Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

Full Council meets on Thurs 19th October 2023. You can read the meeting papers here. This will be two days after Cambridgeshire County Council’s full council meets on Tues 17th October 2023. You can read the meeting papers here. I’ve not spotted anything substantial on the meeting papers so in the grand scheme of thingsContinue reading “Cambridge City Council to debate unitary council proposals”

Or to put it more officially, Dr Michael More of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (which includes Addenbrooke’s) confirmed the Trust had met with Peter Freeman of Homes England – the man charged by Michael Gove to come up with a plan later this autumn on ‘supercharging Cambridge’ This was a comment sort of inContinue reading “Addenbrooke’s governors confirm they’ve had meetings with Michael Gove’s Cambridge chief on our city’s future”

In her final blogpost before standing down as a Cambridge City Councillor representing Queen Edith’s Ward, the comments in response demonstrate what has been missing in Cambridge’s local democracy for decades: Public understanding of politics. Have a browse through the comments here See also Alex Spencer’s report for the Cambridge Independent here. “Sam Davies hasContinue reading “The legacy of Cllr Sam Davies MBE? She made local democracy relevant to the people – and shone a light on a broken system”

Following the success of the pilot event on 30 September, combined with requests to explore specific issues in more depth, I’ve scheduled another set of events at Rock Road Library. For those of you who want to get an idea of some of the things you might cover (because the conversations are led by theContinue reading “New Great Cambridge Crash Course Events for November 2023”

Trying to find a range of recently-published high quality, accessible books that introduce how our country functions is surprisingly difficult. What happened to the culture of civic learning we used to have? Three years ago I wrote about the Penguin Specials published during and after WWII – a series that educated a knowledge-hungry public wantingContinue reading “It’s almost as if the publishers don’t want a democratically literate public”

It’s potentially the last political party conference season before the next general election – unless the Tories want to eek the whole term out to the grim and bitter end. As one of their former Chancellors once said, they are in office, but not in power. Even Twitter has broken which sort of reflects theContinue reading “What’s the point in providing serious analysis to ministerial announcements unbecoming of the offices they hold?”

Professor Deborah Prentice, the recently-appointed Vice-Chancellor missed the opportunity to set out her vision for how she hopes the ancient institution that she is responsible for will engage with the town whose borough charter pre-dates the arrival of the scholars from ‘the other place’ Cover image from Civic and Community Engagement by David Watson (2007)Continue reading “Cambridge University’s Vice-Chancellor needs to state how she will engage with ‘town’”

Two councillors in Cambridge picked up on these issues on my behalf, and were able to inform the CPCA of the challenges that their own residents face on the provision of post-compulsory education in and around our city. With thanks to Cllrs Sam Davies MBE (Ind – Queen Ediths Ward) and Dr Alexandra Bulat (LabourContinue reading “The Combined Authority’s limitations on further education and on lifelong learning provision in Cambridgeshire”

Some of you will be familiar with the perfectly legal way of working that the former MP for Cambridgeshire Andrew Lansley demonstrates in his business activities – one that many in the Whitehall and Westminster bubbles will be more than familiar with. But it’s one that doesn’t sit well with those whose homes and communitiesContinue reading “Why are developers so frightened of democracy and scrutiny?”

The opinion piece in the Cambs News is worth reading if only to learn some hard-won lessons about ‘how we do local democracy’ “It has been clear for a while where this was going” Cllr Elisa Meschini (Lab – King’s Hedges Division) Chair of the GCP, 28 Sept 2023 I’ve been pondering on this sentimentContinue reading ““Cambridgeshire’s politicians leave a legacy of failure” – but were they failed by their predecessors in local and national government?”