Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

TL/DR? We used to have regional plan / regional spatial strategies. They got bogged down in bureaucracy and Eric Pickles zapped them when the Coalition came in. But we’ve seen the impact of a lack of co-ordination. So what can we learn from the last one from March 2010? You can read the draft EastContinue reading “Not everything needs to be in Cambridge – so what’s the plan to share things out locally & regionally?”

And Cambridge’ overheating economy, broken governance systems, and huge inequalities are set to continue without some big changes in government policy In my previous blogpost I pointed readers to the long-awaited reports on East West Rail’s route into Cambridge, and to the consultation results from the proposed Sustainable Transport Zone for Cambridge (AKA the GCP’sContinue reading “The Chancellor’s life sciences strategy is broken at source without an integrated regional (electrified) rail”

A reminder of the structural mess of our local and regional governance structures is hard to avoid with today’s multiple announcements and comment pieces on the future of transport in and around Cambridge It’s a heavy and long-awaited report from the Greater Cambridge Partnership – you can read it at http://www.greatercambridge.org.uk/mc-22. I’m not going toContinue reading “East-West-Rail’s plan for Cambridge – how does it sit with the Greater Cambridge Partnership & Combined Authority?”

Could it be a model that a future Great Cambridge Unitary Council adopt to help ease the housing and cost of living crises? This blogpost stems from two tweets: Andrew Jones: Above: “This is what Cambridge should do…only permit new housing within 500m of a train or tram station. Watch developers suddenly become interested inContinue reading “What would ‘transit-oriented development’ look like for the Cambridge sub-region?”

We don’t yet have the policy detail, but I suspect this will become one of the debating grounds in local government policy circles – and one where the Liberal Democrats and Labour may have very different proposals. You can read the Shadow Chancellor’s proposals here It’s more of an art than a science when itContinue reading “In Rachel Reeves’ New Economic Model for Britain, how much power is HM Treasury prepared to devolve?”

For all the criticisms I have of the content – and I have more than a few, the buck stops with ministers for establishing a tier of administration with few powers, convoluted systems of democratic accountability, and funding systems that keeps Whitehall in control of things that should really be devolved to local areas –Continue reading “The new Local Transport Plan shows why the Combined Authority is not fit for purpose – and ministers own this”

What ‘elephant in the room’ questions could you put to rooms full of people of whose firms/employers much is written about the financial wealth they create for UK PLC? TL/DR? See https://cambridgewideopenday.com/about/ and sign up here as I don’t want to be the only grumpy town person going! (I’m good at moaning about stuff –Continue reading “What’s going on inside ‘Cambridge’? (The sci/tech bubble) Cambridge-wide Open Day on Wed 14 June 2023”

A by-election so soon after the local elections in difficult circumstances for what is normally a safe Labour seat – will any Independent candidates stand for this one? 29th June 2023 if Phil’s got his calculations right. The contemporary local history of King’s Hedges by Messrs Rosenstiel and Edkins show King’s Hedges as being aContinue reading “King’s Hedges by-election for summer 2023”

It might sound strange, but this has as much to do with our broken planning system as it does with protecting Cambridge’s civic heritage – and it’s a decision that is taken under the authority of what is currently a Conservative Secretary of State. I received this in the post this morning: A notice fromContinue reading “Cambridge Tories have a decision to make on the Romsey Labour Club”

Anyone fancy a dash through the Channel Tunnel? (It might be too big a challenge for me but it may interest sustainable transport campaigners in & around Cambridge) I stumbled across this thread by Municipal Dreams Have a look at the public transport maps for Reims here “Hang on a minute – where in FranceContinue reading “What can Cambridge learn from the new tramway in Reims, northern France?”