Expect this to be included in Peter Freeman’s plans for the growth of Cambridge even though it is not in the current Cambridge Local Plan 2018-30, nor is it in the emerging local plan’s first proposals
First things first, see their proposals here.
Second things second, go to their consultation events :
“You can find out more and share views at public exhibitions on:
- Thursday 18th September between 4-8pm and
- Saturday 20th September between 10-2pm at the Waterside Suite, The Trinity Centre, CB4 OFN.
If you are unable to attend, the consultation materials will be available on our website from 18th September which we encourage you to provide your feedback on our draft masterplan until Friday 10th October 2025.”
The consultation site also states:
“We want the local community to help shape our ideas for the future of the project.”
…to which my cynical kneejerk response (having followed planning applications in Cambridge small to gigantic for the best part of 15 years) is:
***No you don’t. You are owned by Trinity College which was established by Henry VIII. Democratic processes and community consultation come as naturally to you as it did with your founder. You already have very firm ideas of what you want to get built and intend to sub-contract the community-facing elements to ensure you can get away with the bare minimum in order to get your proposals through the planning system – just like every other developer.***
Actually, my general approach these days (as I said to Crown Estates when I met them earlier this year) is that my long experience of consultations with developers, their consultants and contractors, has not been a pleasant one. Given my public policy background in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government prior to all of this, and given that both of my brothers are qualified town planners, convince me that you are different to all of the others.
It’ll be interesting to see who Trinity College Cambridge and the Cambridge Science Park have commissioned to undertake the various consultancy roles. Are they local firms or will we be faced with yet another group of London-based consultants who know nothing about the city and surrounding villages?
Note this is also something Cambridge University students can also pick up on if they are looking for local social justice campaigns on town issues – one they can make a *real difference* to the residents of some of the most economically-deprived wards in Cambridgeshire. Can they persuade Trinity College’s finance committee to do more than the bare minimum for the residents of Arbury and King’s Hedges in one of the most unequal cities in the country? Noting also how wealthy Trinity College’s endowment is.
“Why are there no pictures in their future vision?”
They say the boards will be published after the first consultation event. But this is not the first time Trinity College and the Science Park has made a bid for expansion. (I’m a neuro-diverse historian who blogs far too much and doesn’t get out much – which means I keep the receipts. Or rather, there’s likely to be a previous blogpost somewhere!). Here’s one plan from a 2021 blogpost:
Hidden away on the Greater Cambridge Planning Service website is also a document somewhere that Trinity College submitted back in 2019 in the call for sites for the emerging local plan 2031-40. At the moment I can’t find it because the GCSP keep changing their weblinks! But I downloaded the document at the time
Above – from March 2019 – Bidwells for Trinity College Cambridge
Above – detail from Bidwells (2019) p9
Note the bias against local residents built in. Local history tells us that a much-needed large park for North Cambridge residents was not secured by previous generations, and Darwin Green does not provide for local residents in Arbury (hence a huge risk of overuse of the green spaces and facilities that are being provided by that development). Access to the potential country park is not as the closes and most convenient point for residents of King’s Hedges and Orchard Park. Given that 20% of Cambridge residents do not have cars, easy access for pedestrians is essential. This does not do that.
“Can’t Trinity College say that these plans have been scrapped?”
They could – similar to what Marshalls did with their 2008-era concrete carbuncle airport plans.
“To be fair, they published a 2050 vision 2021 – the Cambridge Independent wrote about it here“.
That is for the existing science park site. (This is what I like about local democracy’s interface with local history – you can see how the history of a place develops in real time knowing that you can come back to something later on. )
Above – the 2050 vision by Trinity College from March 2021 which you can browse through here
Above – the 2050 vision by Trinity College from March 2021 pp32-33.
At the end of the year (2021), Trinity College submitted their proposals for ‘Science Park North’ to the local councils
“Why didn’t you blog about it?”
Because I was in hospital (and because December is a convenient time to bury controversial decisions!) Anyway, you can view the document here
Above – CSPN (2021) p37 – the same issue of the lack of easy open green space access to King’s Hedges residents remains a big issue for me
This is where the Green Bridge concept could work really well – as described in this piece featuring Richard Taylor in the Cambridge News. This was expanded upon by Charlie Stuart in an online talk for the old Cambridge Commons group
Above – screengrab of “Architecture, health inequalities, and healthy place-making in Cambridge” by Charlie Stuart, then of the University of Cambridge, for The Cambridge Commons.
Trinity College and colleagues should get in touch with Charlie and ask her to re-present her proposals because they are absolutely ground-breaking and pioneering.
The amenities wish list
Recall what Peter Freeman CBE called for earlier this year!
Furthermore, recall ‘The Cambridge Science Park has a moral duty to respond to the poverty on its doorstep’ – what I took away from a presentation two years ago from Jane Hutchins, the Director of Cambridge Science Park Ltd.
“The Director of Cambridge Science Park Ltd, Jane Hutchins, said it was “not right” that for all the wealth being generated by firms on the science park, King’s Hedges ward remains one of the most economically deprived parts of Cambridge and Cambridgeshire – in a city that is the most unequal in the country.”
Above – From CTO 14 June 2023 following my visit to the Science Park at the first Open Cambridge
…which was a baking hot day. Have a watch of the video below. (Pictured: Clara Rackham who spent half a century trying to get a new indoor municipal swimming pool built for our city!)
Above – vlogpost for a new swimming pool for North Cambridge – 14 June 2023
I remain of the view that a new swimming pool (named after Clara!) should be built in North Cambridge at King’s Hedges by the busway stop for the Cambridge Science Park. I repeated the call in a more recent planning application on the science park.
Anyway, if you got this far, well done. Now have your say on the future of the science park!
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