I attended Cambridgeshire Police Authority’s Professional Standards Committee on the 13th of May 2009 and observed a discussion on the retention of DNA samples and data. This follows the December 2008 ruling of the European Court of Human Rights which decided the UK police’s disproportionate retention of DNA information / samples from unconvicted people was [...]
I used the opportunity available to members of the public to ask questions at meetings of Cambridgeshire Police Authority to ask the following question on the 30th of April 2009: My Question – TRANSPORT COMMISSION Will the Chairman of the Police Authority and Chief Constable be giving evidence to the Cambridgeshire Transport Commission? How will [...]
On Thursday the 19th of March 2009 I watched the leader of the City Council Ian Nimmo-Smith and the Executive Councillor for Climate Change and Growth Sian Read give evidence to the Cambridgeshire Transport Commission. Notable Comments The Liberal Democrat councillors put forward their policy to extend a charge to include the park and ride [...]
On Tuesday the 10th of March 2009 I attended a public evidence gathering session of the Cambridgeshire Transport Commission. The independent commission has been set up by the county council, possibly in an incredibly cynical move to prevent the Conservatives having to defend their support of congestion charging during the forthcoming county council elections in [...]
The Cambridgeshire Transport Commission has been set up by the County Council to look at ways of tackling the transport problems the region experiences now and is expect to face in the future. The commission ran a survey on their website in Spring 2009. My response is reproduced below. There will be further opportunities for [...]
On Wednesday the 11th of March 2009 I attended a free public presentation entitled: “Marshall of Cambridge ‘A Centenary Celebration’” which had been organised as part of Cambridge University’s Science Festival. The “lecture” was given by Group Captain Terry Holloway a retired RAF officer who has worked for Marshall since 1995. Marshall is a fantastic [...]
I oppose introducing a congestion charge to Cambridge, and will continue to oppose it for at least a decade. We are reducing car use in the city centre without it. A congestion charge isn’t the way to preserve the historic core of the city, a congestion charge will damage the viability of the city and [...]
The Cambridge University Press (CUP) are planning to cut 160 jobs in the city, probably as the first stage of plans to close the printing business of the CUP within three years. There was discussion of CUP’s plans at Cambridge City Council’s Full Council meeting on February 26th 2009, a full record of what was [...]
The current state of the A14 around Cambridge and towards Huntington is in my view one of the biggest problems affecting Cambridge and the surrounding region. The road is regularly crammed full of heavy goods vehicles using both lanes in each direction. Accidents, when they happen are worse than they might others wise have been [...]
I attended the 19th June 2008 North Area Committee meeting tonight. I think the interesting decisions made were: 1. To demand from officers a better minuting of the element of the previous meeting where police priorities were set. ` 2. To set a fixed time 19.30 for the policing agenda item at the next meeting, [...]