Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

Above – Christ Church Cambridge on Newmarket Road, from Britain from above [EAW013079] in 1948. Most of the buildings to the right of it were demolished to make way for The Grafton Centre. Savills would be far better advised if they worked with the people of Cambridge in deciding the future of The Grafton CentreContinue reading “The Kite in Cambridge is an unsuitable site for commercially marketed laboratories”

How do you solve the problems of a street like Mill Road? And what did the survey of over 300 people by the new Cambridge branch of what was originally The Pedestrians’ Association have to say? Some of you may have seen the proposals from the https://millroad4people.org/ group. You can also see this account ofContinue reading “Mill Road For People – and the new Cambridge Living Streets survey results”

Image from Cambridge 105 Alternative headline: What is the long term impact of no change of policy or strategy by the Greater Cambridge Partnership on community engagement and protest? This relates to the Greater Cambridge Assembly meeting on 10 June, the video is here. The meeting papers are here. You may have seen the socialContinue reading ““Cam Sam Slams G-Cambs””

The Combined Authority’s Skills Committee is due to discuss this 100+ page document under the chairmanship of the new County Council leader, former LibDems MEP Cllr Lucy Nethsingha You can view the papers here. The party-political balance of the Combined Authority means that the Conservatives have a 4-3 majority. (Representatives from Peterborough City, Fenland District,Continue reading “How skilful is Cambridgeshire?”

How did this part of the county end up with such a high concentration of young people travelling such great distances for post-16 courses in and around Cambridge? Yesterday I bumped into a group of sixth form students raising money for the homelessness charity Jimmy’s in Cambridge. There were a number of different groups doingContinue reading “On the concentration of further education (16+) institutions in South Cambridge”

The new proposed seat of St Neots incorporating rapidly-growing Cambourne may be added to the county, as Cherry Hinton could be moved into a re-oriented South Cambridgeshire with wards now dominated by Liberal Democrat councillors You can read the essentials from Ben Hatton in the Cambridge Independent. You can also see other constituencies and submitContinue reading “Boundary Commission proposes an additional Parliamentary seat next to Cambridge”

Two significant planning applications are up for your scrutiny and comments – the land south of Coldham’s Lane – including the lakes, and the next phase of the Marleigh expansion next to the Cambridge Ice Rink – now re-opened. You can read the news articles for the essentials: Planning permission sought for 420 homes inContinue reading “East Cambridge lakes and the eastward expansion of the city”

Oh – and it would be nice to have a new large concert hall for Cambridge by the end of the period as well. (Because the time has arrived for it). Some of you may have spotted my live-tweets from earlier. …since written up by Mr Hatton in the Cambridge Independent. (It’s worth subscribing toContinue reading “If Greater Cambridgeshire (i.e. Cambridgeshire + Peterborough) is to be the county of culture 2025, heritage and transport are key components”

There’s still time to get your questions in for the Greater Cambridge Assembly Meeting on 10 June (see start of my last blogpost here). There is also the formalities of the first Mayoral meeting on 02 June with local council leaders from across Cambridgeshire – the papers are here. The vision of the transport systemContinue reading “Refreshing Greater Cambridge’s 2030 vision post-CV19 & Post-2021 elections”

For the first time in its history, there will be no Conservatives on the GCP Board. Yet for its first four years (2014-18) that party held the majority. In the course of three years, the electorate has voted to remove Conservative political control of both South Cambridgeshire District Council, and of Cambridgeshire County Council. Accordingly,Continue reading “The Greater Cambridge Partnership must change policies to reflect the recent local election results”