Category Archives: Uncategorized

Did it achieve anything? Have a read of the agreement here. The purpose of this post is to shine some light on a previous generation of local government relations with central government – one that for today’s generation of teenagers and young adults might look baffling. What I hope it reveals is the complexity ofContinue reading “Cambridgeshire’s Local Area Agreement 2006-09”

The national picture is grim. “The initial teaching and learning funding allocations for adult further education (FE) and skills in England fell from a 2010‑11 baseline of £3.18 billion to £2.94 billion in 2015‑16” Adult further education funding in England since 2010 – House of Commons Library Given where it was in 2003, funding for adultContinue reading “Why have ministers given Mayor Dr Nik Johnson so few funds for adult education?”

In 2012 Cambridge City Council & South Cambridgeshire District Council commissioned Peter Brett Associates LLP to produce an Infrastructure Delivery Study. You can read both the executive summary and the full report from the papers here from 11 Sept 2012. “Why does this matter?” Because it enables residents and councillors to hold planners and developersContinue reading “What is Cambridge’s social and civic infrastructure deficit?”

Only Cambridge University are taking ages with the one they are supposed to be building, the city is already at capacity, and further growth in North East Cambridge will only put further pressure on existing swimming pools. [Updated to add:] It’s worth noting the both Cambridge City & South Cambs District Councils have committed toContinue reading “Is the Milton Road Garage site in North East Cambridge suitable for a new municipal swimming pool?”

A decade after I first blogged about loneliness, it is now a local as well as a national public policy issue – see the House of Commons Library earlier in 2021. My previous blogposts include: The curses of loneliness and isolation – Sept 2011 Overcoming society’s problem with loneliness – Dec 2013 Loneliness – andContinue reading “Cambridgeshire vs loneliness – what do we need to deal with this challenge?”

The closure was announced in March 2021 and was missed by many – myself included. What does the decision by Reach PLC mean for a growing city like Cambridge to have its only daily newspaper being entirely virtual? Ever since Reach PLC took over the Cambridge News, I’ve been concerned at the direction that itContinue reading “The impact of the Cambridge News no longer having a Cambridge-based office”

The ones from Victorian times only dealt with things like street paving and lamp posts. But at least people knew what they were there to do. I mentioned the old Improvement Commissioners in my previous blogpost – who were initially empowered by Acts of Parliament to improve the streets in a given town. A 21st CenturyContinue reading “The Greater Cambridge Improvement Commissioners – revamping local government”

When shown some of the proposals, none of them were impressed. The roots of the problem however, lie just as much in Whitehall as they do in the Guildhall, Shire Hall (old and new), and the South Cambridgeshire Administrative Facility on the edge of Cambourne. This follows on from my post about the staff ofContinue reading “Nearly all of the healthcare staff I met while in hospital had not heard of Greater Cambridge busway plans”

This time it was most definitely a heart attack – the angiogram spotting a huge blockage in one of my arteries that wasn’t there in the 2017 scan and that none of the other tests were able to pick up. My last blogpost was published on Tues 07 December 2021 – a day where IContinue reading “Addenbrooke’s and Royal Papworth save my life. Again.”

For example where people are waiting for something…like their vaccinations for CV19. (Or bus stops. Or GP waiting rooms. Probably not very busy places like Accident & Emergency Units – I found myself in Addenbrooke’s again after a severe allergic reaction the like of which I’d never had before. …with paramedics taking me to A&EContinue reading “If you want to get more people responding to your consultations, go to where your audience is.”