Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

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.”

A planning application strongly opposed by the residents of Romsey Town in Cambridge, but which received approval in 2019 has come back in late 2021 – something that will only anger local residents once more. And for what purpose? You can see the files on the Greater Cambridge Planning Portal at https://applications.greatercambridgeplanning.org/online-applications/ and searching forContinue reading “Ministers failing communities again – the serviced apartments planning loophole”

If you want to know why, have a watch of Cllr Sam Davies‘ presentation to the AGM 2021 of the Federation of Cambridge Residents’ Associations. If you’re interested in the long-form presentation of the issues, Cllr Davies has recommended this presentation by Dr Deborah Potts to the Cambridge Commons. The three massive policy changes neededContinue reading “The Greater Cambridge Local Plans will fail to meet housing demand and will under-provide for community facilities unless we see big policy changes in Whitehall”

One of a series of papers published today by the Combined Authority You can read the papers here for the meeting on 27th Oct 2021. It’s only nine pages, and is Appendix 1 of item 2.6. Cllr Bridget Smith (Lib Dems – Gamlingay), the Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council is the lead councillor forContinue reading “OxCam Arc publishes environmental principles”

Hang on – don’t we have to make sure that all of the other policy reports and documents are consistent with these climate commitments? And if not, which one has to show flexibility? If you’ve got a local government or climate change policy background, have a look at this vacancy – closing date 29 OctContinue reading “Now the hard part: Delivering on the county’s climate commitments”