I asked Cambridge City Council for a progress update. The news that the University risks losing the planning permission because of time expiring astonished – and students should be absolutely furious over this.
You can listen to the response by Cllr Katie Thornburrow to my public question here
One for Cambridge University staff, students, and members
See The planning application concerned can be seen at https://applications.greatercambridgeplanning.org/online-applications/ typing in Ref: 16/1134/OUT at which point you will get a list (if you click on the ‘documents (326) tab) of documents that looks like this:
Above – via https://applications.greatercambridgeplanning.org/online-applications/ (type in the reference number)
Apart from providing Cambridge University students with a large swimming pool, the proposal was meant to provide residents in both Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire with access to a new swimming pool mindful that South Cambridgeshire does not have its own pool, so therefore all of its residents are dependent on provision by other local councils – such as Cambridge City Council.
Since Parkside Pool opened in the 1960s (thanks in part to half a century of campaigning by Newnham College’s Clara Rackham) the population of Cambridge (and the number of both University and private language school students) has risen considerably. Yet indoor swimming pool provision has not.
Back in the 2000s, a previous generation of Cambridge students campaigned for massive improvements in sports facilities.
I wrote about the above back in 2021 here
So why is your University dragging its feet on the swimming pool? Amongst other things it strikes me as a huge waste of money given the expense involved in getting plans drawn up, assessed by council officers and approved by councillors on planning committees? Who ultimately pays the price for that waste? The students in fees? Alumni in wasted donations? Local council tax payers in the wasted efforts of council officers and councillors?
As a ‘town’ person I’m not going to lecture anyone on ‘how’ to run a students campaign to get such a facility built. You know your colleges, bursars, proctors, masters, presidents, mistresses, fellows, and dons and so on far better than I ever will. That one of Cambridge’s most prestigious private schools was able to get their plans drawn up, approved, and construction started in a couple of years speaks volumes when it comes to Cambridge’s chronic inequalities.
“The hope was that the University would provide [a new swimming pool], through a S106 commitment, as part of its West Cambridge development; but it appears the University is in no hurry to deliver this. Yet the need still exists.”
Former Councillor Sam Davies MBE (Ind – Queen Edith’s 2021-23)
The risk is that the University of Cambridge reneges on its commitment to provide a much-needed piece of sporting and leisure infrastructure not just for its own students but for the city and surrounding villages. I complained bitterly when Pro Vice Chancellor Andy Neely said that the University and Colleges were separate institutions when it came to funding such facilities in response to a question I put to him last year – noting that they are only separate institutions ‘when it suits them’ but then they are presented as one and the same when publicising their total donations from alumni.
But what influence do I have as a disabled local resident long since unable to work full time? None.
Yet as that previous cohort and generation of students in the late 2000s demonstrated, collectively you can change the policies of your colleges and your university. They persuaded your institution/s to commit to the policies and plans for a new large swimming pool for Cambridge funded by the University. It’s now up to you and your generation to make them deliver on it. Over to you.
(Also, while I’ve got your attention – start thinking about organising hustings/public debates for the Cambridge City Council elections in May 2024, and the general election due to follow.)
If you are interested in the longer term future of Cambridge, and on what happens at the local democracy meetings where decisions are made, feel free to:
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