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Uncertainty Over City Council Funding
On the 24th of September 2010 I observed, and filmed, a meeting of the Cambridge City Council Executive. Key Points Some councillors are very uncomfortable with having their meetings filmed. There is massive uncertainty about how much money the City Council will have in the future. Cambridge City Council wants to raise a hyperlocal tax […]
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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 […]
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Seeking Permission to Record Cambridge City Council Meetings
This image of the Cambridge City’s June 2010 Full Council was
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East Chesterton County Council By-Election 2010
Candidates in the East Chesterton By-Election On Thursday the 16th of September 2010 there will be a by-election in East Chesterton for the County Council seat left vacant by the resignation of Liberal Democrat Siep Wijsenbeek who had only been a councillor since June 2009. East Chesterton is a ward which has inflicted a series […]
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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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Visiting Cambridge City Council to Look Behind the Accounts
File containing reports from Cambridge City Council’s accounting system relating to items I had expressed an interest prior to my visit to inspect background material supporting the published accounts. On Thursday the 22nd of July 2010 I visited Cambridge City Council’s accounts office to make use of the provision in the Audit Commission Act 1998 […]
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City Council Returns Tens of Thousands of Pounds to Belvedere Developer
Belvedere Development, Hills Road, Cambridge. During the open period for Cambridge City Council’s accounts which ran from the 7th of July to the 3rd of August this year I visited the council to look at some of the details behind the published information. I found that £49,894.26 of “S.106” money had been returned to the […]
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Transparency Changes Outcome of Police Priority Vote
Coleridge Road, Cambridge. A fantastic example of why transparency is good for democratic decision making occurred at the Cambridge City Council’s East Area Committee on the 19th of August 2010. Green Party Councillor Margaret Wright had proposed a motion removing an existing police priority aimed at reducing speeding on a range of target roads across […]
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Untouchable York Street Drug Dealers Bantering With Police
Contents of a needle exchange kit. Image: Todd Huffman (licence) Cambridge City Council’s East Area Committee on the 19th of August 2010 was told of problems of drug use and drug dealing in the area around the York Street playground. Police Sergent Kay Stevens painted a picture of dealers running rings around the police and […]
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New Island Platform for Cambridge Station
Rob Fairhead of Network Rail showing a Cambridge Cycling Campaign open meeting a computer generated image of Cambridge station with its new island platform. . On the first Tuesday of every month the Cambridge Cycling Campaign hold an open meeting, usually at the Friends Meeting House. I attended the July 2010 event where Rob Fairhead […]