Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

Cambridge Independent highlights the planning application for another round of boring grey boxes that Cambridge Past, Present and Future dubbed The Great Wall of North East Cambridge when Conservative ministers approved the outline planning permission Image: From Humanise’s campaign against boring buildings Above – by the Cambridge Independent which should also be in this comingContinue reading “Great Wall of North East Cambridge proposals for Cambridge Station”

“The Fund will support practical, locally led approaches that can build trust, remove barriers to participation and deepen people’s connection to democratic life.” Says the written statement to Parliament You can read the full statement from Democracy Minister Samantha Dixon MP here Long-time readers of this blog will be familiar with my workshops over theContinue reading “Ministers launch democratic engagement fund”

Daniel Zeichner MP discusses the Government’s purchase of the airport site with Julian Clover on Cambridge Radio You can listen to their conversation here “We are a global city – people look to us from all over the world, and it’s a slight embarrassment that when they arrive at Cambridge Station they are confronted withContinue reading ““Sixty hours a year is spent in traffic jams in and around Cambridge””

So says a report tucked away in a place where most people would not know existed “Overall participation declined compared to the previous year, with a 6.2% reduction in total learners and a 7.4% decrease in new starters. This was driven primarily by a fall in Adult Skills enrolment, alongside a notable reduction in TailoredContinue reading “Fewer people enrolling in adult skills programmes in Cambs & Peterborough”

The historic market town of St Neots in Huntingdonshire, west of Cambridge held its Big Listen event recently You can get the essentials at https://thebiglistenevent.com/ Above – have a listen to Alex Hughes on what he learnt here on IG “We got 20,000 responses from the residents of the town. We’ve got: Mr Hughes makesContinue reading “St Neots Big Listen – Can Cambridge do a scaled-up version?”

You can read the 2026 evaluation programme from the Department for Transport here I didn’t go looking for it – I think I was looking for something else and it just popped up. “Baseline and post-opening evaluation studies are conducted for selected major rail programmes, with priority given to those with the highest levels ofContinue reading “Transport ministers commission evaluations for Cambridge North and Cambridge South stations”

The MP for South Cambridgeshire (including Queen Edith’s and Cherry Hinton wards within Cambridge City Council) says **Infrastructure First** (Doing things this way means I’ve got something of a permanent record that’s easy to access and refer to) Ms Heylings made this announcement on her IG Page “The Greater Cambridge Development Corporation was announced todayContinue reading “Pippa Heylings MP responds to Cambridge Development Corporation announcement”

The Oxford-Cambridge Supercluster will never achieve its aims if it continues to avoid the difficult questions on governance structures – something that is inherently Political. In the meantime, two senior Liberal Democrats respond to the development corporation news. You can: There is nothing yet from Cambridge City Council – understandable given that their leadership arrangementsContinue reading “Cambridgeshire councillors respond to Development Corporation news as OxCam Supercluster avoids politics”

At the same time, Homes England (part of the Ministry of Housing) buys the Cambridge East site (AKA the airport) off Marshalls. See the consultation outcome published by the Government here, which was published after their press release that I wrote about in my previous blogpost. “Following establishment, the Secretary of State will appoint anContinue reading “Ministers to table legislation creating Gtr Cambridge Development Corporation”

Two-and-a-half years after former Conservative Cabinet Minister Michael Gove announced his Government’s intention of establishing a development corporation for ‘Cambridge’, Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirms the policy following wide consultation. Before I start, I have to declare an interest having recently completed a local history research commission for the Cambridge Growth Company which was a desk-basedContinue reading “Government confirms creation of the Cambridge Development Corporation”