Cambridge North boxes to be presented to city council”

The potholes in the roads are very visible symptoms of a much greater set of problems whose roots are in Westminster. Is there a local solution given the huge rise in heavy construction traffic associated with Cambridge’s rapid growth? The Cambridgeshire context is the £73million the county council allocated for highways maintenance funding My photoContinue reading “Potholes? We’ve got them too. But where does the buck stop?”

The Cambridge Growth Company’s consultation sets out the powers it seeks to acquire from local government in Cambridgeshire – and councillors are not happy. Is there a workaround? Possibly. But it might require some innovations in structures and lines of accountability. BBC Cambridgeshire quoted some councillors who described the move as a power grab. AboveContinue reading “Is there a solution to the Cambridge planning powers issues?”

You’ll be delighted to know that theres ***another consultation*** – this one on strategic planning that was scrapped by Eric Pickles’ pen back in 2010, a few months after the East of England spent the best part of a decade putting the old East of England Regional Plan together. Such is the life of civilContinue reading “Regional Planning returns – but it’s still a big messy picture”