JANUARY 2000 BROADSHEET - Cambridge is Full
OUR VERY BEST WISHES FOR A HAPPY, PROSPEROUS AND SATISFYING START TO THE NEW MILLENNIUM. MAY ALL YOUR Y2K BUGS BE LITTLE ONES.
For those of you who were there and can remember that far back, the most burning issue of the pre Y2K day is now resolved. At our meeting on 25th November there was no doubt at all as the motion, "Cambridge is Full", was defeated by a healthy 60% majority. Kathy Baldwin from Cambs County Council marked out the field of battle with its rules, eg. green belt and guidelines - to have up to 100,000 more houses by 2016, which is 60,000 more than current growth. With their present thinking there are three possible scenarios: Preserved City, Urban Hub and Expanded City.
The big guns then fired their salvos. Wyndham Thomas was scathing about Cambridge's "Town Cramming" and having been Chief Executive of Peterborough could point with pride to the success of the road system there. That Cambridge was overfull was obvious from the congestion on all the arterial roads at all times of the day, especially to the north on the A14. Roger Quince, of Cambridge Phenomenon fame, was equal to the taunt and showed how this situation was due to 40% of the working population being forced to live out beyond the green belt. Cambridge was an enormous draw and the intellectual quality of its workforce could no longer be expected to live in housing designed for a few Dons and many Bedders. He was backed up by Mike Donner of FPDSavills who pointed out that within the boundaries of Cambridge city there were still five million square feet of building space, not taken up by parks and recreational areas, - equivalent to four science parks. Despite Mike Holland's wealth of statistics in support of the motion on the spiraling costs of office space in the city and the pressures to move out, the audience was not convinced, though there were several supporters of the motion during the ensuing debate.
There was, however, one common concern. Something, somehow, had to be done. The most favoured solution was the dispersed city, either along the Peterborough corridor, or, since the rail link is better that way, the Royston rift valley. Linda Mahoney is to be congratulated on organizing a brilliant line up of speakers, though she herself wasn't able to witness the debate due to illness. Malcolm Wilkinson took the role of Speaker of the House and ably summed up the arguments before the vote was taken.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Note that we are holding our ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING at 5.30pm, just prior to the January meeting. Proposals for the new committee, both new members and new ideas are welcome and should be sent to the secretary; Nigel Wallace, 33 West Hill Road, Foxton, Cambridge, CB2 6SZ.Thank you all those that gave us their e-mail addresses. We had 26 to send up to date information about the last meeting and quite a few were inspired to come as a result. More would make communication so much easier, though of course if you look up this web site we will try to maintain hot news here.
We are having problems paying for the buffet provided at our meetings. Normally people pay in advance but recently we are getting bookings by phone with the promise to pay at the door, which doesn't always materialize because they don't turn up. The committee considered this dilemma at our meeting on 6th December, and in particular the exponential growth of these losses from only £4 in September, growing to £17 in October and £53 in November. We took a long time trying to find an acceptable solution. Clearly, we want people to come and join in the buffet with us, so rather than have differential rates, we decided to charge an extra £2 for everybody who pays at the door. We hope this will not have any negative effects and will encourage people stick to their booking.
The Club is very fortunate in benefiting from the sponsorship of the following organisations:-
There are also other companies who give us generous help with specific meetings and services.
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