The final two public events are coming up on Saturday and Tuesday (see EWR for details) and it’s worth considering what emerging role the new town of Cambourne will play in the future of city and county
Before I start, a reminder of next Sunday’s informal TeaCambs2 gathering at Stir Cafe on Cherry Hinton Road from 2.30pm for anyone in South Cambridge who is otherwise bored or needs to get out of the house. Last Sunday we looked at maps and things, and chances are we’ll do so again only this time informed by what East West Rail have told us.
“The number of people active in local democracy feels much smaller now than just over a decade ago, when both councillors and officers were much more prominent – and commentators and the public were also much more visible.”
At a time when our city and county really needs a vibrant local democracy and civic society sector, I can’t help but feel that we have the opposite at the moment. Furthermore, the roots of it all are so complex and multiple that it’s not possible to lay the blame on any one individual. Not locally anyway. With that also in mind, see People, Planet, Pint meeting up on 06 Feb at the Station Tavern – sign up to get your free drink from the sponsors. Additionally, see the list of events from Transition Cambridge who email these around fortnightly. My point is that given the implosion of conversational social media, more of us need to do something different if we are to avoid a fate of the future of our city being decided for us. And I got a glimpse of what that looked like when the planners and property professionals came to an event in Cambridge – an event where hardly any familiar local faces (even from the sector) were there.
Hence I believe there is a role for people in our city to go to these corporate events and listen and engage – even if it’s only to ask that awkward question or three on local engagement that otherwise gets overlooked by the panels.
Another example is Building New Communities in London by RIBA. There is so much to feed in given the experience of Cambourne and Northstowe, and so much to learn from elsewhere about what we can do, and what we must avoid.
East West Rail and Cambourne – the land rights have already been snapped up
I wrote about this back in May 2023 here
Above – from a presentation to Bourn Parish Council in 2021
The protected land designated by the Transport Secretary can be explored here
Peter Freeman in response to my question at the earlier planning event told me that councils should send him their infrastructure wish lists for what an expanded Greater Cambridge needs. Cambourne Town Council? That includes you! I really hope local residents there can come up with a wonderful vision for what we now know will be a new railway station for the town.
If there’s one thing to avoid, it’s a Minimum Viable Product design
Back in December 2023 at Rail Future’s annual meeting in Cambridge, Martin Seiffarth of Network Rail told us all about
Above – Martin Seiffarth of Network Rail
I’m glad Mr Seiffarth told us all about it because now we know what to avoid and how to avoid it. I.e. Network Rail’s design manual for medium and small stations from 2022 which is here
Above – fig 4.15 from Network Rail’s design guidance for medium to small stations (2022)
***Anyone who insists on such dull, bland, boring architecture should be….!!!!!***
…Please don’t get me started!
My point being that one of the best things Cambourne Town Council (or South Cambridgeshire District Council for that matter) can do *now* is to procure a new master planner who can design a brand new station square and civic centre that can become that central point for the new town – something it really lacks. Not surprisingly, in those early days the settlement incurred the wrath of the late Robin Page.
“It’s built to too high a density, with far too few facilities and it’s built in the wrong place. It’s built on a greenfield site with a brownfield site undeveloped next to it, which is quite remarkable. So, how did that happen?”
The late Robin Page to BBC Cambridgeshire, 11 July 2008.
Such was the ferocity of his criticism that someone put it on a t-shirt
Above – don’t worry, other parts of Cambridge also get a kicking. (As an aside, I’d love to see the Museum of Cambridge engage with schools to encourage children in and around our city to come up with new t-shirt designs for their area. Eg Coleridge: Beware of our dragon! (Only it might talk politics to you!))
“What does the plan look like?”
It’s still at conceptual stage at the moment but given what Savills have published here for Martin Grant Homes, politicians need to be ramping up the pressure on the land owners, developers, and their consultants to ensure that the shortcomings of Cambourne – in particular the lack of facilities and amenities, along with the failures of governance and urban design, are remedied. I have however gone back to their vision document here, tucked away in the ‘supporting evidence’ tab. (Feel free to explore other large sites submitted to the GCSP – see my guide here)
***Yeah, whoever designed that grey carbuncle really should be….!!!!!***
…taken to a Create Streets event and made to read their back catalogue until they’ve memorised everything?
Above – bland ugly stuff that makes developers lots of money but new research is revealing that such designs are actually bad for our physical and mental health. Have a listen to Thomas Heatherwick on BBC Radio 4 here.
Above – I wrote more about Heatherwick’s work in this post
How Cambourne can avoid the fate of becoming a dormitory town for Cambridge overspill
- Don’t let your imagination be restricted by what developers’ profits will allow
- Don’t let contemporary architectural trends restrict your imagination either – especially if they are the sorts of designs that are popping up over the world. (Think of what you’d like to be unique to Cambourne)
- Keep lobbying and campaigning – focusing your efforts on the larger institutions (not least because that’s what your opponents are doing), and even hold some public events facilitated by senior politicians where residents can cross-examine the developers and paymasters. (i.e not the paid-for consultants who all-too-often act as a fire-shield)
- Lobby the Combined Authority to put on something in the adult education and lifelong learning budgets to enable people to learn about citizenship, politics, town and transport planning. (Because at the moment there’s nothing).
- Additionally, see the publications by the Great-Shelford-based Independence Educational Publications which are aimed at teenage audiences and adults who work with them in order to facilitate debate. They have specialist guides on housing, sustainable transport, and government.
In particular, when people step out of Cambourne Station whether northwards or southwards, what sort of scene would take their breath away? What would make them go: ***Wow!***?
Above – from the North Cambourne vision document here (click on the supporting evidence’ tab)
For me?
Stepping out on the northern side to see a beautiful civic hall that’s also the home of an expanded Cambourne Town Council, with a further education centre on the left (spilling out over onto open green space behind it), and a retail and entertainment precinct designed for small independent shops behind it.
On the other side of the railway line near a southern entrance, I’d look at the sort of leisure and sports facility that Cambridge could not host because of land values being too expensive. Because if the Minister’s ambitions for your town – with up to 40,000 new homes, is realised, that will give a population of around 100,000 people. Which is where Cambridge was at in the late 20th Century.
What could Cambourne host that would be popular with residents and also draw in business and custom from both Cambridge to the east, and St Neots to the west? I.e. making it a destination rather than a dormitory?
Food for thought?
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The Cambridge Town Owl 