What does it mean for Cambridge to ‘grow’?

Last week I took part in an excellent event organised the Department of Land Economy at Cambridge University and the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH) looking at the question ‘What does it mean for a city to grow?

This matters a lot to me, both as a councillor and as an architect and maker of spaces, and so I was pleased to join a panel with Peter Studdert, a former Chief Planner for Cambridge, and Cambridge Ahead’s Director of Programmes and Partnerships, Andrew McGowan.

It was nice to see familiar faces in the audience (hello, Anthony!) and I really enjoyed the discussion. Here are some of the points I wanted to make as my contribution.

Perhaps we should start by asking what we mean by ‘a city’ – is it the historic centre, the local authority boundary, the green belt, the travel to work area, the economic region…and how far does it go? All the way down to KX?

Continue reading “What does it mean for Cambridge to ‘grow’?”

Bin collections

One of the things that people often raise when we’re out canvassing in Trumpington is bin collections – whether it’s because the new schedule means that collections or missed or because of problems with bin lorries getting into some of the newer developments.

Having rubbish pile up is a real problem, and the City Council puts a lot of effort into making sure this doesn’t happen – but sometimes things do go wrong.

You can report a missed bin collection using the City Council website – there are also details of service changes and other useful information that may help.  See https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/report-a-missed-bin

Recycling Centre - Hanover Court - geograph.org.uk - 974556

(image Sebastian Ballard [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)