Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

Establishing a development corporation is not something that can happen overnight. Which makes the announcement today all the more interesting given election timetables “A development corporation to deliver upwards of 150,000 homes around Cambridge over the next 20 years has been announced by Housing Secretary Michael Gove.” Gemma Gardner, Cambridge Independent, 19 Dec 2023 AboveContinue reading “The Cambridge Development Corporation – a public consultation looms for 2024”

Some of you will have seen the planning application for the sci/tech park south of the airport between Romsey and Cherry Hinton where I commented about their proposed shuttle buses to the railway station being incorporated into the existing 114 Bus Service. Image – from Unite Glasgow Well…there are a few more planning applications looming.Continue reading “Nik Johnson’s buses team need to rein in the private shuttle buses – and get the sci/tech parks to subsidise public transport”

The long-running proposals to revelop the site of the old tip and cement works comes back again. Building a sci/tech development on an old landfill site (by sinking thick metal piles into the bedrock and building a frame over the landfill site, rather than resting on it) is a huge undertaking. You can read theContinue reading “Planning Application – Land South of Coldham’s Lane”

On why adult education and lifelong learning needs to be front and centre of practical responses not just to the call for ‘a million green jobs’ but also for a host of other challenges across our villages, towns, and cities. Image: Cambridgeshire & Peterborough’s Structure Plan Draft Deposit Plan 2002 which you can read hereContinue reading “Linking responses to the climate emergency & other big issues with adult education”

The Regional Water Resources Plan for the East of England has revealed how under-prepared our part of the country is for the climate emergency – whether for droughts or extremely heavy rainfall. TL/DR? Read Mark Williamson’s thread here. See also BBC Cambridgeshire here. Also, go and see the Pure Clean Water film about Cambridge’s waterContinue reading “Ministers and water industry chiefs are in denial about the scale of our water crisis”

The report was commissioned following complaints from MPs on a number of issues. Broken regional governance structures are at the heart of some of the problems they found. You can read the report here “Improved communication and joint working between central government and local bodies are needed to overcome barriers to progress and achieve theContinue reading “National Audit Office criticises lack of joined-up working on East West Rail”

Unless senior politicians and their policy advisers take on the barriers of lack of time, lack of knowledge, and lack of access, their proposals for getting more people involved in influencing policies will remain limited in their impact. Image – from the quickly-forgotten Civil Society Strategy from Theresa May’s Government in 2018 – noting the challenge ofContinue reading “Time, knowledge, access – policy makers must consider these factors when considering public involvement in improving things”

At the first online meeting of the Cambs Unitaries Campaign (I can’t name names because The Chatham House Rule) I was reminded of first principles. “Why bother?” Or rather, the first option to a political problem or issue is: Do nothing. It’s a bit like when someone disrespects you on the internet/social media – orContinue reading “‘If a Cambs Unitary Council is the answer, what is the question?’”

Is it worth revisiting some of the policies of the previous Labour government in the run-up to the general election? For their candidates and activists interested in local government policy, most definitely yes. I declare an interest as a former civil servant who worked during that last Labour government – I took a redundancy packageContinue reading “Total Place 2025?”

You’ll see more such reports as we get to crunch time with some very big decisions looming over the next 12 months. I tried to put things together at this evening’s meeting at The Guildhall in this thread. Alternatively search for @CamCitCo on birdsite on 06 Dec 2023 and you’ll see more. You can alsoContinue reading “Cambridge: The state of the city 2023, vs East Anglia – Levelling Up 2023”