Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

BBC Cambridgeshire published a headline in response to the Board of Governors meeting It followed the meeting earlier – you can read the papers here. Also, if you want to help support Addenbrooke’s and The Rosie Hospitals you can join as a member of the trust (I have) via https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/about-us/foundation-trust-membership/. You can do the sameContinue reading “A&E waits unacceptable say bosses who have few means to deal with the problem”

Another catastrophic defeat looms for me in this one – one that dates back to April 2014 when me and Puffles (pictured below) went by bus from Cambridge to Haverhill (it wasn’t pleasant) to learn about the town’s campaign to re-open the long-closed railway line to Cambridge. Failing that, see the CSET Public Inquiry PageContinue reading “New public inquiry for *another* busway – CSET instead of Rail Haverhill”

Lord Hendy, the Minister of State for Rail approved the controversial application under delegated powers from the Secretary of State for Transport. Image: The announcement is filed under ‘Rail Infrastructure’ even though it will be a road with road signs saying ‘local buses only’. You can read the documents here The recommendation to the MinisterContinue reading “Rail Minister approves Cambourne-2-Cambridge Busway Application”

A pause in the reorganisation of local government in England means that those local councils that were otherwise due to have local elections in 2027 in the absence of a restructure, will now go ahead as planned It was a miserable day in Parliament for the Housing Communities & Local Government Secretary Angela Rayner asContinue reading “Local elections for councils in East Cambridgeshire, Fenland, and Cambridge to go ahead in 2027”

Papers in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority’s Skills Committee contain principles that go beyond a specific cohort that is the focus of government policy The meeting papers for the Adult Skills Committee of 14 September 2026 are here and the documents in Item 9 contain slides on the Youth Employment and Participation Strategy forContinue reading “Youth participation plans could apply to adults as well”

Daniel Zeichner MP (Lab – Cambridge) has tabled a Parliamentary Question (PQ) to the Housing Secretary for answer on Monday 07 September 2026 What they call the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor has been debated before – I wrote about it in a 2-part blogpost nearly a year ago: The question itself is a generic one –Continue reading “Cambridgeshire MPs debate the OxCamArc in Parliament – Part 3”

What national and local public policies miss on community development and tackling loneliness in society Image: Front page of The New Statesman by Kris Andrew Small for housing policy reporter Vicky Spratt in September’s edition – £read the latter’s article here. The following sounds painfully familiar “Go to university, get a job, buy a house,Continue reading “Proximity, regularity, and affinity”

In the meantime, Skoda in the Czech Republic shows the UK what we could have had – if only successive governments had invested in the declining manufacturing base for a new generation of electrified public transport systems TL:DR? Persuade your councillors, council officers, MPs, elected politicians and senior transport people to go and visit theContinue reading “Greater Cambridge Transport Strategy stubbornly refuses to mention ‘light rail’ or ‘tunnels’”

One participant in the CPCA’s Mass Rapid Transit trying to make the case for buses vs trams Image: The Vengabus inspired by Dutch public transport and Europop. Looked like a step up from what Stagecoach offered Cambridge in the same year, such was the state of privatised and deregulated buses Above – Appendix A –Continue reading “*“If you can make buses sexy, you will be billionaire.”*”