Category: Article

  • Cambridge City Council Election Candidates May 2012

    Only Sign of Elections in Arbury – Posters for Labour’s Mike Todd-Jones. Cambridge City Council elections are to be held on Thursday the 3rd of May 2012. Cambridge is split into fourteen wards, there are three council seats for each ward. The elections in May are for one seat in each ward, so a third […]

  • Cash for Cameron

    The published Conservative Party cash for access price list only goes up to £50K. I was invited on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire earlier to talk about the story of the day, cash for access to the Prime Minister David Cameron. I said the scandal which broke over the weekend didn’t come as a surprise to me. […]

  • 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 […]

  • Cambridge City Council to Review Restrictive Filming and Photography Policy

    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 […]

  • Fen Road Public Meetings

    Wooden bollards between Water St. and Fen Road which kept getting sawn down have been replaced with metal ones. On Tuesday the 20th of March 2012 at 6pm in the Shirley School on Nuffield Road another public meeting is to be held to discuss the problems associated with Fen Road in East Chesterton. The meeting […]

  • Cambridge Colleges Seek FOI Exemption

    Earlier this week Cambridge First asked me if I would comment on lobbying by the colleges of the University of Cambridge who are asking the government to exempt them from the Freedom of Information Act. I said: Cambridge University is defined as public body subject to the Freedom of Information Act, I think that is […]

  • Friends of Midsummer Common 2012 AGM

    Given its heavy use by cyclists and pedestrians this path across the common is a little narrow. On March the 14th 2012 I attended the Friends of Midsummer Common’s Annual General Meeting. I am not a member of the group, but the meeting was open to the public. It was advertised in the Cambridge News […]

  • Neighbourhood Resolution Panels for Cambridge

    Book Cited By Cambridge City Council Justifying Foray Into Restorative Justice On Thursday the 15th of March councillors on Cambridge City Council’s Community Services Scrutiny Committee will discuss bringing a new form of restorative justice to Cambridge. Meetings called “Neighbourhood Resolution Panels” which would involve “offenders” discussing their actions with their victims in sessions chaired […]

  • Julian Huppert’s Fantastic Liberal Democrat Conference Motion on Civil Liberties

    Cambridge MP Julian Huppert At the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference being held on the weekend of 10-11 March 2012 Cambridge MP Julian Huppert is moving a motion titled “Civil Liberties” scheduled for debate at 10:45 am on the Sunday morning. The text of the motion is available, but only deep within the Conference Agenda (on […]

  • Cambridge Police Commander Skeels on TASERs and Knives

    Superintendent Vicky Skeels, Police Commander for Cambridge The latest Star Radio Police Podcast is an interview with Superintendent Vicky Skeels, the new area commander for Cambridge. Following operation redesign Cambridgeshire Police has aligned its organisational structure to the local authority areas. As I understand it Skeels took on the role in January 2012 but the […]