Richard Taylor

Category: Article

  • Budget Cuts Without Service Cuts – Too Good to be True?

    I observed a meeting of Cambridge City Council’s executive on the 29th of January 2009 at which a report on proposed savings required to balance the 2008/9 budget in light of strains (which I have detailed in a separate article) was presented.   Council Leader, Ian Nimmo-Smith described the situation  as a “perfect storm”, factors contributing […]

  • Cycling Funds Redirected to Cover Losses from Icelandic Investments and Folk Festival Ticketing

    Cambridge City Council is currently attempting to find savings so that it can balance its budget for 2008/9 in light of a number of strains on the budget which it is only just taking account of. These strains (detailed a separate article) include losses due to money taken online for Folk Festival not being passed […]

  • The Role of Police Authorities in Decisions to Extend TASER Deployment

    Speaking in a Westminster Hall debate on Wednesday the 28th of January 2009, Vernon Coaker the Home Office Minister of State for Policing, Crime & Security spoke on the expanded deployment of TASER: With regard to Taser training, the roll out of Tasers has been widely welcomed as a good thing. The training costs will […]

  • Policing Arbury Ward – Cambridge – January 2009

    I attended an Arbury Ward police meeting on the 28th of January 2009 in the Meadows Community Centre. Attendance The session was led by Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) Luke Upcott and Sam Bagshaw. Labour Councillor for Arbury Mike Todd-Jones was present, and in addition six residents had turned up. I think the fact the […]

  • Counter Terrorism Act 2008 – Making a Bad Law Worse

    Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000 is a poorly written law which states: (1) A person commits an offence if— (a) he collects or makes a record of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, or (b) he possesses a document or record […]

  • Cambridge City Council Cuts Identified

    Cambridge City Council has released details of proposed savings which it is having to make following losses of the money from online sales of folk festival tickets and as a result of its investments in the collapsed Icelandic banks. The proposals have been made public in advance of a meeting of the council’s executive on […]

  • City Centre Partnership Board – Love Cambridge

    A new “City Centre Partnership Board” is being formed to help run the historic core of Cambridge City Centre; it is to be be launched on the 1st of April 2009 as an independent public/private sector partnership operating under the name of “Love Cambridge”. Currently only scant details of the make up of this new […]

  • New Street Lights for Cambridgeshire to Dim in the Early Hours

    At North Cambridge’s Area Committee on Thursday the 23rd of January 2009 a member of the public asked about street lighting. Rupert Moss-Eccardt the County Councillor for Arbury replied. He told the meting that there is a program in Cambridgeshire to introduce brighter lights which use less electricity than the current street lights. He said […]

  • Conservators of the River Cam – January 2009

    Last Thursday, the 15th of January, I went to see how decisions relating to Cambridge’s River Cam are made at a meeting of the Cam Conservators, which was held in the fantastically opulent setting of the old hall at Queens’ College. One of the main items the Conservators discussed was regulating punting in the forthcoming […]

  • More Questions on the Cambridge Folk Festival Ticket Money

    Following from my my response to the news that Cambridge City Council is owed £618,000 by SecureTicket UK Ltd., the company it engaged to sell Folk Festival tickets online and the questions which I asked about this money on the 8th of January, another opportunity to ask questions arose last week. At Cambridge City Council’s […]