Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

Joint Administration leaders tear into the ‘content-lite’ Levelling Up Plan from the Department of State responsible for Housing & Local Government. You can read both the summaries and the full documents of the Levelling Up Plan here along with the list of 34 headlines from BBC Newsnight’s Lewis Goodall here. “Is this it?!?!” …Asked theContinue reading ““Cambs Slam Levelling-up Plan””

Sorry – wrong company and wrong Millennium. That was Konica, see below. I’ve used the screenshot of the Combined Authority’s Independent Climate Change Report because it’s schemes like these that we’ll see more of and promoted as part of the county’s contribution towards its net zero target. Which is why this one in particular needsContinue reading ““Sunnica, panels are calling me!””

Above – the sign at the Robin Hood Junction from the new Cherry Hinton website.Plus the changing of priorities with the Highway Code in the midst of the chaos in Whitehall. While all of the fun and games in national politics has been happening, Cherry Hinton Village now has its own website – see https://www.cherryhintonvillage.co.uk/Continue reading “£20million for Northstowe (or is it?), a new website for Cherry Hinton, & a Public Inquiry for Cambridge South Station”

And do the meetings where the general public can get involved have such a low media profile? Also the prospect of adding healthcare to the above-diagram is something that intimidates me! This post flows on from my earlier thoughts on doctors’ surgeries and local councils. It also links to my anecdotal evidence on the veryContinue reading “Why are the institutional links between local NHS institutions and local councils so weak?”

The current and new local plans make provision for a number of new civic squares. The ones that have already been built have that corporate anonymous ‘could be anywhere’ look. How can we avoid this for Northstowe, Waterbeach Newtown, Bourn Airport site, Cambridge Airport site, North East Cambridge, and other places that may follow? TheContinue reading “What could new town squares in South Cambridgeshire look like? How can residents influence their design?”

It printed hundreds of paper documents yet only received sixteen responses by paper, and five by email. You can read the paper from officers at the Combined Authority that the Board of local council leaders and the Mayor will be debating at Item 4.1 of the meeting papers here. The appendix is the formal feedbackContinue reading “Why did the Combined Authority’s transport consultation generate so few responses?”

The chasm between the fields of biomedical science and local democracy were hard to avoid for local residents and environmentalists watching the Minister for Science & the Mayor of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough take Qs from a predominantly medical science audience. The Minister for Science, George Freeman was the lead speaker at this event in Cambridge,Continue reading “Levelling up will fail if it is built on broken structures & fractured relationships”

…as the party political debate in the Cambridge Independent heats up. If you thought local government in/around Cambridge was complicated (As I wrote in my previous post), it just got even more so. You can read the article by the Chair of South Cambridgeshire’s Conservatives on house building targets here. In it, he is criticalContinue reading “New reports on water resources and local transport published”

Trying to keep up with which institution is doing what can be ever so confusing that I’m surprised they managed to keep up with each other. Weekly/fortnightly vlogposts on local democracy in Cambridge is my latest attempt to try something new in making more people aware that local government exists and makes decisions that affectContinue reading “Who made keeping up with local democracy so complicated?”

And who will go public in the run up to the election? If you’re not already aware, South Cambridgeshire District Council has local elections for all of its seats in May 2022, and Cambridge City Council has elections for a third of its seats – which will be the elected councillors that polled the fewestContinue reading “Which local election candidates want to support light rail for Greater Cambridge?”