Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

The joys of trying to transport books by electric cycle – but it was worth the experiment! It was a lovely sunny day for it too at what has become the annual Greener Queen Edith’s event which sort of combines campaign and info stalls, a skip day, a food hub, and ‘bring and buy/swap’, andContinue reading “Community books for community events”

Cllr Anna Smith (Lab – Coleridge) made the point following last week’s Greater Cambridge Partnership Assembly where her neighbouring councillor Cllr Sam Davies MBE (Ind – Queen Edith’s) was given an abrupt response by its Transport Director. You can watch Cllr Smith’s full remarks below: Above – this followed my own PQ [see here] thatContinue reading ““Public questions are a really vital part of the work that we do””

Utterly disappointed but so not surprised. I’m gutted for the town planners on the GCSP and city council, along with the planning committee, to whom this decision must feel like an epic slap in the face after the decision on the Flying Pig Pub. You can read the papers here. This is the impact ofContinue reading “Planning Inspector overturns refusal of planning permission by Cambridge City Council on Romsey Labour Club”

Or should one be incorporated into a wider Commission on the Governance of England as the House of Commons Public Administration & Constitutional Affairs Committee recommended in October 2022? Or alternatively, not have one at all and ‘let the market’ sort things out. Some of you may have seen the call by former Treasury seniorContinue reading “Should there be a Royal Commission on the state of Britain’s High Streets?”

The group We’re Right Here is making the case for a new Community Power Act The problem is that the proposals need a host of other radical policies – ones that ministers are showing little genuine interest in – for the proposed legislation to achieve its aims. These radical policies include but are not limitedContinue reading “A Community Power Act will fail *unless* other radical policies are brought in alongside it”

I stumbled across the syllabus for the old BTEC National in Public Services from 2010 for both the uniformed and non-uniformed syllabuses. You can read the course outlines here. For those of you who are old like me, “Level 3” is the equivalent of A-level academic standard. The core units for a BTEC Diploma areContinue reading “Learning about local public services and how they function. And malfunction”

The main driver for the element involving charging motorists was explained clearly in the meeting papers – if you could find the relevant paragraphs in the 500+ pages. “The overarching objective of the scheme is providing viable alternatives to private car use which means reducing congestion (to allow alternatives to be faster, more reliable andContinue reading “Why did the Greater Cambridge Partnership throw so much political capital at C-Charge proposals? Follow. The. Money.”

“Greater Cambridge Partnership’s congestion charge plans unravel over ‘party politics’” declares the Cambridge Independent – and its right. But the GCP was designed and created in a very different party political environment – one that no longer exists. Today’s Greater Cambridge Partnership Assembly meeting was grim watching. I cannot recall a meeting where senior councillorsContinue reading “The Greater Cambridge Partnership was never designed to cope with a hostile political environment”

On the architectural battles between the traditionalists vs the minimalists Or rather Charles’s / Gove’s lot vs Le Corbusier’s / Norman Foster’s lot. For want of another set of descriptors. TL/DR? Read this I’ve moaned a lot about this subject because it’s something that stayed with me ever since we did a project on oldContinue reading “Can beautiful buildings & places be created within a fundamentally extractive economic system?”

The writing was on the wall when senior Liberal Democrats’ MP-candidates spoke out against the plans – now Cambridge Labour has confirmed it won’t support the plans either. Cambridge University and the business community involved in the GCP’s plans also have some serious questions to ask of themselves See the Cambridge Independent here. This willContinue reading “The Cambridge Congestion Charge proposals collapse as political support evaporates”