Update 10th April 2019

Dear all,

Update 10 April, 2019

FeCRA Event: Robin Hambleton- Making an Inclusive City – Q & A sessions

Regarding FeCRA’s ‘Making  Cambridge Inclusive’ AGM event, thank you for all the lovely comments and positive feedback. The Q and A sessions at the event were lively and stimulated great responses from Robin Hambleton and the Panel of experts. Cambridge 105 heard about this and interviewed Jean Glasberg who chaired the discussion on their 9.00 am Monday 8 April breakfast programme Cambridge 105 Parish Pump. Issues covered include: growth in our region, impact on green spaces and  accountability. The interview should be available as a podcast on the Cambridge 105 website, iTunes and the RadioPlayer app. event. Have a listen.

Questions after Robin Hambleton’s talk

Allan Treacy (Coton Parish) asked how the GCP could be encouraged to involve the community and take the Bristol One City collective intelligence approach advocated by RH and adopted by Bristol’s directly elected Mayor Marvin Rees.

Michael Bond (Chesterton RA) asked how the business ratepayers’ vote could be re-established

Kimon Roussopoulos (Cambridge Commons) asked what RH meant by non-negotiable environmental concerns.

Questions to the Panel included:

Valerie Neal ( Petersfield RA and the Friends of Cambridge Market Support Group) asked about the process for selection of those making decisions on the Market Square and referring to plans for nightime market activities asked how to protect the daytime activities of the market from powerful outside interests.

Jean Glasberg (Newnham Croft RA) asked how the city’s unique and precious green spaces could be protected for themselves, without succumbing to pressure to fill them with public works of art such as plastic cows, play equipment, BMW tracks and climbing rocks due to 106 funding.

Richard Cushing ( Hurst Park Ave RA) stressed the power, wealth and land ownership of Cambridge University and asked how local groups could engage with the University, as this was not successful through elected representatives.

Councillor John Hipkin expressed concern that the agenda for Cambridge’s growth was selfish and unsustainable and the city was overheating. He asked how resources could be redirected to far poorer towns within a close radius, such as Wisbech, one of the most deprived towns in Europe just twenty-five miles away from Cambridge , and Soham and March.

Fernando Perez (Great Northern Road RA) Referring to the issues that the Great Northern Road residents face asked how residents can affect change in their own streets within the current legal framework.

Hilary Cox Condron stressed the need for and asked about the involvement of artists in community development.

We have uploaded the film of the event on the FeCRA You Tube see link below. Take a look.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfNi__I8Dl92Aj7QQw0RKMA/videos

We are delighted that another community group wants to join FeCRA, Eddington. Welcome to FeCRA .

The Chair’s report and minutes will be posted on http://fecra.org.uk/ after the Easter break.

Have a lovely Easter !

Best wishes,

Wendy

Wendy Blythe

Chair, FeCRA

www.fecra.org.uk
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