Category Archives: News

How not to make friends and influence people…

12 Sep

12th September 2023

Suppose you offered to buy something very expensive for the benefit of walkers, cyclists and horse riders.

-The walkers hated the idea.
-The cyclists thought it would be disaster.
-The horse-riders said it would be worse than what they had now.
-Lots of people who didn’t walk, cycle or ride a horse said it would spoil their fun anyway.

They all agreed that you’d already bought some last year, but you hadn’t kept your promises to look after it and now it was a mess. They also thought that there were far more urgent, important things you could spend your money on.

Nobody, but nobody, liked the idea.

What would you do? Is it just possible that you might change your mind? Just how stubborn would you have to be to buy it anyway and make everybody unhappy?

No, we’re not talking about the latest iPhone. We’re talking about the totally daft proposal to cover Wilson’s Road in Longstanton – one of the few remaining pleasant, grassy footpaths in the area – with a hard gritty surface that absolutely nobody wants.

Why would anyone want to do that? Could it be that having built a big, flashy foot bridge over the new Southern Bypass they think it’s a bit, well, demeaning that people can only reach it via a pleasant, grassy, little footpath?

The message is clear. Wilson’s Road ain’t broke – don’t fix it!

(Yes, Ma. This is a message about the environment.)

Larksfield Nursery update

11 Sep

11th September 2023

It was in July 2022 that the issues with our groundwater caught the attention of the BBC. A Look East programme that month included a feature on the impact of the water loss on Larksfield Nursery and its owner, Clive Hayden.

Now we’ve been back to revisit Clive and find out how his business has fared over the intervening period.

You can read our article here.

Homes provision under Cambridge Local Plan called into doubt by concerns over water supply.

5 Jan

5th January 2023

Yesterday (4th January), South Cambs District Council published a lengthy article on its website questioning the level of future provision of new homes under the Cambridge Local Plan.

As it stands, this plan already envisages the building of 37,200 new homes in Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire over the next 20 years. However, forecasts that the number of jobs in the area could grow faster than expected could lead to an expansion in the the home-building program by up to 19,900 additional new properties.

Now concern is being expressed about the adequacy of water supplies to provide for this level of population increase, as well as other possible ‘unacceptable’ environmental damage such growth could cause. SCDC leader Bridget Smith said, “We have said from the very start of our work to develop this Joint Local Plan that it cannot be growth at all costs and that the environment – particularly the water supply – must be a central consideration. [..] We now need assurances about our future water supply before we can even consider bringing forward any more new homes than we have already planned for.”

Significantly, perhaps, Cllr Smith’s concerns appear to be triggered by the prospect of nearly 20,000 further new homes on top of the number already planned, rather than by the 37,000 already envisaged. Nevertheless, it is encouraging to see that concern about the environmental impact of new building is being felt in the corridors of power. It is up to every one of us to ensure that these concerns carry through into the planning process, rather than being merely lip-service to fashionable environmental awareness.

You can read the whole article here.

Fews Lane Consortium abandons its Judicial Review

29 Nov

29th November 2022

The Judicial Review brought by Fews Lane Consortium against South Cambs District Council has been discontinued by FLC on the eve of coming to court.

FLC had claimed that the process of granting planning permission for 4000 homes at Northstowe was flawed and should be reviewed. Expenses of £10,000 were awarded against Fews Lane Consortium in favour of SCDC. Although this is the maximum amount allowed, SCDC estimate the costs it had incurred at £45,000.

South Cambs’ statement is available on its website. As yet, FLC have made no comment.

Update: Fews Lane Consortium has now issued a statement. Read it here.

Northstowe Phase 1 lake water…

31 Oct

…where it comes from, nobody knows, where it goes is plain to see!

If you’ve taken a stroll by the Phase 1 lake recently, you’ll know that it’s looking a lot healthier than it was before the recent heavy rain. The sandbanks have disappeared and this morning I saw no fewer than fourteen swans in residence. Passing the outflow pipe at the eastern corner of the lake, I could see that the lake water was level with the bottom of the pipe: in short, the lake is now full.

A week or so earlier Clive Hayden (of Larksfield Nursery) passed the same outflow but also investigated the other end of the pipe where it discharges into Rampton Drain. It had been raining and the outflow was in full flow. He shot a video which you can see here. Clive commented “[..] obviously a large amount of surface run off from the clay layer they put on top. And no ground water increases as of yet.  [We] will need a lot of rain this winter to do any good.”

Hilary Stroude commented: “Why is water gushing off the Phase 1 site after rainfall on 22 October and the lake has filled so quickly yet the ponds, wells and I assume the aquifer have not filled. This shows at the very least that the Northstowe development with its drainage system is preventing trickle down to replenish the aquifer and is instead wasting all that water and sending it off site. That is dewatering – it is just using another way of doing it now.”

My walk this morning took me past the Kingfisher Pond and I can confirm that there is no additional water in that pond following the rains. Even if we accept that the Phase 1 lake has been replenished by rainwater run-off, it is clear that the clay layer distributed across Phase 1 is preventing recharge of the Longstanton aquifer.

Hilary Stroude again: “….there are clearly failures with the design of the Northstowe drainage and lake filling system that need to be addressed. As Bridget Smith said the original plans were designed to stop flooding and nothing else. This water discharge shows that the system to stop flooding is working whilst destroying the environment of the surrounding villages and Longstanton in particular.”

Proposed Fenland reservoir…

31 Oct

…information and survey published

Anglian Water have published a website devoted to the proposed new reservoir to be built in the Fens. This is a little off-topic for us, but is nevertheless a subject of interest to anybody interested in long-term water supply issues. The principles expressed on Anglian Water’s website are laudable:

Doubts have been expressed about the wisdom of building a shallow reservoir in a notably dry region of the UK and about the practicality of pumping large quantities of fresh water across miles of unstable fenland. In addition, the proposed date for the new reservoir to enter service is 2039-41, which offers no relief to our region’s current water shortage.

The Anglian Water website is an interesting read as background to our local issues. You can find it at:

https://www.fensreservoir.co.uk/

SCDC correspondence with Hilary Stroude

5 Oct

5th October 2022

On 27th August we published the text of a number of questions sent to SCDC leader Bridget Smith by Hilary Stroude. These question were themselves a follow-up to earlier questions Hilary put to the council at a council meeting in late July.

After a lengthy delay, responses to the follow-up questions have been received from Stephen Kelly, SCDC’s Joint Director of Planning. Below, we share those answers, together with Hilary Stroude’s response. It seems that questions continue to beget more questions.

Get comfortable – it’s a long read! As usual, your comments are invited.

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