Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

I tried to summarise some of the things for a community newsletter but the task seems impossible because there’s so much happening – hence my point about our consultation systems needing an overhaul, and also the need to come up with alternatives to a now broken social media world – such as a revamped TeaCambsContinue reading “October 2024 brain dump of Cambridge town planning things”

The Chair of the Federation of Cambridge Residents’ Associations, Wendy Blythe verbally pinned down the Chair of the Government’s Cambridge Delivery Group at the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service’s update on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus You can watch their exchange here. (Scroll back to the beginning to watch the full meeting) Note this comes afterContinue reading “Peter Freeman asked: Where is the water coming from? Water! Water! Water!”

The concept of live-tweeting seems to have died out as realtime social media content from the conference at the Guildhall was non-existent. So I’ll keep this bit short. It is also why reading the publications is ever so important – such as the delivering the strategy document paper here. Greater Cambridge Impact – social impactContinue reading “The Cambridge Pledge – Innovate Cambridge’s response to the chronic problems our city and county face.”

Can their new ‘Cambridge Pledge’ do better than bog-standard 1980s-style charity and focus on issues that will make for difficult conversations for investors and entrepreneurs as well as politicians and policy-makers? If they can, could they help make our city become greater than the sum of our parts? TL/DR? (and image) – Cambridgeshire Youth PanelContinue reading “Innovate Cambridge’s exclusivity bodes ill for the future of our city”

…only to face yet another hurdle – reinforcing the point made by Dr Andy Williams, formerly of Astra Zeneca, about the impact of overly-complex governance structures on big transport projects You can see the meeting papers here – it’s item 6 of Cambridgeshire County Council’s full council meeting. You can also see the Cambridge NewsContinue reading “Cambridge South-East Road with bus-only signs project clears next hurdle”

All the more important given the consultation on the review of the curriculum and exams systems – adults, you need to read this. (And feel free to discuss it with any children and young people too) The results of the Cambridgeshire Youth Survey – sample of around 1,000 young people aged 11-19 had some strikingContinue reading “Cambs Youth Panelists read the riot act to adults over education policy failures”

You can read them in the papers for the Environmental and Sustainable Communities Committee papers here – and given that Transport is on the list, I’m tempted to throw in a Q about light rail infrastructure in a post-GCP age given that the controversial partnership winds up in just over five years time But beforeContinue reading “Combined Authority’s snapshot of Cambridgeshire’s infrastructure challenges”

I hope we can discuss this and learn how to achieve a more aesthetically-pleasing set of buildings in the future when the Cambridge Room opens. Image – Front Page of the Cambridge News and ongoing proposals for the Hobson Street Cinema – article by Cait Findlay I wrote about the Cambridge Room here and, likeContinue reading “Designing out bland building design”

There was a surreal debate in the House of Lords as a former Bishop introduced a citizenship education bill into the upper chamber of Parliament to put pressure on ministers during the public consultation on the national curriculum and exams. You can read the debate in Hansard here where peers approved the principles of theContinue reading “Lords and Baronesses debating citizenship and democracy in an appointed chamber”

The public art proposal for Cambridge South Station doesn’t inspire me. You can comment on the planning application with your opinions – support/object/neutral I can’t pretend I like it. I don’t. You can view the application via the planning portal here and typing in the reference: 21/02957/COND20A The decoration of the stairs bridge is somethingContinue reading “Can Cambridge Station South do better than words on a rust-coloured background?”