The latest motion to appear from the Cambridge Labour Group alarms me greatly. They are raising concerns about shared houses, and call for a report on limiting the number of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs). Labour wants to widen the HMO term to include homes with lodgers as well as shared houses of young single people (though whether […]

Cambridge City Council gives community development and leisure grants to young people’s groups, sports teams, social clubs, community associations etc. This could help with events, equipment or outings. Here is a list of the types of organization and activity that attract grant funding: Organisations that provide activities and services to people who are disadvantaged or […]

Watch out: Mr Micawber, Scrooge and maybe Oliver Twist is coming to town. The Friends of Rock Road Library are celebrating the bicentenary of Charles Dickens with a one-man show at the library by local actor Geoff Hales. Mr Hales will be performing dramatised readings from Dickens’ works – in Dickensian costume. The show starts […]

Yesterday, the Mayor of Cambridge, Councillor Ian Nimmo-Smith, put up the first Cambridge Fairtrade sticker in the Green Coffee Company and gave out stickers to Fairtrade retailers, including the Co-op, Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design and One World Is Enough. The stickers are sponsored by the Co-operative, which was the first big supermarket to stock Fairtrade […]

Most people who live in the Queen Edith’s area – the part of Cambridge between Hills and Cherry Hinton Roads and Wort’s Causeway – would agree with me. They are represented by three city councillors (including yours truly), and we pay our council tax and business rates to Cambridge City Council. Queen Edith’s is home […]

Last Thursday, Jean, George and I and our respective husbands and wife went to Corpus Christi College for the annual Cambridge City Council Mayor’s Dinner – to celebrate the mayoral year of the outgoing mayor, Cllr Sheila Stuart. After a civilized aperitif in the college gardens, we filed into the dining hall for a feast, […]

At the City Council’s annual meeting on Thursday, Councillor Ian Nimmo-Smith was made Mayor of the Cambridge for the municipal year 2011-2012. In his speech proposing Ian, Cllr Damien Tunnacliffe said, ‘Cllr Nimmo-Smith has served as a councillor for over 20 years, and during that time has gained the affection of many, many people from […]

Could I have a dropped kerb on Blinco Grove, please? That was the very first thing I was asked to do as a new councillor back in 1994 when I was first elected. The request came from a lady who used a wheelchair and needed a dropped kerb near her home, (‘mobility crossing’) in order […]