Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

The Combined Authority publishes new papers on an eventful day that sees the Mayor Dr Nik Johnson taking an extended leave of absence on medical grounds. I hope Dr Nik Johnson gets better soon – he’s in safe hands at Royal Papworth that operated on me less than a year ago. The message he gaveContinue reading “Light rail freight for Wisbech, and a County bus strategy (in draft).”

Replacing the restaurant area with a new studio theatre form a core part of their new plans The plans are described on the Greater Cambridge Planning Service Planning Portal – both 22/04228/FUL (the main application) and 22/04229/LBC (request for consent to make alterations to a listed building, which the Cambridge Arts Theatre is). “Refurbishment ofContinue reading “Cambridge Arts Theatre’s new plans”

As predicted by the Bank of England (“The longest recession ever“), with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt [“The Minister for Murdoch”] set to play the catastrophic part of Conservative Chancellor Neville Chamberlain (1931-37), the latter who later went on to become Prime Minister before being forced out by his back benchers. Like Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.Continue reading “The Great Depression Mark II”

…and not only that, the governance of England and its place in the United Kingdom mindful of the existence of the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Parliament, and Northern Ireland Assembly (which were not around last time around) You can read the following: The Redcliffe-Maud Report – the Royal Commission of 1966-69 The main documents of whatContinue reading “Parliament calls for major overhaul of local government in England”

While I have my own grandiose ideas for what a future Cambridge should include, I think it’s even more important that we make it a routine action to involve children and young people in a meaningful way on future decisions about our city. For they have to live with it longer than us oldies do.Continue reading “Imagine the future of your city. What things stop this from happening? What changes to the law are needed to remove existing barriers?”

A very bad day at the depot for Stagecoach as dozens of services are cancelled at short notice – to the rage and fury of passengers and local councillors alike. But will a future government remove the outdated, archaic and ideologically-driven restrictions on how councils provide public services? It was a rubbish day to beContinue reading “UK Cities will never achieve their potential while Central Government forces poor service providers onto them”

Trying to find a local angle to the change of head of government, mindful that the neighbouring Tory MPs for South Cambridgeshire and South East Cambridgeshire supported his bid following Liz Truss’s resignation I wrote about the idea of an East Cambridgeshire light rail back in August 2021 (you can read it here) in theContinue reading “Could new PM Rishi Sunak help his MPs solve East Cambridgeshire’s transport issues?”

Our local government structures were not designed to deal with this intensity of town planning activities What’s the point on having gleaming science parks if the local councils cannot afford to maintain the pot-holed roads that lead to them? At the moment, Cambridge feels like it is under a speculative attack from international organisations lookingContinue reading “The cumulative impact of science park speculation in/around Cambridge”

This follows the rejection of proposals to turn the site into a freight park – which generated huge opposition from local residents due to the pollution risks and lack of vehicle access to the site. You can read about the opposition here. It looks like the former majority landowner, Andersons, has sold their share ofContinue reading “More science park plans – this one on the site of the old Cambridge Tip on Coldham’s Lane”

…as local councils across the country stand on the precipice of financial catastrophes. You can read the motions tabled at Cambridge City Council earlier this evening here (Scroll down). As Cllr Sam Davies MBE (Ind – Queen Edith’s) said, they have some hard decisions ahead. Why those hard decisions seldom seem to hit the veryContinue reading “Next week will feel like an eternity in politics as Liz Truss goes”