Tell us what you think about the magazine or the blog, either by leaving a comment about an article here, or by emailing cambridgematters@cambridge.gov.uk
The Winter 08 issue of the magazine is being delivered now, and the Spring issue will go out at the end of February 09. If you don’t receive your copy, you can view a PDF online in the Cambridge Matters Archive or email us and we will send you a copy.
I have always wondered why the paper recycling is collected on a different week to the green bin. We are asked to wrap waste food in paper but I rarely have any paper at the beginning of the green bin week as I have recycled it. Please let me know if there are any thoughts to having the paper/glass recycling collected the same time as the green bin?
This is mainly for historic reasons. The fortnightly Black Box collections were introduced across the City before the Green Bin scheme was widely available, and when Black Bins were collected weekly. Therefore people were used to putting their Black Box out with their Black Bin. When Green Bins were introduced they were put out every other week, so it was logical to make the Green Bin week the one in between the Black Box collections. This staggers collections so that people don’t have to store so much waste. The Blue Box collections weren’t introduced until October 2005 when collection arrangements changed to alternate weekly. As people were already used to putting Black Box and Black Bin out together and the Green Bin on the other week, this is why the Blue Box was paired with the Green Bin.
There are no plans to change this arrangement as communicating the change to residents could cause confusion and may be costly.
However, the council is now selling small brown paper bags for wrapping food waste at cost price. You can buy a pack of 50 for £2 from the council depot on Mill Road (next to the bridge), City Homes North (171 Arbury Road, near the end of Campkin Rd) or City Homes South (89 Cherry Hinton Rd, near Hills Rd end). Alternatively you can have a pack posted to you for an extra £2.50 by calling 01223 458282.
Cambridge Matters is yet another self indulgent piece of propaganda which will do nothing to disguise the stench of rotting rubbish on our streets. The publicity bill for taxpayers is over £600,000 per year, money which should be spent on emptying the bins every week. Instead it is wasted on promoting a council which has increased taxes beyond inflation.
Until people are allowed a choice as to who empties their bin and when the service will continue to get worse.
I wonder what happens to all the waste copies of Cambridge Matters?
Paul Harvey
Hinton Avenue
We have very few waste copies of Cambridge Matters, because the print run is only what we need to cover our distribution. As the city is growing however we do try to anticipate this by slowly increasing the print run, and there are usually a few bundles left over (perhaps 500-1,000 magazines) which are then recycled.
I would just like to clarify also that the £600,000 figure mentioned is a total across the council and also includes costs such as recruitment advertising etc.
The waste is at the household level when they are put in the bin. Basically, sooner or later, people throw the magazine away. I estimate 10,000Kg of waste are produced by the magazine each year. How?
60g per copy, 42500 copies per issue, 4 issues per year.
60*42500*4/1000 = 10,080Kg. I wonder how many trees were cut down (from sustainable sources)
The overprint is very high. though some printers insist on being paid for over runs. The number of households in Cambridge does not vary by 500 to 1000 per quarter.
Cambridge Matters is losing money at the rate of about £20,000 pa: £16,000 on distribution and £4,000 on editorial costs – excluding overheads and your salary. Though you do more than just edit the magazine. On top of the £20,000 waste, one has to consider County Council advertising which comes out of our taxes. I reckon 4% of the £600,000 of publicity goes on Cambridge Matters. Perhaps it should be called Tax Payers Don’t Matter Magazine.
There is almost no interest in the magazine and this is reflected in the level of blog activity.
Much of the recruitment advertising can be put on the web.
Paul Harvey
Hinton Avenue
Cambridge
Vicky
I see from 2009/2010 council tax booklet that CCC spends six times as much on communications (ads and mags0 as it does on Highways, Roads and Transport which is budgeted at £106,000 for the coming year.
Indeed four years of losses on Cambridge Matters Magazine equals this years budget for roads and transport. Can it really be that Cambridge Matters Magazine is 25% as important as Roads and Transport?
Paul Harvey
Hinton Avenue
Cambridge
LOSSES TO DATE
Cambridge Matters has been published for four years at a loss of £25,000 per year, including overheads, the audio version and translated versions. That’s £100,000. Could this money have been spent better or just returned to the taxpayer?
Perhaps I should ask this question of CCC’s treasury official who deposited £9,000,000 in an Icelandic bank.
Paul Harvey
Hinton Avenue
Cambridge
Vicky
The level of interest can be judged by the number of people posting here. So far there are only two of us. Of the 55 visits, 40 will have been from me and quite a few from you. I visited the site many times on Friday trying to find out how it worked. The acid test is how many people post.
it might be of course that our following is increasing, but we have a long way to go before we match Susan Boyle.
I emailed my complaint to CCC today and asked that the magazine be closed. Perhaps your loyal readers will sign a petition to keep the magazine going.
It is surprising that no one has come to support my views or defend yours given the number of visits. Can you tell me how many reader letters you have published in the last two years or how many have wanted a letter published?
Paul Harvey
Hinton Avenue
Cambridge
Vicky
In a previous post I mentioned the WHO and bin emptying. I thought you might like the source of the quote for your readers and publication in the magazine.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2059129/Government-cover-up-over-axed-bin-collections.html
Paul Harvey
Hinton Avenue
Cambridge
Vicky – below is a quote from the Daily Telegraph
Official guidance from the government quango, Wrap, has told town halls how to get rid of weekly collections and overcome “public resistance”.
It advised the cuts should be done after local elections to stop people voting against them, and in the autumn or winter so that residents would not immediately notice the extra smells and vermin.
This is despite the fact that the World Health Organisation has called for weekly rubbish collections to protect public health. The report is understood to have been commissioned by ministers in 2005 and completed in 2006.
Vicky
Did CCC follow the advice from WRAP to suppress opposition and complaints. It is interesting that this year the changes come after local government elections and they are introduced in the Autumn, as they were in 2005.
Paul Harvey
There have been 9,600 visitors to the blog. So far today there have been 55 visitors, and 111 people visited on Friday.
Vicky
Commercial web sites count the number of unique visitors to their sites, based, I think, on the unique IP address.
Do you have access to this sort of figure then we could really know how much interest there is in the site and the magazine.
Paul Harvey
Hinton Avenue
Cambridge
Vicky
I see there is a place where one can subscribe to this site and get updates. How many people subscribe?
I couldn’t help but notice that until I started blogging on this site, the last post to this section was on 11th December, 2007 – about 16 months ago.
In that period there will have been five issues of Cambridge Matters Magazine published or some 5*42,500 = 215,500 copies produced. Why do you think so few have blogged on this site, given the volume of magazines distributed?
Paul Harvey
Hinton Avenue
Cambridge