The hearing began today (16 Sept 2025) and the inquiry papers are here
“About 300 objections have been made to a planned two-lane guided busway linking Cambourne to Cambridge away from existing roads.”
Above – from BBC Cambridgeshire 16 Sept 2025
The inquiry is being live-streamed on the Greater Cambridge Partnership’s YT Channel here
The opening case starts at 1h35m here which makes the case for the party political backing for the growth of Cambridge – starting with the Conservative Government’s ‘Case for Cambridge’ document.
“Pressured public transport and poor connectivity is constraining the local economy, wasting time, and inefficient for everyone”
Interestingly the introductory remarks in the opening case refers to Michael Gove’s Case for Cambridge from March 2024. This was also followed by a reference to statements by the current Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook – such as this written statement to Parliament in October 2024.
“Life science firms contribute £3billion to the UK economy annually…. The size of the economic prize is significant… Unleashing the economic potential of Cambridge is a national imperative”
Above – from the opening statement of the case, setting the economic background.
“The City Deal is the principle funding mechanism to tackle these challenges”
Oh dear!
Put it this way, there are more than a few research projects from across the spectrum of academia (from secondary school projects all the way up to Ph.D-level theses) that may want to answer the following:
“To what extent has the Greater Cambridge City Deal been successful in tackling the growth and infrastructure challenges of Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire District?”
I’ll leave it there for now. In the meantime, note that since the City Deal was signed off, Cambridgeshire has had ***three transport strategies*** and is currently working on a fourth – see my previous blogpost on this week’s CPCA Transport Committee meeting.
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