Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

The emerging local plan documents include reports on what to do with the Cambridge Airport site TL:DR? Come along to the Rail Future East meeting on Saturday 6th December 2025 – Cambridge at 14:00 .The Signal Box Centre, Glenalmond Avenue, Cambridge CB2 8DB …and they might have something to say about it A super-sized CambridgeContinue reading “A new Cambridge East Station – early analysis”

Me moaning about ugly building designs again. But it’s not all bad news! There are at least 12 Cambourne-specific documents in the pile of Greater Cambridge Local Plan documents. Residents need access to them in order to scrutinise them well TL:DR? Click on the documents list here from the GCSP Service, do [Ctrl+F] and typeContinue reading “The residents of Cambourne deserve far better than this”

If the Cambridge Leisure Park is redeveloped, Hills Road Sixth Form College should make a pitch for additional facilities on site given that many of their students spend their lunch hours there anyway This stems from the recently published emerging local development planning documents What’s ***really frustrating*** about the local planning consultation process is thatContinue reading “Cambridge Leisure Park and The Junction put forward for redevelopment”

It’s still not clear how this will co-ordinate with the Cambridge Growth Company’s plans – but the plan period has been extended to 2045 The appendices for a start cover: …which means over 700 pages to browse through before-hand. If I recall correctly the previous local plan was just over 500 pages. “Does it coverContinue reading “Emerging Cambridge Local Plan up for debate on 04 Nov 2025 at The Guildhall”

I led a walking tour through one of the most historic town neighbourhoods in Cambridge with a surprisingly large group of walkers who braved the miserable weather forecast The Cambridge Living Streets Group – the local branch of the national campaigning charity has organised a series of local walking tours that double-up as a ‘stateContinue reading “A walk through The Kite with Cambridge Living Streets”

Founded by Joe Reeve and Shiv Malik, and headlined by former Labour Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt and Conservative adviser Tim Leunig, their aim is to build a new settlement of/for 1 million people somewhere ‘East of Cambridge’ See https://www.forestcity.uk/ for more See also their online brochure here Shiv Malik announced it on Birdsite. Not everyoneContinue reading “Consortium proposes new forest city east of Cambridge”

One of the most prominent and largest of the language schools in Cambridge founded by Frank Erskine Bell, is going into administration following a loss of over £500,000 in 2024 “It is with deep regret that we announce Bell Educational Services Ltd has made the difficult decision to wind down its operations and will ceaseContinue reading “Bell Language School goes into administration”

In this written statement to Parliament, Matthew Pennycook MP stated his intention for what the new development corporation will be like. It won’t be led by the Combined Authority Mayor. See also the Cambridge Growth Company’s statement and brochure published today, and the Minister’s video piece below. While the statements says he’s going out toContinue reading “Minister for Housing proposes a centrally-led development corporation for Greater Cambridge.”

If this succeeds, it could be as significant as the work of Eglantyne Jebb’s uncle Sir Richard Jebb MP who piloted the Cambridge University and Corporation Act 1894 through its Commons stages following the Daisy Hopkins Spinning House scandal Don’t worry – I didn’t ask the present Vice Chancellor to apologise for the injustices doneContinue reading “University of Cambridge makes a big push for civic engagement”

The 122-year-old Workers’ Educational Association strongly criticised the lack of content on adult education in the recently-published further education and skills policy document “What is a White Paper again?” For those of you not familiar with the essentials of policy-making in the UK, a White Paper is a formal statement of government policy in aContinue reading “Post-16 Skills White Paper slammed by lifelong learning institution”