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Tag Archives: Public Money.

Legal Action by Cambridge MP David Howarth Prompts Apology from Councillor - Click for Full Article

Heavily Redacted Invoice for David Howarth’s Press Officer

Ex. Liberal Democrat councillor John Hipkin, who is now an independent city councillor for Castle Ward, today wrote to recipients of his regular newsletter to issue an apology for an article in which he drew attention to some of Cambridge MP David Howarth’s expenses claims. Cllr Hipkin [...]

Cambridge And Higher Education Cuts - Click for Full Article

At three minutes to midnight on Thursday, Cambridge City Council got round to discussing the impact of proposed cuts to university funding on Cambridge. By the time the item, towards the end of their full council agenda, was reached many Liberal Democrat councillors had gone home and even the mayor, who was chairing the meeting [...]

Love Cambridge Considering Raising Taxes, Tackling Pigeons and Dealing With Unfriendly Customer Service - Click for Full Article

On the 23rd of February 2010 I attended the second members’ meeting of Cambridge’s City Centre management organisation: Love Cambridge. I am not a member but was invited to attend by Nicky Morrison, who serves as a director representing residents’ interests on the organisation’s board.
Key Points

Emma Thornton, Head of Love Cambridge, and the [...]

Should We Buy Our Councillors iPads? - Click for Full Article

Cambridge City Councillors are eyeing up the iPad and asking us if we’d like to buy them one. Photo derived from image by: Glenn Fleishman (licence)

It looks as if Cambridge City Councillors have been so impressed by the launch of the iPad, the latest desirable consumer electronics gadget from Apple, last week that [...]

Where Council Tax Goes - Click for Full Article

Cambridge City Council Keeps 11.6% of the Council Tax It Collects

I have just written to Cambridge City Council’s web-team and the major party leaders on the City Council:
Dear Cambridge City Council Web Team,
I would like to suggest that Cambridge City Council does more to make the 2009/10 “Council Tax Leaflet”, which is available from the [...]

Taming Guerrillas Could Save Cambridge City Council Money - Click for Full Article

There are currently patches of bare soil outside the shops in Akeman Street, Arbury.

At the North Area Committee on the 12th of November 2009 Cambridge City Councillors agreed to spend an incredible £4,750 on replacing plants on a tiny plot of land in-front of the shops on Akeman Street.
Councillors were told that [...]

Protest Against Increasing University Top-Up Fees - Click for Full Article

On Thursday the 26th of November students from all Cambridge’s universities are holding a protest against the levels of debt many students get in during their courses as a result of high, and increasing, tuition fees.
The protest is to involve a walk through the city centre starting in East Road at midday and is [...]

Performance of NHS Cambridgeshire’s Exceptional Cases Panel - Click for Full Article

I have been looking into the performance of Cambridgeshire Primary Care Trust’s “Exceptional Cases Panel”.
The panel is tasked with deciding if public money ought be spent on a treatment which is not covered by existing NHS contracts and policies. The kind of requests which the panel deals with include high cost treatments [...]

Research Funded by the UK Taxpayer Should be Published in Open Access Journals - Click for Full Article

Results published on the 9th of September 2009 from the European Youth Heart Study (EYHS), by the Medical Research Council in Cambridge are not openly available.

The UK public fund a large amount of scientific research, both though the research councils and via scientific work conducted by public bodies. Many results of [...]

Suggestions to Save Public Money - Cut Obsolete Newspaper Adverts - Click for Full Article

Cambridge City Council’s £2,000 for a short stretch of double yellow lines on St. Margaret’s Square makes a small contribution to the over £20,000,000 annual national cost of publishing highways notices in newspapers.

Using the Freedom of Information website WhatDoTheyKnow.com I asked my local Highways Authority (Cambridgeshire County Council) and the Highways Agency how much they [...]