Nine Liberal Democrat county councillors have hit back against Conservative plans to allow a private company to take over the third floor of Cambridge Central Library – plans that were voted through by an unholy alliance of UKIP and Conservative councillors plus Cambridge’s one independent councillor, John Hipkin. The Lib Dems have called for the […]

Tory county councillors and officers have been talking to KORA for over a year about their opening an Enterprise Centre in Cambridge Central Library, and the Tory Leader of the Council has admitted he knew about a year ago – yet defends the secrecy. Cllr Steve Count is Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, and last […]

The people of Cambridge have reacted angrily to Cambridgeshire County Council‘s decision to allow a private firm to take over the third floor of Cambridge Central Library to create an Enterprise Centre. A petition launched by local resident Claire Dylan has attracted over 1,300 signatures in just a few days. The decision was made on […]

Rural Tory and UKIP county councillors have today voted to convert the top floor of Cambridge Central Library into an enterprise centre run by an outside company (KORA), and to close the café. Cllr Barbara Ashwood (Lib Dem) opened the debate by saying that while she is generally very supportive of the library service, she […]

As the chilling stories of the First World War are retold in this centenary commemoration, do you sometimes wonder what everyday life was like in 1914 in this area? Not just for those at the front, but for children, wives and families at home; for land girls, conscientious objectors, and other non-combatants? The Friends of […]

Last night, the new Mayor of Cambridge, Cllr Gerri Bird, and the vice-chair of Cambridgeshire County Council, Cllr Sebastian Kindersley, came to cut the tape across the new doors to the library garden and to help us launch the new community room. We heard from the Friends of Rock Road Library Treasurer James Berry about […]

The Friends of Rock Road Library invite local residents to enjoy a dramatisation of Jerome K Jerome’s comic novel Three Men in a Boat – a one-man show by local actor Geoff Hales. The show is at Rock Road Library and starts at 8 p.m. after a welcome drink. There is no fixed charge but […]

When Cambridgeshire libraries put out a call for volunteers a couple of years ago, both the Library Service and the Friends were delighted with the numbers of people who came forward. At Rock Road Library, people come to help with gardening, reading with children, giving talks, and telling stories. I’ve seen people of all ages […]

Who was Queen Edith, and why is the south-eastern tip of Cambridge named after a queen who was born before the 11th-century architects had designed the castle? When 21st-century architect Jeremy Lander moved to Nightingale Avenue in Queen Edith’s, he was intrigued as to how the area got its name. At the time he had […]

As a newly elected county councillor, I have been spending the summer getting to know council services better, and I recently had an afternoon on the Mobile Library bus with Ally Clarke, the Mobile Library Manager. After a slight blip due to a delayed train, I’m pleased to see the mobile bus drive into Shepreth […]