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Cambridge City Council Environment Scrutiny March 2011 – Romsey Conservation Area
Outline of the New Romsey Conservation Area On the morning of the 15th of March 2011 I attended Cambridge City Council’s Environment Scrutiny Committee. I went along mainly as the agenda included discussing a new Conservation Area for Romsey, Brookfields and Burnside. I used the public speaking opportunity at the meeting to raise my concern […]
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Cambridge City Council Budget Debate 2011
Cambridge City Councillors in the Council Chamber During a Suspension in the 17th February 2011 Full Council Meeting. I observed Cambridge City Council’s full council meeting on Thursday the 17th of February. I have written a previous article about disruption at the meeting. The main item on the agenda was the approval of the council’s […]
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Councillors Reject Plans to Demolish The Queen Edith Pub
I observed Cambridge City Council’s South Area Committee on the 11th of November 2010 where councillors refused to give planning permission for the demolition of The Queen Edith pub and for new homes to be built on the site. Councillors on the committee were told by the planning officer that Cambridge City Council’s own planning […]
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Cambridge City Council Debates Cuts
I observed a special meeting of Cambridge City Council’s full council on Monday the 8th of November 2010. The meeting’s purpose was to consider the latest draft of the council’s Medium Term Strategy (3MB PDF) in light of the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review the outcome of which was announced on the 20th of October. The […]
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Liberal Democrats to Privatise Cambridge Council House Maintenance
At a meeting of Cambridge City Council on the 21st of October 2010 the Liberal Democrat ruling group’s plan to privatise council house maintenance was debated. I filmed the debate and have made it available on YouTube as well as embedded within this article; the debate is presented as a “Playlist” with one video per […]
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Liberal Democrat Councillors Approve Garden Grabbing in Cherry Hinton
Liberal Democrat councillors have approved building a new bungalow on the site of this tree in a Cambridge back garden At a national level the coalition’s governing document, the programme for Government, states an intent to give “councils new powers to stop ‘garden grabbing’”. Localism is still at the core of the way planning decisions […]
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Councillors Approve Parker’s Piece Ice-Rink for 2009
In 2008 the ice rink and stalls were very close to the paths bringing those trying to pass through into conflict with shoppers. (Photo – CycleStreets [license] During Cambridge City Council’s planning committee on the 19th of August 2009 councillors approved plans for an ice-rink, market, and fair-ground ride to be placed on Parker’s Piece […]
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Cambridge City Council Decide to Make a Huge Leap Forward In Terms of Openness and Transparency
A buffet was provided for councillors and officers during a break in the meeting. I was hungry so I took up an offer of a sandwich. There were no professional press present. I guess I got the sandwich which would have otherwise been offered to them. (Photos of the meeting itsself were not permitted) I […]
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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 […]