Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

Voters give Labour a kick in the ballot box over controversial congestion charge See the Cambridge Independent here. The rain outside at 1.30am probably reflects the mood of opponents in what was previously a solid Labour seat. I’m not going to wax lyrical about the detail – you can see the links to the videoedContinue reading “Tories win King’s Hedges by-election by 24 votes”

Or is it ‘Audit Commission Mark II? TL/DR: Ministers are establishing a new performance reporting organisation for local councils. Unlike its predecessor, the Audit Commission, there won’t be any performance management framework where civil servants go around assessing things on behalf of ministers. Instead, a huge responsibility rests on the shoulders of ordinary residents. YouContinue reading “Do the principles of the new ‘Office for Local Government’ rely too heavily on ‘armchair auditors’?”

TL/DR? The responsibility rests with ministers who signed off an over-complicated system of governance that makes it very difficult for the public to identify where the real decision-making power resides (As your MP to write to ministers on how they will simplify the governance structure of Cambridgeshire to improve accountability https://www.writetothem.com/) Before starting, I declareContinue reading “Why CamCycle is the wrong target for those complaining about Cambridge’s future transport plans”

What laws would you come up with to encourage more of us to play in our city? That was the question put to local children in my part of town over the past couple of weeks. As it turned out, a number of families crossed ward boundaries (because no one lives their lives by councilContinue reading ““Some families can’t afford to pay to do fun things in Cambridge and that’s not fair””

Pondering both a personal existential crisis alongside a global public policy challenge that politicians need to find answers to – and quickly. I compared my social media use to that of just over a decade ago and noticed how much more the interactions between my online and offline worlds were compared with today. One ofContinue reading “While new restrictions on Twitter use have cut me off from my online community, the issues at stake are far greater than we could imagine”

Only there are so many large proposals coming in thick and fast that it’s beyond the level that the people of our city can cope with in terms of detailed and considered responses. Open Cambridge 2023 takes place between Friday 08 Sept to Sunday 17 Sept 2023 In 2022, Hilary Cox Condron ran an arts-basedContinue reading “Open Cambridge – could we have an event that brings together the big plans to figure out a collective response?”

If the landowner and developers do not agree to build a large regional facility on one of the biggest sites in Cambridge, they will have failed most of East Anglia, not just our city TL/DR? See https://cambridgeeast.com/ It’s a big site – and a long-expected one that will have the developers’ world salivating with theContinue reading “NEW CONSULTATION (again) – building on the Cambridge Airport site. And the Beehive returns with a big update!”

Kristin Anne-Rutter for the University of Cambridge focused attention on the big challenge in financing any future public transport system in and around Cambridge. The problem is that ministers have refused to provide the public policy options to have what Sir Humphrey might say is a robust debate leading to a mature and responsible conclusion!Continue reading “The Greater Cambridge Partnership’s challenge in finding a sustainable & independent revenue stream”

A short blogpost to let you know the videos from the livestream are now up The videos (which I’ve only labeled the speakers, topped-and-tailed, and clicked on the ‘auto-enhance’ option) are: The candidates listed are: Candidates for by-election for King’s Hedges ward, Cambridge City Council, on July 4, 2023 You can contact them/their campaigns viaContinue reading “Cambridge by-election: King’s Hedges hustings, 28 June 2023”

The co-founder of the Government Digital Service from one of my previous lifetimes wrote a list of twelve principles back in 2018. While Mr Loosemore has invited readers to suggest updates – but for Cambridge, we’d do well to implement his first set of proposals! Tom Loosemore posted this: You can read Mr Loosemore’s articleContinue reading “What would Cambridge be like if town and gown institutions adopted Tom Loosemore’s public digital principles?”