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That does not give Labour a free hand – it means there is an even greater responsibility for the main opposition party to come up with credible alternatives for how England (as well as Cambridge) is governed. Furthermore, the smaller opposition parties need to scrutinise those policies in details as well as suggesting alternatives andContinue reading “Gove’s reported plans for Cambridge reflect the panicking thinking of a declining government out of ideas. And time.”

TL/DR? Buy the book and it’ll make sense Chances are more than a few of you will have seen/experienced something like the diagram Mr Cowan illustrated below: In Cambridge we have more than a few examples to choose from, whether Brookgate at Cambridge Station to The Marque at the top of Cherry Hinton Road whichContinue reading “Essential Urban Design – Rob Cowan provides the knowledge & language for community groups to scrutinise developers”

Some of you will be more than familiar with my moans about ‘spreadsheet architecture’ – whether the designs that look like they were they were put together manipulating lines and shading on a spreadsheet, or alternatively focusing so much on the bottom line that any artistic preference is designed out to create a minimalist boxContinue reading ““Ugly-ugly-ugly! Oi-oi-oi!” Trying to separate a desire for more beautiful buildings from politically-inspired culture wars”

Voters give Labour a kick in the ballot box over controversial congestion charge See the Cambridge Independent here. The rain outside at 1.30am probably reflects the mood of opponents in what was previously a solid Labour seat. I’m not going to wax lyrical about the detail – you can see the links to the videoedContinue reading “Tories win King’s Hedges by-election by 24 votes”

Or is it ‘Audit Commission Mark II? TL/DR: Ministers are establishing a new performance reporting organisation for local councils. Unlike its predecessor, the Audit Commission, there won’t be any performance management framework where civil servants go around assessing things on behalf of ministers. Instead, a huge responsibility rests on the shoulders of ordinary residents. YouContinue reading “Do the principles of the new ‘Office for Local Government’ rely too heavily on ‘armchair auditors’?”

TL/DR? The responsibility rests with ministers who signed off an over-complicated system of governance that makes it very difficult for the public to identify where the real decision-making power resides (As your MP to write to ministers on how they will simplify the governance structure of Cambridgeshire to improve accountability https://www.writetothem.com/) Before starting, I declareContinue reading “Why CamCycle is the wrong target for those complaining about Cambridge’s future transport plans”

What laws would you come up with to encourage more of us to play in our city? That was the question put to local children in my part of town over the past couple of weeks. As it turned out, a number of families crossed ward boundaries (because no one lives their lives by councilContinue reading ““Some families can’t afford to pay to do fun things in Cambridge and that’s not fair””

Pondering both a personal existential crisis alongside a global public policy challenge that politicians need to find answers to – and quickly. I compared my social media use to that of just over a decade ago and noticed how much more the interactions between my online and offline worlds were compared with today. One ofContinue reading “While new restrictions on Twitter use have cut me off from my online community, the issues at stake are far greater than we could imagine”

Only there are so many large proposals coming in thick and fast that it’s beyond the level that the people of our city can cope with in terms of detailed and considered responses. Open Cambridge 2023 takes place between Friday 08 Sept to Sunday 17 Sept 2023 In 2022, Hilary Cox Condron ran an arts-basedContinue reading “Open Cambridge – could we have an event that brings together the big plans to figure out a collective response?”

If the landowner and developers do not agree to build a large regional facility on one of the biggest sites in Cambridge, they will have failed most of East Anglia, not just our city TL/DR? See https://cambridgeeast.com/ It’s a big site – and a long-expected one that will have the developers’ world salivating with theContinue reading “NEW CONSULTATION (again) – building on the Cambridge Airport site. And the Beehive returns with a big update!”