Cambridge Biomedical Campus Open Forum – 15 Dec 2025

Posted byCambridge Town OwlPosted inUncategorized

The mainstream media has picked up on something I blogged about back in September – the creation of a replacement for the current Addenbrooke’s Hospital

[Updated 10 December 2025]

You can read:

…only I’m old enough to remember the road signs in the 1980s on Hills Road Bridge pointing to the ‘New Addenbrooke’s’ because the Old Addenbrooke’s opposite the Fitzwilliam Museum was still a thing.

Want to find out more?

Sign up for the Cambridge Biomedical Campus Open Forum on Monday 15. December from 5.30pm to 7pm at

The Hub, one of the AZ buildings.

Above – the CBC Forum for December – details here

In the hour after, I’m tempted to host an informal discussion on the Future of Cambridge with the local plan maps and things in the Hub’s new bar, which closes at 8pm. This will be the day after The Queen Edith Community Cafe which is on Nightingale Avenue at the Pavilion from 2-4 pm (on 14 December 2025)) where I will also be holding an informal discussion. Cllrs Blackburn-Horgan and Young are also expected to be there for any constituency-specific issues too. See also:

[Update 10 December 2025]

“Why is this in the news now? Wasn’t it important enough in September?”

Good question – but not for me to answer. Essentially the new acute hospital / Addenbrooke’s 3 is one of the key pillars supporting growth. I’ve written lots about my experiences in A&E about what it’s like being in a place serving four times the people it was designed for. What made me think this was not just a standard catch-up media piece was the photographs of both Sian Coggle of CUH-NHS, and South Cambridgeshire MP Pippa Heylings in the news piece. Because that involves real reporting and having to go out on site rather than simply browsing through meeting papers. (Which reminds me – the Board of Directors Meeting is later today – 10 Dec 2025).

Peter Freeman’s Cambridge Growth Company intervenes

At the meeting on 09 December 2025 at the Guildhall, Peter Freeman of the Cambridge Growth Company brought along a team to take questions from councillors – see my write up here. In the slides he confirmed that the CGC had been able to progress the scheme.

And on Rail Future East in Cambridge earlier

It was standing room only for a content-heavy event which also had a presentation from Sarah Hughes of the Cambridgeshire Sustainable Travel Alliance on all things integrated transport infrastructure. In a nutshell Cambridge does not have integrated transport infrastructure. We have things that sort-of pass for it, but the fragmentation of public services in the UK means we can’t have nice things that they have in other countries like in Denmark and The Netherlands.

There are additional calls for trams including the re-statement from Rail Future East here and the confirmation that the CSTA mentioned above will also be campaigning for trams and light rail in the new year, dove-tailing the work being done by the Campaign for Better Transport.

For more info about campaigning for better rail services and infrastructure, and for membership, see Rail Future East here.

And a reminder about the Cambridge Growth Company’s visit

Chairman Peter Freeman will be taking questions from councillors on Tuesday 09 December at The Guildhall from 5.30pm. The only person who tabled a public question for him in time was…me!

So if you want any issues raised, drop your councillors an email.

And on a recently-arrived pamphlet from 1983

I wrote a blogpost in Lost Cambridge about this publication from the long-since-vanquished Advisory Council for Adult and Continuing Education. The Council was abolished by Margaret Thatcher’s Government in the same year.

Above – Political Education for Adults (1983) ACACE digitised here

Turns out it takes far more than a handful of evening classes to get a city politically literate – which is not surprising. But the list of other factors involved means bringing back anything in the way of political education for adult requires much more careful thought and co-operation.

Any takers for 2026?

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: