-
Cambridge City Council Reshuffle
I observed Cambridge City Council’s Civic Affairs committee on Monday the 11th of May 2009 which discussed councillors’ roles for the upcoming year. The formal discussion at a public meeting occurred following a Liberal Democrat group meeting on the Saturday two days earlier, the real decisions had been made there. The headline changes are: Cllr […]
-
Looking into the Folk Festival Mistakes
On the evening of Monday the 30th of March 2009 Cambridge City Council’s Civic Affairs Committee considered a report into how the council came to lose £644,951 which was not paid to the council by the company it appointed to sell Folk Festival tickets online in 2008. I have written a previous article on the […]
-
New City Centre Signage for Cambridge
Cambridge City Council’s Strategy and Resources Scrutiny Committee on the 16th of March 2009 discussed the new signage proposed for the city centre. My responses to the consultation on the proposals which was held in May 2008 are available via this link; we are yet to see how many, if any of the suggestions for […]
-
Proposed Job Cuts at the Cambridge University Press
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 […]
-
Questions to the Cambridge City Council Executive – February 2009
At full Cambridge City Council meetings councillors are able to ask questions to executive councillors; these have to be submitted in writing the day before the meeting. A ballot is held to determine the order of questions and as many as can be dealt with in thirty minutes are answered. Any questions remaining beyond that […]
-
Cambridge City Council 2008/9 Budget Scrutiny
Cambridge City Council’s budgets were yet again under scrutiny at a meeting at the guildhall this evening (13th February 2009). The meeting was scheduled to enable scrutiny of the opposition budget presented by the Labour group, but because of the significant changes in the Liberal executive’s budget made in January the scope of the meeting […]
-
Budget Cuts Without Service Cuts – Too Good to be True?
I observed a meeting of Cambridge City Council’s executive on the 29th of January 2009 at which a report on proposed savings required to balance the 2008/9 budget in light of strains (which I have detailed in a separate article) was presented. Council Leader, Ian Nimmo-Smith described the situation as a “perfect storm”, factors contributing […]
-
Cycling Funds Redirected to Cover Losses from Icelandic Investments and Folk Festival Ticketing
Cambridge City Council is currently attempting to find savings so that it can balance its budget for 2008/9 in light of a number of strains on the budget which it is only just taking account of. These strains (detailed a separate article) include losses due to money taken online for Folk Festival not being passed […]
-
Introducing Co-Mingled Recycling to Cambridge
On the 13th of January 2009 I attended the Cambridge City Council meeting where a decision was made to go ahead with plans to replace the recycling boxes currently used in homes in the city with a third wheelie bin. This new bin, which will be dark blue, will be able to take mixed recyclables […]
-
Cambridge City Council’s £80m Reserves – An Update
Following Cambridge City Council’s October 2008 announcement which revealed it had £9m invested in Icelandic banks which it might have lost the council’s investments have been the focus of a lot of attention from councillors, the press and the public. I have attended some of the recent meetings where the situation has been discussed. I […]