Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

TL/DR: Developers have submitted their planning application. See Gemma Gardner’s summary in the Cambridge Independent here. Before I start, if you find any of this useful, and are also able to, feel free to help feed the Cambridge Town Owl / donate to my research costs here. Sadly long-term ill health means I am farContinue reading “You can’t have a big bookshop in the Grafton – it’s going to be sci-tech space! Scrutinising the planning application”

Only I’ve tried to find some but there aren’t any. It’s a bit like the lack of variety on books introducing children and young people to things like the law, and democracy – from their perspective. I’m from a generation (the Section 28 generation) that wasn’t taught about politics or the law at school. HenceContinue reading “What would an introduction to town planning book for children & young people be like?”

The Irish Playful City social media feed landed this one on me – and it resonated immediately but not for the most obvious reasons Coming back to that phenomenon I’ve written lots about over the years, the tweet below landed a few minutes ago. One of the sentences from the article that appears at theContinue reading “Living close to where your friends are – a simplified take on an over-complicated headline”

Doesn’t matter whether it is suburban or light rail, the number of jobs they are proposing to create on the site will overwhelm the existing local housing and transport infrastructure Me, Alex, and Cait (who wrote this) braved the elements to go to the latest Beehive Consultation in Cambridge earlier. CFS/ME meant I was alreadyContinue reading “Why the Beehive Redevelopment Plans need a rail station”

The Commission on Political Power is inviting submissions to their inquiry on improving citizen engagement with what looks like Central Government. I’m looking at the role democracy education can play in it from a local perspective, and what the existing limitations are. This stems from a post by Alexandra Hall Hall, a former diplomat stationedContinue reading “Citizen engagement with political power – democracy education”

TL/DR? Northstowe has been in the news – and their issues sound similar to Cambourne. Which indicates that the issues are structural, and risk being repeated. Again. And again. Back in 2012 I wrote a blogpost about local council buildings as civic spaces. It was in the days when I was more known for havingContinue reading “There should be an inquiry into what’s gone wrong and why in Cambourne and Northstowe. Their residents deserve better.”

TL/DR? That’s what they told me at the consultation event on 11 July. There are a few more dates here. And that’s not the only consultation happening for new developments There’s Westbrook off of Milton Road by Mitcham’s Corner Above: ***It’s Cr*p!*** You’ve got until Friday to tell them what you think of their proposalsContinue reading “Redevelopment of Cambridge Airport to start from scratch”

That does not give Labour a free hand – it means there is an even greater responsibility for the main opposition party to come up with credible alternatives for how England (as well as Cambridge) is governed. Furthermore, the smaller opposition parties need to scrutinise those policies in details as well as suggesting alternatives andContinue reading “Gove’s reported plans for Cambridge reflect the panicking thinking of a declining government out of ideas. And time.”

TL/DR? Buy the book and it’ll make sense Chances are more than a few of you will have seen/experienced something like the diagram Mr Cowan illustrated below: In Cambridge we have more than a few examples to choose from, whether Brookgate at Cambridge Station to The Marque at the top of Cherry Hinton Road whichContinue reading “Essential Urban Design – Rob Cowan provides the knowledge & language for community groups to scrutinise developers”

Some of you will be more than familiar with my moans about ‘spreadsheet architecture’ – whether the designs that look like they were they were put together manipulating lines and shading on a spreadsheet, or alternatively focusing so much on the bottom line that any artistic preference is designed out to create a minimalist boxContinue reading ““Ugly-ugly-ugly! Oi-oi-oi!” Trying to separate a desire for more beautiful buildings from politically-inspired culture wars”