Challenging the Growth Machine in Cambridge

The Financial Times' 'long read'  ‘Can Cambridge be a model for kick-starting the British economy?' featured Friends of the Cam steering group member Wendy Blythe stressing the problems that the growth proposals will cause for the river and local communties. A response from steering group member Terry Macalister was published a couple of days later - Cambridge Growth Plan doesn't endear locals. Wendy was speaking as the Chair of the Federation of Cambridge Residents' Associations (FeCRA) which is hosting Peter Freeman, Chair of the Government's new quango 'Cambridge Growth Company', to account for the impact this will have on the social and natural infrastructure. Make your concerns known about the Cambridge Growth juggernaut  by coming to the FeCRA event at Great St Mary's, May 15th 7-9pm. Booking on Eventbrite here. 

As the Government seems intent on ‘supersizing’ Cambridge - with plans to increase the population between 3 and 5 times, and the development of water-hungry data processing centres and laboratories - we need to do all we can to resist the destruction of our chalk streams, our communities, and what is left of local democracy. Meanwhile we await the announcement of the Government's decision on the removal of the Milton Waste Water Treatment Plant to Honey Hill, on nearby Green Belt land. Anglian Water has admitted that it does not need to do this (Haslingfield sewage works is in a much worse state than the Milton works), but stands to gain financially from the sale of the North Cambridge site. Meanwhile, data released by the Environment Agency on March 27 reports that Anglian Water has had the largest increase in raw sewage release of all English water companies: 448,938 hours worth of raw sewage release; a 64% increase on 2023.