Police and Crime Panel Members Key Points Cambridgeshire’s Police and Crime Panel met for the first time, in shadow form, in secret, behind closed doors, on the 12th of September 2012. The panel is called a shadow panel until it formally becomes the Police and Crime Panel following election of Police and Crime Commissioners. The [...]
Inside Cambridge Magistrates’ Court (source) In December 2011 the Lord Chief Justice reportedly said “Twitter as much as you wish”, when issuing Practice guidence on live, text-based forms of communications (including Twitter) from court for the purposes of fair and accurate reporting. However in practice it does not appear to be possible to routinely report [...]
On Monday the 25th of June 2012 I visited Wisbech to observe the process of setting the local police priorities in action. Key Points More than one hundred and ten people completed a questionnaire on Wisbech’s policing during the course of the day. Local County, District, and Town councillors discussed the policing of the town [...]
I have submitted the following message to the council’s democratic services email address, copying Councillor Tim Bick: 1. If a suitably less restrictive filming policy is adopted during the Thursday 19th April 2012 full council meeting I would like to film/photograph the council meeting from the point the new policy is adopted. I’d like to [...]
Cambridge City Council’s Civic Affairs Committee on the 21st of March 2012 is to review the city council’s currently highly restrictive policy on filming, recording and photographing council meetings. The report to the meeting contains the following statement: Since the Committee approved the amendments to the audio/visual recording protocol in February 2011, there have been [...]
1st edition of Thomas Erskine May’s book “A Treatise upon the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament”. (Copyright on the 1st edition has expired). An electronic copy of the text of Erskine May, the book which contains the rules under which which Parliament functions, has today been released by pro-democracy and pro-transparancy hackers. The [...]
A Cambridgeshire Police Constable in Cambridge On the 25th of August 2011 during the policing section of the West Central Area committee I took the opportunity to draw councillors’ attention to the expansion in the range of offences which Cambridgeshire Police consider can now be dealt with, outside of court, through “restorative justice”. I also [...]
SLM Contract Extension Document ( Download, PDF) On Wednesday the 27th of July I visited Cambridge City Council, accompanied by two readers of my website, to view the city council’s accounts. One of the areas we looked into was the council’s transactions with Sports and Leisure Management Limited (SLM). SLM run the city’s swimming pools, [...]
Cambridge City Council Draft Accounts 2010-11 I have written to Cambridge City Council to make an appointment to “inspect the accounts”: Dear Cambridge City Council, I would like to make an appointment to visit the council offices and inspect the accounts as I am entitled to do during the open period which is currently running. [...]
Cambridgeshire Police Authority meet in public, but interesting items are taken in secret session On the 29th of June 2011 I observed a meeting of Cambridgeshire Police Authority. Key Points: A decision was taken to axe the force helicopter, saving £500,000 a year by moving to use the Chiltern Air Support Unit as well as [...]