Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

TL:DR – Rubbish assumptions make for rubbish decisions. Ditto rubbish data. Or in civil-service-speak / local-gov-officer-speak: “The unrealistic assumptions – ones which do not reflect the day-to-day reality of service users, – assumed in this report and used in the calculations result in a sub-optimal outcome for the community and our designated user groups. ThisContinue reading “Someone on Cambridge town planning is wrong. Again. This time it’s on swimming pools.”

TL:DR – Click on the consultations by the Greater Cambridge Partnership and tell them their suggestions for an improved bus network do not answer the shortcomings highlighted repeatedly by members of the public and campaign groups, and instead need to commission formal in depth studies of the Cambridge Connect Light Rail. (You will also needContinue reading “A case for a Greater Cambridge Unitary Council – and a light rail network to service it”

Another cohort of Cambridge University students calls on University & colleges to change their values and act as if all of the people who make up our city matter – echoing the call from a former Vice Chancellor from over half a century ago. It’s worth listening in full to the speech by Daisy ThomasContinue reading “Cambridge students demand their University delivers climate justice for Cambridge town”

You can read the article by Gemma Gardner in the Cambridge Independent here. It’s worrying reading. Above – the picture of the old Addenbrooke’s. TL:DR. ***Eeek!*** If you’re interested in following up these things and helping with solutions, see the Cambridgeshire Healthwatch meeting on 10 November 2021. See also their annual reports from 2014/15 onwards.Continue reading “Another winter, another crisis at Addenbrooke’s – but this feels more serious”

It raises a number of questions about transport and accessibility amongst other things. And on last night’s vote in the Commons – followed by a tyre-screeching U-turn so extreme that it showed up on the pollution monitors as a breach of limits on particulate levels in the air. You can read the report in theContinue reading “The County Skills Strategy by the Combined Authority”

The dire state of the council’s finances comes as a shock, but not a surprise after over a decade of Conservative austerity started by George Osborne and Eric Pickles Not that I’m bitter or anything – I only lost my entire civil service career in the bonfire of austerity in 2011, although I chose toContinue reading “Peterborough City Council risks bankruptcy and forced asset sales”

You can read Mr Plant’s comments in his opinion piece for The Cambridge Independent here. I first met Mr Plant shortly before my transfer down to London in the mid-2000s during my civil service days. He had just been appointed the Director of Planning & Transport at the old Government Office for the East ofContinue reading ““How do we enhance quality of life for Greater Cambridge residents, while nurturing the economy?” Asks Alex Plant of Anglian Water & Cambridge Ahead”

Have your say on the vision, aims, and objectives before the transport planners come back with policies, maps, and proposals. I think that’s the way they are doing this having filled in what I can of the options at https://yourltcp.co.uk/ TL/DR: Do click on the above link and make use of the free text fieldsContinue reading “The Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Local Transport & Connectivity Plan’s soft launch – Nov 2021”

….while contemporary local plans are produced corporately for institutions and individuals within them to refer to. Cllr Same Davies MBE (Ind – Queen Edith’s) makes a similar case in her recent blogpost timed for the opening of the Greater Cambridge Local Plan consultation. Now let’s look at the foreword to the County of London PlanContinue reading “Past historical local plans were written to be read…”

The Chancellor’s speech also illustrates how the process of setting Government Budgets are broken – unless you like party political theatre and the hot air that comes with it Would the country be better served by a less-exceptional process? Jill Rutter makes the case for a more transparent process with fewer surprises here. In whatContinue reading “The Budget speech reflects how dependent local councils are on central government.”