These slides are a summary of the conversations our participants had at our conversation cafe event on Sat 13 Sept at Anglia Ruskin University. With thanks to all of our supporters at http://bethechangecambridge.org.uk/?page_id=85 who helped us put on the event, and for everyone (over 50 of you) who took part!

1. Growing Up in
What is special about
growing up in
Cambridge?
Cycling
Urban legends
– eg reality
checkpoint
Science festival
Arts and
culture offer
History, a sense of
place and scope to
make a difference We should have pride but no
differentiation – town/gown
or state/private school
Cambridge
We want to give all children
a ‘Cambridge education’ (but
not just about ‘the uni’)
Green spaces
everywhere (but are
they accessible?)
Cows!
Diverse communities
eg Mill Road
Adults in
Cambridge have a
sense of pride, but
it needs to extend
to all children in
Cambridge

2. Growing Up in
Cambridge
Challenges:
•Low levels of funding
•Lack of access to Cambridge University facilities compared to other university cities
– the facilities need to be for everyone, not just university members
•Understanding what is on offer
•Universal take up of opportunities
Plan
•Ask children what is special about growing up in Cambridge, and what needs to
change
•Challenge all providers – esp universities, colleges, research bodies, large orgs to
increase access
•Better connection of opportunities to schools, communities & the people
•Stronger sense of community amongst children – funding family partnership co-ordinators

3. Transport in &
around Cambridge
Challenges:
•We have still not solved the problem of congestion
Ideas
•Joined-up thinking on planning & transport between city & county councils
•More environmentally-friendly buses (eg like London hybrids)
•Integrated & affordable public transport, timed for connections Swiss style – eg
synchronising bus leaving times just after trains arrive
•Safe, easy cycling for all ages and abilities
•Car traffic flow management
•School buses to get the school runs off the road. (Cost to business of congestion
here?)
•‘Greenways’ to link existing pockets of green spaces & to get pedestrians/cyclists
traveling through the city to bypass it

4. Transport in &
around Cambridge
Ideas continued…
•More capacity on trains
•More capacity at stations – naming North Cambridge ‘Chesterton Intl!’
•More bridges
•Consider congestion charging
•Better cycle paths – cycle-segregation from main traffic
•More lighting, but dimmed between 1am-5am
•Developments only approved if there are suitable improvements to infrastructure
•Cambridge University and large developers to employ planning officers and
specialist cycling officers to work with Cambridge City Council and residents, rather
than against them.

5. Cambridge as a
cultural leader 1/2
Cambridge is a cultural city. Our vision? To be a world leader. What does this mean
and how do we build capacity?
-Recognise our cultural communities living and working in Cambridge. This requires
having a broad conversation involving lots of people about what our strengths (and
weaknesses) are.
-Raise the profile of our cultural communities more – and make them much more
accessible
-Make use of under-used spaces for performances and rehearsals – esp empty
buildings that are boarded up. Think the old bingo hall by Lloyds Bank.
-Make use of science park, schools, empty shops, community centres, libraries and
business facilities for cultural events – esp during the evenings

6. Cambridge as a
cultural leader 2/2
Cambridge is a cultural city. Our vision? To be a world leader. What does this mean
and how do we build capacity?
•Using Cambridge events to profile local cultural communities eg Big Weekend.
Cambridge Folk Festival and Mill Road winter fair. Small things co-ordinated can
make a big difference
•Single co-ordinating point for all event planners in and around Cambridge to ensure
events targeting the same communities do not clash. Eg BTC Cambridge clashed with
Open Cambridge, the Cambridge Sustainable Food Fair and the Stourbridge Fair.
Cambridge City Council is the obvious hosting organisation but who can help fund
such a unit?
•How can we encourage people to become participants in cultural activities rather
than passive watchers? Eg making music – where is the route for adults to
learn/relearn musical instruments collectively?

7. A single council for
Greater Cambridge
Why a ‘unitary’ council’?
•Current governance is tri-partite: Cambridgeshire County Council, South
Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridge City Council.
•Fast growth needs strong guidance
•Challenges are ever-more complex & interlinked, eg housing, transport and
telecommunications/broadband
•Clarity of who is responsible will maximise contributions – ‘It’s the council’ must
have meaning
•Local authority must be a key enabler – eg leveraging funding (“We’ll contribute
£1,000 if businesses contribute £2,000 etc)
•Local authority must be a convener – being able to bring together large local
influential organisations to make decisions in the best interests of the whole city, not
just their own institution

8. A single council for
Greater Cambridge
Campaigning for a ‘unitary’ council’?
•Interested people have to campaign/be champions for the idea
•Build local alliances
•Learn the lessons from other unitary authorities near by, eg Luton, Peterborough,
Thurrock.

9. Housing in
Cambridge
How do you solve a problem like housing when demand not just from people who
want to live and work here, but from financiers and international investors is so
high?
Local
•Share data for more intelligent planning
•Support for shared housing
•Mixed-use development, car free development
•Proper enforcement of planning permission & contracts
•More council housing/social housing/housing co-ops
•Ethical property companies
•Have architects engaging with residents ‘at design stage’, not at planning permission
stage
National
•Stop developers gaming the planning system

10. What does failure
look like? 1/4
A risk-reversal exercise, we looked at what we might do if we wanted to ‘sabotage’
all things Be the change – Cambridge.
•Destroy the idea of group engagement – ‘you people have no influence, so don’t
bother’
•Destroy the idea that an individual can make a difference – ‘It’s too much hard work
and you won’t achieve anything
•Ruin the reputations of those involved/personal attacks – ‘Oh that Antony bloke –
he’s too big for his boots – and that dragon?!!?’
•Only involve a small group of people – you’ll get biased outcomes that way which
discredit the findings. ‘Well you didn’t involve that group of people so your findings
are flawed therefore we’ll ignore everything you say!
•Create too big a burden falling on too few people
• -Individual stress
• Limited action
• Functional/organisational failure – eg scrutiny of planning

11. What does failure
look like? 2/4
A risk-reversal exercise, we looked at what we might do if we wanted to ‘sabotage’
all things Be the change – Cambridge.
•Exacerbate any existing tensions that may exist between people and individuals
rather than encouraging them to work together to solve shared problems
•Ensure you have the grumpiest and least passionate people as the frontline face of
your institutions – creating unresponsive cultures
•Reduce the number of people involve by a variety of means
• Distraction – ‘Are you also involved in this project that will take up all of your
time?’
• Accessibility – ‘Come to our meeting on the edge of town with no public
transport at a time you cannot make!’
• Someone else is responsible, ‘…and that person/institution isn’t you so leave
it alone!’

12. What does failure
look like? 3/4
A risk-reversal exercise, we looked at what we might do if we wanted to ‘sabotage’
all things Be the change – Cambridge.
•Increase burdens on individuals even more
• No focus
• Too much going on – make sure too many ideas on the plate of too few
people
• Ensure resources are spread thin so nothing happens
•Lobby against change by using existing power structures
• Behind the scenes stonewalling
• Public-facing campaign – “If you do this ‘Be the change – Cambridge’ thing,
house prices will go down and what about X, Y & Z? Easier to carry on as
normal!’
• Get other organisations to lobby against the project
•Show examples of where similar attempts have failed
•Drip-feed ideas of how this is not worthwhile – ridicule suggestions and the people
involved

13. What does failure
look like? 4/4
A risk-reversal exercise, we looked at what we might do if we wanted to ‘sabotage’
all things Be the change – Cambridge.
•Make a list of all of those people and groups that have not been involved, and show
that ‘Good’ is the enemy of ‘Perfect’.
•Allow the loudest and most negative voices to dominate
•Make things going wrong unacceptable and fatal to the project rather than allowing
a culture of ‘things not going right first time is fine – lets capture the learning from it
and apply it to the things we do in the future’.
•Make it clear that this approach is far too radical and dangerous