Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

And now they are caught between a rock and a hard place as the Greater Cambridge Partnership enters its final third of its existence. I can’t say today at The Guildhall was fun – especially listening to a very partial history of ‘how we got to here’ and also the collective failure of the GCPContinue reading “Generations of pro-growth politicians, dons & business people failed to take the people of Cambridge with them on expanding our city”

Huntingdonshire District Council has some very big decisions coming up – and I’m surprised there hasn’t been more publicity on its options across Cambridgeshire. *(It’s actually an update to their existing local plan rather than a brand new one – my apologies!) You can browse through the large files in the meeting papers here byContinue reading “Huntingdonshire’s emerging new* local plan – the options look familiar to Cambridge in the late 1990s”

In a vote that was won by a very narrow margin (345-318), members of the Green Party voted to change its policy from one of opposition, to ‘support in principle’ for HS2. At the other end of the rail spectrum, the party has strikingly little content on light rail and trams You can read theContinue reading “The Green Party votes to support High Speed 2 Rail at their annual conference”

The inability of local government to compel developers to build out planning permissions, and enabling landowners to ‘squat’ on sites as they try to squeeze out more financial gains from sites is something that new ministers need to clamp down on. These should be issues that The Cambridge Room should also host future debates onContinue reading “Stagnating developments of student accommodation in Cambridge”

The launch of a new project by Together Culture supported by the Heritage Fund with Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner the keynote speaker What will one of the most historic and vibrant parts of Cambridge town be like in ten years time? And how can its history be celebrated and become a core part of thatContinue reading “Let’s go fly The Kite!”

The controversial proposals (which I wrote about here when the application went out to public consultation) are now up for Cambridge City Council’s Planning Committee to consider. You can see the summary files here – the meeting is on 19th Sept 2024 at The Guildhall. The application states: “Outline application for Parcel A for Offices,Continue reading “East Cambridge Sci-Tech Park goes to Planning Committee”

The report – and the reaction to it exposed the mess that are the systems and structures of politics and political institutions in the UK You can read the reports here. The conclusions were damning on the institutions and individuals with power and influence. And rightly so. In terms of the media coverage, many pickedContinue reading “The Grenfell Report”

With the furore of the Oasis dynamic ticket pricing headlines, a couple of charities announced raffle prizes of concert tickets. Which made me wonder about better alternatives for those who’d never be able to get to, let alone afford the tickets for the real thing. Then something sparked in my memory about the events CambridgeContinue reading “Could Cambridge repeat their ‘Pop in the Park’ headliners from 1997?”

I think the reason for the long summer holidays was that it released the older children to help bring the harvests in. Then in 1980s #LostCambridge at school we were told that changing farming methods meant that having harvest festivals in October was a strange thing to have when most of the harvesting had beenContinue reading “It’s like back to school week for politicians – as East Cambridge transport returns”

The IfG’s report by Sophie Metcalfe provides some much-needed historical analysis, but her final recommendations miss out some of the issues that ministers will need to address if we are to avoid the problems Cambridge has seen at places like Northstowe and Clay Farm You can read the report here. To summarise Ms Metcalfe’s recommendations,Continue reading “The Institute for Government’s house building report recommendations do not go far enough”