Richard Taylor

Category: Article

  • Is The Independent Monitoring Board Secretariat Giving Volunteer Board Members Sufficient Support?

    Reports written by Independent Monitoring Boards are published online by the the IMB Secretariat Independent Monitoring Boards are members of the public who are given access to prisons and immigration detention centres so that they can observe how the facility is being run. Their remit is to verify that those who are being held are […]

  • Oakington Immigration Reception Centre Debate in Parliament

    Mr Howarth (MP for Cambridge), I would like to draw your attention to the adjournment debate on Oakington Immigration Reception Centre to be held in the House of Commons on the 8th of June. I am writing to encourage you to take part in this debate given the fact the city you represent is the […]

  • Commenting on Cambridge City Council’s New Tree Protocol

    Would this tree be facing the city council’s chainsaws if a proper decision making process had been in place? I have responded to Cambridge City Council’s consultation on how it makes decisions with respect to tree works. The consultation closes on Friday 5 June 2009. Mr Payne, I am writing to respond to your current […]

  • Concern About the Independent Monitoring Board at Oakington Immigration Removal Centre

    Just outside Cambridge over three hundred men are detained at the ex. RAF base at Oakington which is now an immigration removal centre. Those held include people waiting to be deported as well as those waiting for legal due-process to make decisions on their immigration status. Many have been released from prison to the centre. […]

  • Mayor’s Charities Include School for Bullied Children

    Councillor Russ McPherson has been elected Mayor of Cambridge by his fellow City Councillors. At Cambridge City Council’s annual meeting on the 21st of May 2009 Councillor Russ McPherson was elected Mayor of Cambridge for 2009-10. The first thing he did was announce the charities which will benefit from his work during the year. These […]

  • IPCC Says Police Complaints System Flawed and Underfunded

    I observed Cambridgeshire Police Authority’s Professional Standards Committee on the 13th of May 2009 and watched Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) commissioner Len Jackson contribute to the committee’s discussions. Main points: 89% of complaints against the police are deemed “unsubstantiated”. According to the IPCC commissioner this is so high because the system is flawed and […]

  • Arbury Vandals Force Playground and Path Closure

    Youths with a motorbike on the playground at St. Luke’s School in April 2009. A PCSO is shown to the right of the photograph. St Luke’s School, French’s Road, Arbury, Cambridge has posted a letter dated the 22nd of May 2009 on its gates announcing it is no-longer going to allow the public access to […]

  • Following up the Folk Festival Losses – An Update

    Cambridge City Council lost £644,951 of public money when the company it contracted to sell folk festival tickets online in 2008 didn’t pass the money it took on to the council. On the 30th of March 2009 the council’s civic affairs committee received the report of an internal review into the loss and asked questions […]

  • Cambridgeshire Police Authority Discuss Retention of DNA

    I attended Cambridgeshire Police Authority’s Professional Standards Committee on the 13th of May 2009 and observed a discussion on the retention of DNA samples and data. This follows the December 2008 ruling of the European Court of Human Rights which decided the UK police’s disproportionate retention of DNA information / samples from unconvicted people was […]

  • UK Freedom of Information Act to be Extended

    It has been reported that during a speech at a conference entitled Private Data, Open Government: Questions of Information held by the Information Commissioners’ office on 13 May 2009 Justice Minister Michael Wills announced that there will be an expansion of the number of institutions to which the Freedom of Information Act applies. I would […]