There have been a few updates on the redevelopment titled Cambridge East. I wrote about it in 2023 here.
TL/DR? Click here and start droppin’ those pins!
There are other things to comment on too.
Above – From Cambridge East on the themes of place given that this is the largest brownfield site within Cambridge’s 1935-era boundaries (I think it’s bigger than the waterworks site that Hartree are redeveloping.)
There are also updates to the Fens Reservoir consultation which closes on 09 August 2024
Above – a screengrab of a detail from their online map
You can see links to the documents here. I’ve said that if they are going to build a reservoir and new leisure facilities, they should combine it with a suburban or light rail link from Wisbech via March to Chatteris (reservoir and town) before heading onto Ely, then Soham, Newmarket via the restored chord, and then onto Cambridge with the sci-tech firms contributing towards new rail/light rail stops at Fulbourn, Cherry Hinton, and the various science parks en route to Cambridge Station (including the Beehive Centre). But that requires a level of co-ordination, organisation, and sequencing that is beyond our over-complicated system.
Don’t forget the Combined Authority’s Shared Ambitions!
I’ve submitted too many comments so you’ll have to submit your own instead.
And don’t forget what the Housing Minister said on the radio recently either!
And finally…
….there’s still the future of Local Government in Cambridge for you to contribute to – noting there is a consultation event on Sat 31 Aug from 10.30am at The Guildhall.
Oh – and for South Cambridge People, The Paddocks consultation also ends on 09 August.
“Our system of consultation is broken, isn’t it?”
Yep – reflected by the over-complicated governance structures that also require too much repetition.
One thing I’ve noticed with the larger redevelopment sites is that they are asking the same sorts of questions, just with different expensive consultants from far outside the city asking them. Which for me is bad form. For a place like Cambridge they should be ensuring they have staff embedded within their teams who have lived in/around the city for long enough to know what the local issues are and to nip any excruciating errors in the bud.
Furthermore, the entire system can be improved by combining consultations – especially where they are at the same stage of the planning and design process. That at least gives council planners and the public the chance to consider things in the round rather than the piecemeal consultations that we’ve had. Not least those where feedback is easily ignored by the less-civically-minded developers which maximise profits and wealth-extraction leaving the city with ill-designed developments. Again, it’ll be interesting to see what new policies ministers come up with.
Food for thought?
Oh – and if it wasn’t obvious, I’m avoiding blogging on the frightening things in the national news because stuff like that leaves me metaphorically paralysed. And there’s little constructive my own words could add anyway. In the medium-longer term, any community cohesion policies ministers come up with will have to involve an element of civic/citizenship learning on which public service does what, because both knowledge of, and trust in institutions seems to be particularly low at present. And dangerously so.
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