Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

The Society of Local Council Clerks (or SLCC – because everyone’s an acronym these days) has a number of interesting looking courses on their books. Just don’t expect anyone to be interested when they find out the fees I’m picking on the SLCC as a case study to illustrate the wider malaise in lifelong learningContinue reading “Anyone got four grand spare to learn about local government?”

The Combined Authority has published its papers for their Skills and Employment Committee – and it has lots to say on adult skills. You can read the papers here – the committee also welcomes public questions (you can email them over via here, and an officer will read out your question on your behalf) ThisContinue reading “Cambridgeshire’s lifelong learning offer is still far too narrow”

It didn’t need to be like this but successive governments and councils have cut the libraries and archives service to the bone – to the extent that it can barely provide the bare minimum. Yet some of the Closer to Communities pilots show it’s not all bad news – as young people from Fenland andContinue reading “The Cambridgeshire Libraries Service annual report paints a miserable picture of underfunding”

There are a couple of meetings coming up next week (13th Jan 2025) but with over 170 pages of meeting papers for the one hosted by Cambridgeshire County Council, it can be easy to get lost in the paperwork! Every time I look at any governance structures that involve politicians I find myself singing theContinue reading “Do you know who to put questions to on healthcare services in/around Cambridge?”

I had a brief look at the draft report back in July 2024 (see here), after which it has since been updated and will now be discussed and scrutinised by the Combined Authority’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee next week It was such a monster of a report that I didn’t really pick up much thatContinue reading “Excruciating inequalities revealed in the CPCA State of the Region 2024 Report”

***I want that one!*** (for some of the spare land at the Cambridge Museum of Technology, formerly the sewage pumping station) Cambridge City Council’s Environment & Community Scrutiny Committee – the one that decides who gets what small cash grants and for what, meets on 16 Jan 2025 at The Guildhall – see the meetingContinue reading “A new industrial-themed playground for Cambridge? Could be fun!”

I would like Cambridge to have one sometime in 2025 – perhaps once the mayoral elections are out of the way. The concept is simple: Do what the students do every year, but for ‘town’ (and county too!) And for those of you who want to be even more active (but avoid the politics), seeContinue reading “Cambridge Societies’ Fair – why can’t we have one?”

These policies must include proposed new powers to tax the wealth generated in the region to pay for solutions to our chronic skills shortages that the employers themselves persistently complain about One huge problem is that the larger employers are not meeting their potential new employees where they are at in life. Furthermore, the policiesContinue reading “Mayoral candidates will need a comprehensive set of policies on lifelong learning”

Only I’m bored of asking, and I really don’t think that any city should have its local council or municipal authority outsourcing the function to an under-funded quango whose remit is aimed at visitors to our city rather than the people who actually live in it. Otherwise they wouldn’t be called Visit Cambridge – notingContinue reading “Can we have a single events portal for Cambridge?”

It’s a long-overdue decision, and one that takes into account of a host of wider changes offline as well as online, 14 years and 35 days after setting up my first account. Above – that’s me locking up on the site formerly known as Twitter. I have no plans for posting any new content orContinue reading “My rapid rise and fall with social media as I quit Birdsite”