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Cllrs Ditch Planning Rulebook To Let Applicant Maximise Rental Profits to Pay for Care
1 Greystoke Road, Cambridge On Monday the 5th of March 2012 I observed City Councillors on Cambridge’s South Area committee consider a planning application to divide a property into two, enabling each part to be let separately. This was an interesting case because almost all councillors ditched normal planning practice and made a decision on […]
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Live Streaming of Special Cambridge City Council Full Council on the Local Plan
On the 13th of February 2014 I streamed a meeting of Cambridge City Council’s full council live on YouTube. I believe this is the first time one of Cambridge City Council’s meetings has been “broadcast” live. As well as being available live, the videos are available to watch again: Part One Public questions and petitions: […]
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Policing South Cambridge – July 2012
Cherry Hinton Village Centre – Location of the Police Priority Setting Meeting On the evening of the 16th of July 2012 I attended Cambridge’s South Area committee where councillors held the police to account and set new local police priorities for the area. About fifty people were in the public seating; many were council officers, […]
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Prayer At Cambridge City Council
I observed Cambridge City Council’s Civic Affairs Committee on the 21st of March 2012 discuss if prayers ought be held at council meetings. The meeting was inconclusive. Its outcome was to ask the mayor, Cllr Ian Nimmo-Smith, “to hold discussions” on what ought be done regarding prayers. One of the most surprising claims, repeated by […]
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South Cambridge Police Priorities – November 2011
South Cambridge Policing Priorities On the 7th of November 2011 I attended Cambridge’s South Area Committee where councillors set the police priorities for the next period of time. Anti-Social Behaviour Definition Police Sergent Jim Stevenson presented the report on behalf of the police. Page six of his report listed incident types classed as anti-social behaviour. […]
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Good News Says MP As Cambridge Gets Paltry Fraction of Concessionary Fares Cash
Was Cambridge’s MP Julian Huppert Too Hasty to Describe the Local Government Settlement as Good News for Cambridge City Council? On Monday the 31st of January 2011 the amounts to be paid to local councils from central government for the 2011/12 financial year were announced. Cambridge’s MP Julian Huppert welcomed the settlement in a tweet […]
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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 Bans Filming Meetings
Cambridge City Council has banned all videoing, photography, and recording of its meetings just a few weeks after it allowed the practice for the first time. The first deliberations of the council ever to have been recorded on film were at a planning committee meeting on the 22nd of September 2010, by the 21st of […]
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Cambridge Fire Station Redevelopment
Computer generated image showing the approved proposal for the redevelopment of Cambridge Fire Station. On the 22nd of September 2010 I observed Cambridge City Council’s planning committee approve a new planning application for the fire station site on Parkside. Councillors approved plans for an eight story residential tower on the corner of East Road and […]