Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

Transport professionals and their supporters have used the acronym HQPT for years. They should be banned from doing so! …on the grounds that it irrationally fills me with rage!!! (And I quite like the artwork from where I got the image for this blogpost!) One of the many things that come with being neurodiverse /Continue reading “Confusing acronyms blur the proposals on Cambridge’s future transport”

The emerging Local Plan that goes out to consultation in December has a number of sections on things that our city and county lack – things that should have been provided for in previous rounds of expansion but were not. A quick reminder for the two free public workshops in Cambridge that I’m running whichContinue reading “Leisure facilities and amenities in growing Greater Cambridge”

A current application due for determination next week generated very few responses. Yet with Cambridge’s huge inequalities, a new unitary council could take control of the consultation processes and ensure schools have the administrative resources to respond, and that developers organise their timetables that synchronise with the academic year. To be fair to South CambridgeshireContinue reading “What happens when hardly anyone responds to a developer’s consultation?”

Which indicates that far from being independent institutions responding to local need, or innovative institutions able to come up with new solutions to chronic problems, combined authorities remain the delivery agents of central government policies Image: The Learning Age (HMSO 1998) – how does the current approach contrast with David Blunkett’s vision over a generationContinue reading “Combined authority confirms narrow focus of adult skills is set by Whitehall”

They are back by popular demand, with the first two at Rock Road Library, and the Cherry Hinton Library and Hub. Free/donations …because I don’t want price to be a barrier. Hence asking those that can afford it to help cover for them given how unequal our city is. Click on the links below toContinue reading “NEW Future of Cambridge workshops Nov 2025”

So why on earth are senior decision-makers still equivocating over light rail? Before I start and if you’re quick, you can catch Peter Freeman’s interview with BBC Look East earlier. (06 Nov 2025). The BBC really should extract the interview and provide a permalink to it given the importance of his remarks. Also, two loomingContinue reading “Wellcome Genome Campus to grow to employ up to 9,000 people”

…by the Combined Authority’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee This sort of follows on from the CPCA’s first meeting under the new mayor Paul Bristow, the former Conservative MP for Peterborough The Devolution Bill creates powers for Combined Authority Mayors to appoint commissioners I wrote about this following publication of the bill here. The problem isContinue reading “Appointments of new commissioners by CPCA Mayor called in”

I wrote about this monstrosity back in May 2025 here, and submitted my consultation response accordingly. Not surprisingly, I was ignored. With this being the experience for so many members of the public, is it any surprise the firms and industries responsible are held in such low regard? TL/DR? Whatever your views of this applicationContinue reading “Bennetts Associates’ Kett House proposal reflects a contempt for Cambridge”

That was my take from Geoff Mulgan’s recent blogpost: Hollowed Out. Image: Trials of democracy. If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu I previously wrote about Sir Geoff’s creation of a new university degree aimed at training and educating a new generation of civil servant who is sci/tech/data literate. 20 years agoContinue reading “Over-centralisation and ‘centralism’ make politics boring – and weakens democracy”

Why do those commissioning new buildings on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus insist on instructing architects to come up with designs that make people feel ill? Image: Humanise Declarations of interest This blogpost features the research led by Dr Cleo Valentine who is working in the pioneering field of neuroarchitecture. No one has paid me toContinue reading “Cambridge’s 19thC Gaols had more decoration than the Discovery Drive Carbuncles”