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Rare Outbreak of Common Sense as Cambridge City Council Shelves “Tree-Chess” Plans
Substantial plans for felling, transplanting and planting trees on Midsummer Common, Jesus Green and New Square were taken to Cambridge City Council’s West/Central Area Committee on the 30th of April 2009. The plans involved: Playing chess with the trees on Jesus Green, moving them into straight lines. The felling of healthy trees on New Square […]
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A Democratic Decision to Fell Trees on Midsummer Common
I attended Cambridge City Council’s planning committee on Wednesday the 1st of April 2009 where councillors considered the proposed felling of trees on Midsummer Common. The decision to fell was originally taken by officers, however following an objection I made, it was referred to Executive Councillor Julie Smith who in turn decided to seek the […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Cambridge City Councillor Colin Rosenstiel Accused of Obstructing Ambulance on Jesus Green
A complaint against Cambridge City Councillor Colin Rosenstiel, in which it is alleged he obstructed an ambulance responding to a 999 call on Jesus Green, is to be heard by a panel of the council’s Standards Committee on the 11th of February 2009. The panel is made up of councillors Bick, McGovern, and McPherson along […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Asking Questions About Money Owed to Cambridge City Council from Folk Festival Online Ticket Sales
I attended Cambridge City Council’s West Central Area Committee on the 8th of January 2009. During the public forum I asked a series of questions about the Cambridge City Council news release stating the council is owed £618,000 by SecureTicket UK and is taking legal action in the High Court in an attempt to recover […]