Category Archives: Uncategorized

“Prospective Parliamentary Candidate” in old language, but it’s a mouthful to say, and the acronym PPC isn’t widely-known outside the bubble of politics followers. Remember that only around 2% of people are members of a political party. The announcement was made by the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, and the former Energy & Climate ChangeContinue reading “Liberal Democrats select Cllr Pippa Heylings as MP-candidate for South Cambridgeshire”

TL/DR: Having explicitly rejected both the CAM Metro and the Cambridge Connect Light Rail proposals, it now falls on councillors on Cambridge City Council, Cambridgeshire County Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council – and in particular those from the Conservative Party, the Labour Party, and the Liberal Democrats to champion the cause of the Greater CambridgeContinue reading “Which councillors will promote this new Greater Cambridge Busway Network?”

TL: DR – if you want light rail, you will have to go through your MP and ministers instead. That was the message from officers from Cambridgeshire County Council and the Greater Cambridge Partnership at what I thought was a very well-run online meeting of the Cambridge East Community Forum – where lots of homesContinue reading “County Council & GCP officers confirm Busways strategy for Cambridge”

Because we have several ones happening at the moment, and trying to make sense of them is not easy for a time-poor population. “It’s almost as if the planning system has been designed by ministers and lobbyists to exclude as many people as possible to make it the play thing of only those that canContinue reading “Cambridge must overhaul how it does consultations”

TL:DR – Rubbish assumptions make for rubbish decisions. Ditto rubbish data. Or in civil-service-speak / local-gov-officer-speak: “The unrealistic assumptions – ones which do not reflect the day-to-day reality of service users, – assumed in this report and used in the calculations result in a sub-optimal outcome for the community and our designated user groups. ThisContinue reading “Someone on Cambridge town planning is wrong. Again. This time it’s on swimming pools.”

TL:DR – Click on the consultations by the Greater Cambridge Partnership and tell them their suggestions for an improved bus network do not answer the shortcomings highlighted repeatedly by members of the public and campaign groups, and instead need to commission formal in depth studies of the Cambridge Connect Light Rail. (You will also needContinue reading “A case for a Greater Cambridge Unitary Council – and a light rail network to service it”

Another cohort of Cambridge University students calls on University & colleges to change their values and act as if all of the people who make up our city matter – echoing the call from a former Vice Chancellor from over half a century ago. It’s worth listening in full to the speech by Daisy ThomasContinue reading “Cambridge students demand their University delivers climate justice for Cambridge town”

You can read the article by Gemma Gardner in the Cambridge Independent here. It’s worrying reading. Above – the picture of the old Addenbrooke’s. TL:DR. ***Eeek!*** If you’re interested in following up these things and helping with solutions, see the Cambridgeshire Healthwatch meeting on 10 November 2021. See also their annual reports from 2014/15 onwards.Continue reading “Another winter, another crisis at Addenbrooke’s – but this feels more serious”

It raises a number of questions about transport and accessibility amongst other things. And on last night’s vote in the Commons – followed by a tyre-screeching U-turn so extreme that it showed up on the pollution monitors as a breach of limits on particulate levels in the air. You can read the report in theContinue reading “The County Skills Strategy by the Combined Authority”

The dire state of the council’s finances comes as a shock, but not a surprise after over a decade of Conservative austerity started by George Osborne and Eric Pickles Not that I’m bitter or anything – I only lost my entire civil service career in the bonfire of austerity in 2011, although I chose toContinue reading “Peterborough City Council risks bankruptcy and forced asset sales”