Earlier today, Cambridge City Council confirmed that ministers had pulled the funding for the relocation of the Milton sewage works on the northern edge of Cambridge
You can read the press release here.
One group breathing a sigh of relief are the Save Honey Hill campaigners who spent years opposing the proposals – and spending a fair amount of money in doing so as well. I don’t know if it’s bittersweet that the proposals have been dropped because of rising costs rather than on the other shortcomings that they raised.
“What does it mean for the Hartree development?”
As good as gone. Nothing can be done if the sewage works don’t move. And they won’t move because the costs of doing to without Government support are even more prohibitive.
I’m gutted for all of those that worked on the scheme – and those who campaigned against it as well, because it makes me wonder what it was all for.
Just over 2 years ago I observed the exchanges between the developers and opponents at the 2023 Strawberry Fair in Cambridge.
One of the main reasons for the redevelopment proposals was that as a large brownfield site in Cambridge, it was ideal for building houses on – if the costs of moving the sewage works to another site, and the land remediation, were borne by the state. Which is why local politicians under the auspices of the first CPCA Mayor James Palmer made a successful bid for central government funds back in 2018. Having received that approval, the planning applications then needed to be drawn up – mindful of the pandemic and lockdowns which would have inevitably have delayed things.
Such was the time that took to get ‘all the ducks lined up in a row’ for the Secretary of State to approve the application (against the advice of his own planning inspectors), that we now find ourselves in this strange situation of one Cabinet Minister having approved the planning application to relocate the water infrastructure only to have another Cabinet Minister pulling the funding at the last minute.
“What happens now?”
Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council now have to find a new set of sites to compensate for the loss of North East Cambridge. Also, it makes the current North East Cambridge Area Action Plan obsolete, so that will need revamping at extra expense as well.
“How much did this all cost?”
Stop asking difficult questions!
Actually, that’s one of the more depressing features about it – something that is common in the built environment sector: A huge amount of money and resources can be expended on paperwork, and the net result of all of it is absolutely nothing.
It will be interesting to see if the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service come back with an additional call for sites, or whether that will be a piece of work taken out of their hands by the Cambridge Growth Company.
Keep an eye out for the press releases in early September.
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:
- Follow me on BSky <- A critical mass of public policy people seem to have moved here (and we could do with more local Cambridge/Cambs people on there!)
- Like my Facebook page
- Consider a small donation to help fund my continued research and reporting on local democracy in and around Cambridge.
The Cambridge Town Owl 