Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

It would have been nice to have. had a few more local residents coming along to this event given the number of council staff there were, but even that handful of residents reflected a diversity of views and life experiences that taught us something new Let’s face it, an evening session in the middle ofContinue reading “The future of local government for Cambridge – Coleridge ward”

Following on from Part 1 here, in this blogpost I look at the things in the Britain Remade/Create Streets report that I quite like The first thing to note with the map below is ***Yes! Trams!*** Above – from Britain Remade/Create Streets 2024 Compare that with the latest iteration of the Cambridge Connect Light RailContinue reading “Cambridge Remade – looking at a proposal to expand our city: part 2”

This is from a report published by Britain Remade with Create Streets here Both the principles they have set out and their list of case studies are worth reading and scrutinising. For decades I’ve said “Bad news first” so in part 1, I’ll look at some issues and how you can scrutinise what has alreadyContinue reading “Cambridge Remade – looking at a proposal to expand our city: part 1”

The campaign group says it will oppose the application for a new busway that only covers half of the originally-proposed route At Rail Future East’s annual Cambridge meeting, Peter Westlake confirmed that the campaign group will be opposing the application to the Transport Secretary for approval for a new busway as part of the ‘CSET”Continue reading “Rail Future annual Cambridge Meeting Part 2 – strong criticism of GCP over Rail Haverhill –”

Veteran public transport and cycling campaigner Jim Chisholm asks when Cambridge Station will get its long-proposed new Eastern Entrance, and highlights from Cllr Katie Thornburrow’s presentation It wasn’t just me asking about it then! But what astonished the audience – myself included, is that Mr Chisholm at made the case in previous public consultations aboutContinue reading “Rail Future’s annual Cambridge Meeting – Part 1”

The Chvrches lead singer released her first solo album, and the first few singles of it are incredibly powerful – not least given the incredibly rough time she’s had in the music industry and from social media abuse I wanted to write about something different, but old habits on politics and local issues are hardContinue reading “Lauren Mayberry’s heartfelt thanks”

It might sound familiar to longterm public policy-watchers but one thing the past decade has taught us is that senior politicians have to repeat the same short soundbites again and again in order for them to sink into the consciousness of the general public Which is why I didn’t take too much notice of theContinue reading “Sir Keir’s Milestones for Mission Led Government”

I went to the opening of Stir Cafe’s new branch at the place where I used to get my work suits and ballroom dancing dinner suits dry-cleaned. A suitable location for Sunday informal community conversations? [Update – first one is on 12 Jan 2025] Speaking to one of the staff after a menu-mixup (it happensContinue reading “Future of Cambridge community conversations at the new Stir Cafe in 2025?”

One of the reasons I don’t get out much (apart from the heavy rain outside) is that so many reports are being produced by so many institutions that keeping up with who is recommending what is a task-and-a-half. “Where does the Government publish its reports and consultations?” Here -> https://www.gov.uk/search/policy-papers-and-consultations Also, the only ‘bot’ IContinue reading “***Lots*** of reports being published – how do we join up the dots?”

Close scrutiny of the maps – these should be printed out on A1 and displayed in libraries and on the bus stops outside the main railway stations so people can look at them while waiting I have previously written about Cambridge’s unbuilt eastern entrance before: 14 Nov 2024 20 Jun 2022 You can also readContinue reading “East West Rail – where’s our eastern entrance to Cambridge Railway Station?”