EWR Briefing and Discussion

Date: 26th March 2024
Time: 20:00-21:30
Online (see below for how to register)

As we lead up to the planned EWR statutory consultation in June, the CA Working Group will be holding an online Zoom meeting on the 26th March 2024 from 20:00, consisting of several short presentations (see agenda topics below) followed by a discussion. This meeting is targeted at local residents along the proposed route from Highfields Caldecote to Trumpington and others concerned about the justification and construction of this railway, green field housing and loss of green belt land etc. The more the merrier. It is not intended for employees of EWRCo. lovely though they are.

Here is the current agenda (we might tweak it bit before the meeting).

Timing	Who	What
2000-2005	William Harrold	Introductions
2005-2015	Leigh Carter	History
2015-2025	William Harrold	Economics
2025-2035	Annabel Sykes	Cambridge Biomedical Campus
2035-2045	David Revell	Construction Impact
2045-2055	Frank Mahon	Experience in Buckinghamshire
2055-2130	All	Discussion

Leigh has been following the EWR story for years and will give an introduction to the history for people not familiar with the topic starting in 2021.

I (William) have been trying to understand the economic justification for building the Bedford to Cambridge section of the railway and some of the wider implications of the project. I also attended the Transport Select Committee oral hearing on EWR on the 6th March 2024 and wrote about my reflections on that here. Its fair to say that I am not entirely convinced about the case for building it.

Annabel has been closely involved in discussions on the proposed development of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and it’s further expansion into the Cambridge green belt. This turns out to be very relevant to the case for EWR (such as it is). Unfortunately, she cannot attend live, but we hope to record her presentation beforehand.

David is a civil engineer and will give a talk about what we could expect during the construction of the railway and on the great wall of South Cambridgeshire. See our previous posts (here and here) on this from 2021. These were before we had really thought about what it would look like during construction.

Frank is a councillor from Buckinghamshire who has experienced EWR construction over the last several years and he will share his thoughts. He met the CA working group recently and told us that “he would not wish it on his worst enemy”.

To take part in the meeting you will need to register in advance:

1. Sign up for a free Zoom account here.
2. Click this registration link and register for the meeting by providing your name and email address. We would appreciate it if you use your real name so that we know who is speaking in the discussion.
3. You should then receive a link to the meeting in an email sent to the email address that you registered. You can also join by phone on the phone numbers provided in your registration email.
4. What could possibly go wrong?! email info@cambridgeapproaches.org if you are stuck.

Meeting etiquette: The plan is to run through the presentations and then have a discussion at the end. Please stay on mute unless you are speaking. It’s a good idea to register early and arrive for the meeting on time because our zoom subscription limits the number of participants.

Recording: We plan to record the presentations so that you and others can see them later, but not the discussion.