Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

In Cambridgeshire we’re very lucky to have Form the Future doing great things for nearly a generation of teenagers in spite of the huge barriers that face them. Image – From the Association of Citizenship Teachers – we could do with more schools offering GCSE Citizenship Studies, and more teachers specialising in citizenship education tooContinue reading “Are adults failing our teenagers on work experience and part-time employment?”

A bold pair of policy announcements eight weeks before the county council and mayoral elections which cover much of central England Image: You and The State (1949) – Ralph Miliband (The Energy Secretary’s father) was involved in creating this document. The Guardian has led with both: Wes Streeting on the huge cuts proposed for NHSContinue reading “Government briefs media on cuts to NHS England, and on support for the most vulnerable”

County Councillors will meet at their final full council of this term of office before the county elections You can see the meeting papers here, with the item Local Government Reorganisation in Cambridgeshire starting on page 28 drafted by the council’s chief executive Dr Stephen Moir. They will be discussed the day after Cambridge CityContinue reading “Cambridgeshire County Council publishes its discussion paper on unitary councils”

On what two books from the late 1980s/early 1990s tell us about the central-government-imposed decline of local government – and how it was compounded by the central-government-imposed decline in adult education and the removal of civic education in schools. Image – Adult Education for Democracy (1944) Harold C. Shearman Sir Harold above, wrote at theContinue reading “From citizen to consumer and back again”

…because I have no shelf control as per this wonderful NewsThump t-shirt design – see their other t-shirts here Books, books, and more books on democracy I dropped off another bag of books – ones I hoped I’d get round to reading but never did – at the RSPCA Bookshop on Mill Road because they’veContinue reading “Cambs Unitaries meets, and more books arrive and depart”

Cambridgeshire Conservatives’ decision to move the county council to a bespoke building that isn’t large enough to accommodate all of the county councillors was as farcical as the time taken to do something with the existing site Image – the old Cambridgeshire County Council coat of arms from 1889-1965 when we covered a much smallerContinue reading “Should ministers intervene to end the farce of Cambridge’s old Shire Hall?”

Cambridge City Council publishes papers including a draft response on behalf of all but one of the council leaders in the Combined Authority area The meeting papers for 17th March 2025 are at item 5 here Interestingly, the earlier items on city council governance restructuring contain no mention of area committees – something that councillorsContinue reading “Cambridgeshire council leaders respond to Minister for Local Government on unitaries”

The centrist Reform think tank (i.e. NOT TeamNigel’s outfit) made a series of recommendations on strategic or combined authorities – and I concur with many of the conclusions. Browse through their report here – and note the 13 recommendations on page 6 The Cambridgeshire & Peterborough influence Both the Chief Executive of the Cambridgeshire &Continue reading “Regional tier of Government’s devolution plans need strengthening”

Is the Land Registry on the road towards providing free open access to anyone on who owns what? If so, it’s a huge breakthrough for transparency campaigners Image – Cambridge Land Justice – part of Cambridge Resilience Web Remember that thing I said about controversial announcements being made on a Thursday afternoon just as MPsContinue reading “Who owns England? The Housing Minister has intervened on ownership data access”

Cambridge opens its brand new ‘one-stop-shop’ for community consultation / A ‘shared space’ for various activities / A ‘collective memory‘ for Cambridge Have a look at https://www.cambridgeroom.org/ and scroll down and sign up for updates. See also the photographs from Ze’ev Feigis of Borough Architects here Cambridge Urban Room – nearly two years in theContinue reading “The Cambridge Room opens”