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Members’ Inquiry into Folk Festival Approved
Cambridge City Council lost almost £650,000 of public money after the company it appointed to run the online ticket sales for the 2008 Folk Festival failed to hand over any money. I have written a number of articles following the council’s attempts to understand what went wrong so that similar disasters can be avoided in […]
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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 […]
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Missed Opportunity at the Penny Ferry Car-Park
Cambridge City Council is currently refurbishing the riverside car park and adjacent areas in Chesterton at a cost of £62,523; a very large amount of money given what is being done. In the last few days it has become apparent that the “Lead Councillor” for the project, Cllr Liddle, is not happy with what is […]
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Looking into the Folk Festival Mistakes
On the evening of Monday the 30th of March 2009 Cambridge City Council’s Civic Affairs Committee considered a report into how the council came to lose £644,951 which was not paid to the council by the company it appointed to sell Folk Festival tickets online in 2008. I have written a previous article on the […]
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Damming Report on Cambridge Folk Festival Fiasco
The report paints a picture of the City Council as institution in a state of chaos where junior council officers working on the folk festival were free to ignore advice from the council’s finance and legal departments. The key questions of where the city’s money is, and what’s being done to try and get it back have not been tackled. It also isn’t the independent, external, report promised.
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Questions to the Cambridge City Council Executive – February 2009
At full Cambridge City Council meetings councillors are able to ask questions to executive councillors; these have to be submitted in writing the day before the meeting. A ballot is held to determine the order of questions and as many as can be dealt with in thirty minutes are answered. Any questions remaining beyond that […]
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Liberal Democrat Inconsistency in Cambridge
Only a mile or so separates Cambridge’s Guildhall where Cambridge City Council sits and Cambridgeshire County Council’s Shire Hall however the gulf between what the Liberal Democrats are saying in the two chambers is enormous. The Liberal Democrat groups in each council appear almost entirely at odds with each other when it comes to the […]
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Cambridge City Council 2008/9 Budget Scrutiny
Cambridge City Council’s budgets were yet again under scrutiny at a meeting at the guildhall this evening (13th February 2009). The meeting was scheduled to enable scrutiny of the opposition budget presented by the Labour group, but because of the significant changes in the Liberal executive’s budget made in January the scope of the meeting […]
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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 […]
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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 […]