Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

Picked up by Cllr Dan Lentell (Ind – Willingham) on FB here – something that county councillors Dr Alex Bulat (Lab – Abbey) and Stephen Ferguson (Ind – St Neots East), may well be discussing on Friday morning. Above – the MP for South Cambs, also a minister at the Department for Transport (but notContinue reading “Transport Minister calls on opposition parties to support Cambridge Connect Light Rail”

A written statement to Parliament on the final day before the Easter Recess 2024 as the PM passes the deadline for a 02 May General Election. There wasn’t that much in his statement of 26 March 2024 that was new. “As set out in the Terms of Reference, published today, the Growth Company will focusContinue reading “Michael Gove’s Easter Egg for Cambridge”

Get your nominations in! Before we start… BBC Newsnight at Duxford, South Cambs (at the Imperial War Museum) Have a watch here on what the small audience put to the panel that included: Phil Rodgers posted this earlier. At the time of blogging, the declared candidates so far are in Phil’s spreadsheet that he updatesContinue reading “Cambridge City Council: Notice of Election – 02 May 2024”

Building Magazine has looked into the details, and has interviewed the Chief Town Planner of the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service You can read the article here. Also, sign up to my event at the Cambridge Central Library on Saturday 23 March from 11am here. And if you haven’t already, read the original “Case forContinue reading “Does the Government’s Case for Cambridge stand a chance?”

This draft code deserves more publicity – not just for the amount of work that has gone into it but because what the participants have produced looks more than interesting for the rest of our city You can find the draft code here – scroll down to “Next Steps” and click on the link. King’sContinue reading “The North Cambridge Design Code”

I’m in the ‘Renationalise the buses and be done with it’ camp. But in the meantime… [Image – from Unite Glasgow – can’t we all have this?] Some of you may have seen Alex Spencer’s report in the Cambridge Independent about the fun and games the residents of East Cambridgeshire District are having with buses.Continue reading “Teenagers tell politicians about Stagecoach failing Cambridgeshire”

It’ll take more than redrawing a few boundaries or tweaking local government finance to deal with our present political malaise. Yet history tells us we’ve been here before. The big gap in the report? Adult education/lifelong learning provision – teaching people about civics does not get a mention. You can read the summary of theContinue reading “‘Rebuilding local democracy’”

Final strategy document published by Cambridge City Council. It’s worth noting that a separate Cultural Infrastructure Strategy is due to be published as part of the emerging new Greater Cambridge Local Plan You can read the strategy at item 8 (first paper in the list) Some of you may also want to compare Cambridge’s strategyContinue reading “Cambridge City Council’s Cultural Strategy 2024-29”

The report from the Institute for Government might have been missed by most people, but as Harriet Harman said earlier, this is *really important* Image – How to be a Minister, by former minister John Hutton with Leigh Lewis You can watch the summary video below: The summary proposals are: You can read the fullContinue reading “Power with Purpose – overhauling Downing Street”

Following on from Part 1 here that looked at what Cambridge and surrounding towns/villages might need to do to come up with a locally-designed vision, this post looks at some of the things to consider – and how/why it’s not simply a case of building pastiche houses, concert halls, and museums alongside the sci-tech things.Continue reading “There are alternatives to Gove’s Case for Cambridge – Part 2”