Coton Orchard Public Inquiry Underway
Our team is making the case for an alternative route for the Cambourne-Cambridge Busway, to avoid a new road being built through Coton Orchard wildlife site.
A public inquiry is underway to consider whether permission should be given to build a new bus road between Cambourne and Cambridge, known as a busway.
The new road is proposed by our local councils and would run through open countryside along the side of Madingley Hill. It would go through land that is owned by our charity and held in order to protect the setting of Cambridge and the historic village of Coton. It would also go through the middle of Coton Orchard Wildlife Site and through the greenbelt next to Cambridge.
Cambridge Past, Present & Future is working with Coton Parish Council and the local community to put forward an alternative route for this environmentally damaging scheme. We are seeking to demonstrate to the inquiry that it would be possible to build a bus lane next to the A1303 and that this would deliver the improvements in public transport that are needed to enable the planned housing development at Bourn Airfield to go ahead – without the environmental harm of the busway.
To make our case to save the Orchard and its wildlife, we have secured the services of a solicitor, a barrister, an ecologist, two transport professionals, an engineer and an academic with an interest in carbon emissions. Our team will be giving their evidence to the inquiry in the middle of October, you can read our opening statement here.
In the meantime, we have been cross-examining the council’s evidence, calling into question the transport and economic modelling used to justify the busway. Members of the local community have also bravely taken to the stand to give their perspective to the inspectors and to be questioned in public.
We are incredibly grateful to everyone who is supporting this campaign and those who have donated to the fundraising appeal, which is enabling us to make the best case we can to protect the wildlife of Coton Orchard and the landscape of Cambridge for future generations.
The inquiry continues until 21 November and you can click here to follow on livestream or watch again.
