There was a meeting of the Cambridge Approaches oversight group of parish councils on the 11th February 2021. We discussed the concept of sending a joint letter to the rail minister and transport secretary with the same text as the petition. No one spoke against the idea. The letter was subsequently ratified by parish councils and the resulting letter was sent to Chris Heaton-Harris and Grant Shapps on the 23rd February 2021. Click download to see the letter and its signatories from Cambourne town council to Trumpington resident’s association.
If you agree that we need a fair consultation on an approach to Cambridge north please sign the petition.
EWR Co. say there was a full consultation on this in 2019 and remind us that legally they didn’t have to do a consultation at all. The message from EWR Co.analysis of the consultation results is that option E is popular.
Was the 2019 consultation a fair consultation on a northern approach to Cambridge? Well …
- parishes north of the A428 were not consulted
- the northern approach was presented in the context of (flawed) reasons why it should not be adopted
- very few people were aware of the consultation in the option E area and highly affected parishes such as The Shelfords were not consulted.
- there were no consultation meetings in the option E area between Cambourne and Gt. Shelford
- results on the approach to Cambridge were mixed up with the Cambourne vs Bassingbourn station issue.
We intend to come back to the consultation results and the popularity of Option E in the 2019 consultation in a future post.
The petition calling for a fair consultation has now passed 7000 signatures which is the same as the total number of people that responded to the EWR Co. 2019 consultation with any view.
7 replies on “Parishes call for a Fair Consultation on CBRR Route”
I’ve just (in the last hour) come across this organisation, which has today published a paper on a strategy for the south East region, including three ‘growth arcs’.
Were you aware of them?
Best,
Link: http://www.englandseconomicheartland.com/our-work/publications-and-responses/
At the beginning of Lockdown 1 – March 2020 – we received request from EWR for Ecology Survey of our house in Harlton. I start started asking questions of neighbours, members of the community, and Parish Councils ….. there was no knowledge of EWR Option E. Our local village Parish Councils publish their meeting minutes – nothing on the agenda / no minutes. I became vocal and zoomed into my PC meeting and contacted Haslingfiled PC …. slight knowledge. The only people who new anything about EWR Option E were the people who EWR contacted to conduct Ecology Surveys. HOW WAS THIS FAIR. I do not accespt any reason for the lack of consultation on this project (e.g. COVIS 19). My questions have been poorly answered by EWR. They will not consult on the results of the Ecology Survey at my house and they want to return and do more! One year on ….. and there is now awareness of EWR Option E issue ….. but I am NO WISER TO ANY DETAIL ….. Quite frankly there is NO CONSULTATION and therefore IT HAS NOT BEEN FAIR ….. very poor performance EWR!
Hi Tom ,
I completely agree with your prospective , EWR have not done reasonable consultation period , their thinking is that they don’t have to and are not legally obliged to … LOL ,the only way I found anything out about the proposed Option E routing was by pure chance , seeing a Cambridge Approaches sign go up at the end of Harlton road , before this I had no clue. I receive parish news letters and so on, but only since the action group flagged up this matter , was it visible . It’s laughable and equally annoying to see in their written responses , that they consulted stakeholders , environmentalists ( the local community ), this is blatant misspeak ( lie) and by saying after the fact , oh well we did not even have to do this , is utter rubbish . They should be ashamed of their actions and approach , which is clearly not the correct approach . I do wish somebody who has a say in this process would step forward from EWR and become accountable , listen to what residents of SOuth Cambs are saying , loud and clear . Take another look at the Northern approach , and listen to locals in this regard .
LUKE Good job finding this – A good helpful link from within, the almost current view of EEH and the “Sub-national Transport Body (STB)”
Hopefully this link will work.
https://eeh-prod-media.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/Cambridge_South_Station_Infrastructure_Enhancements_November_2020.pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIA55ASWXJQN3DNTZK3%2F20210226%2Feu-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20210226T101627Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=e983a37d959ffe6f10222d12f52444733b9870c7d7170f07d387f65c6dc26fe8
There is a great disparity between EWR’s policies and their actions – I am stunned and utterly flabbergasted by the dishonesty and unfairness! Think Mr Blanchflower should come down to Harlton and get some feedback on his Option E alignment – which will be open, honest, fair and free of charge! The whole EWR Option E is a non-starter ….. can’t he listen to what people are saying (inc. CBRR, Cambridge Approaches, Wildlife Trusts, MP’s, County Councillors, District Councillors, Parish Councillors to name just a few?) …. North want it – South don’t …. what’s the problem? If this isn’t an open invitation to EWR to pursue their project I don’t know what is. I shake my head in utter dismay!
The entire and heartless manner in which this East/West route has been bandied about is undemocratic and uncaring. Plans are being steamrolled through in an arrogant manner without any thought for the people that matter, the general public. Our M.P. should be attending to these abominable tactics.