Slides and responses to the questions have now been published – as have the papers for the next Greater Cambridge Partnership Assembly
Also, early notice for Rail Future East’s annual meeting in Cambridge: This year it avoids clashing with the Mill Road Winter Fair!
- Rail Future East’s AGM
- …will be on Sat 28 November 2026,
- Mill Road Community Centre, 6 Hazell Street CAMBRIDGE, CB1 2GN
- The speaker will be Stuart Ratcliffe, head of external communications at the East West Rail Company
- Mill Road Winter Fair will be on Sat 05 December 2026.
CUH NHS Trust’s Annual Public Meeting 2026
You can see their slides and Q&A here
The slides are very broad summaries so don’t expect in-depth reports. But if you are interested in the work of the NHS Trust, have a look at their free membership scheme which keeps local residents informed of what’s happening.
The questions asked by the public about the future of the hospital and the CBC site included:
- When is the Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital expected to open?
- How is CUH ensuring that planned population growth is matched by sufficient acute hospital capacity, land and funding?
- What is the current position and future plan for The Willows ward?
- When and how will CUH renew the ageing parts of the hospital, and what are the Trust’s priorities?
The text of the Questions & Responses is here, scroll down.
After the previous year’s AGM I wrote about their risk register – and why so many of those risks landed at the desks of ministers
You can see that blogpost here
It’s useful to pick up on some of the things in that blogpost because some of you may want to pick up and run with them. The first was on their patient capacity – recalling that back in mid-2025 I was one of those in-patients.
One thing I called for in the blogpost on the risk register last year was:
“The CUH NHS Board should sit down with their fellow senior public sector executives from partner organisations – and their Political executive office holders (such as the CPCA Mayor, the Leaders of each local council within the Addenbrooke’s catchment, and the Members of Parliament for each constituency within that same catchment – mindful that this also includes the Leader of the Opposition whose constituency is North West Essex, just over the county border with South Cambridgeshire District.”
12 months ago I wrote about their 2025 AGM
You can read what I wrote here
At the time the future of public transport infrastructure for Cambridge was still a thing – hence mentioning this.
Above – what National Audit Office said about Light Rail 20 years ago.
Since then, the public inquiry to the CSET Busway from Addenbrooke’s to the A11 has commenced, which I wrote about here.
Above – the Public Inquiry landing page for the Cambridge South East Transport busway proposals. the CUH NHS Trust has lodged an objection to the scheme calling for changes to ensure emergency vehicle access is not compromised
In case you missed the essentials, you can read:
- The core documents for the CSET inquiry here
- The statements of case from the applicant and those parties with interests including the objectors here
- Go along to the Greater Cambridge Partnership Assembly meeting on 15 October 2026 at Cambridge Guildhall, remembering to table any public questions in advance. (Especially if they relate to issues in the CSET Public Inquiry papers that criticise the GCP)
Cambridge South West Travel Hub – proposed plans
You can read the papers here – as above this will be discussed at the same meeting on 15 October 2026 at Cambridge Guildhall. The same public questions protocols apply.
The full business case is now up for the big park and ride on the south side of the M11 south of Trumpington.
The travel hub is at the blue and white circle labeled M11 which basically means the busway buses from the Railway Station and Addenbrooke’s/CBC will go from the Trumpington Park and Ride round the back of Waitrose, under the M11 and onto the new SW Cambridge Travel Hub.
“This paper is to agree the Full Business Case for the project and agree to appoint
the contractor for construction, beginning in early 2027″
Above – GCP Item 7 p3
Below: The proposed South West Travel Hub with the M11 in greys (J11 Hauxton) from top-centre to bottom-right)
It’s nothing special – it’s even more basic than the one at Trumpington. Interestingly there business case states:
- There is no confirmation that any bus operators will want to run services from there (although chances are someone will – whether through existing systems or if franchising has been brought in, via the Mayor)
- There is no commercial agreement for any outlets to provide services – which makes me wonder whether the design will evolve should someone show an interest and want something more substantial than a box with a pitched roof of a building.
Bottisham and Swaffam Greenways
Other than the inability to figure out how to get round district council boundaries set in the 1970s which themselves were based on earlier rural and urban district boundaries, you can see how the north eastern rural areas outside of Cambridge don’t really get much in the way of greenways. But they managed to do something for Bottisham and Swaffham so it’s nice they’re getting something!
Above – Bottisham business case, p2
No one has as yet figured out which roads to designated as cycleways to enable better cross-city cycling on an east-west basis.
A challenge for future generations?
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
- Spot me on LinkedIn
- Like my Facebook page
- Consider a small donation to help fund my continued research and reporting on local democracy in and around Cambridge
