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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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Policing Arbury Ward – Cambridge – January 2009
I attended an Arbury Ward police meeting on the 28th of January 2009 in the Meadows Community Centre. Attendance The session was led by Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) Luke Upcott and Sam Bagshaw. Labour Councillor for Arbury Mike Todd-Jones was present, and in addition six residents had turned up. I think the fact the […]
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Conservators of the River Cam – January 2009
Last Thursday, the 15th of January, I went to see how decisions relating to Cambridge’s River Cam are made at a meeting of the Cam Conservators, which was held in the fantastically opulent setting of the old hall at Queens’ College. One of the main items the Conservators discussed was regulating punting in the forthcoming […]
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More Questions on the Cambridge Folk Festival Ticket Money
Following from my my response to the news that Cambridge City Council is owed £618,000 by SecureTicket UK Ltd., the company it engaged to sell Folk Festival tickets online and the questions which I asked about this money on the 8th of January, another opportunity to ask questions arose last week. At Cambridge City Council’s […]
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Trees to be Felled on Midsummer Common
Barry Higgs and Dick Baxter of the Friends of Midsummer Common attended the West Central Area committee on the 8th of January 2009, they reported that on the day before they had been shown around the common by a City Council Officer who identified a number of trees to be felled. They asked if there […]
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Policing West and Central Cambridge – January 2009
I attended Cambridge City Council’s West Central Area Committee on the 8th of January 2009. One of the main items on the agenda was “Safer Neighborhoods”, the meeting’s chair was almost tripped up by the cryptic title and had to ask the committee manager what the policing item was called saying: “Is it Safer Communities?”. […]
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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 […]
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Cambridge City Council to Fell 73 Trees at Byron’s Pool
Cambridge City Council manage Byron’s Pool local nature reserve which is on the River Cam upstream of Grantchester, near the A14. A tiny “article” in the Winter edition of Cambridge Matters magazine with the headline of “Native tree-planting” states: 73 non-native trees are being removed from Byron’s Pool Local Nature Reserve. Removing the Sycamores and […]
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Which Christmas Councillor Blair?
On Saturday December the 6th 2008 in the weekend edition of the Cambridge News carried an article headlined: “Now it’s poison berries stopping the start of play” about the fact the large Playground on the Accordia development off Brooklands Avenue in Cambridge has been closed since December 2007. The playground is closed as yew hedges […]