South East Cambridge Busway
CambridgePPF is part of the coalition and we are raising funds to pay for legal and professional costs to submit our objections to the government and make the case for the alternative scheme.
Latest News
On 9 January 2025 the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) submitted an application to the Department for Transport for permission to build a 5-mile bus road through the southeast Cambridge countryside. The application is for a Transport & Work Act Order which includes the compulsory purchase of land. Anyone wishing to object to the plans has until 28 February 2025 to do so. If there are significant objections then a public inquiry would be called, which would consider the pros and cons of the plans.
Background Information
The Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) is proposing to improve journeys into south east Cambridge from the A11 and A1307, using funds from central government.
The main focus of this project is to encourage commuters to use a large new Park & Ride car park close to the A11 and then use the bus for their journey into Cambridge. The project aims to reduce travel times and cut peak-hour traffic congestion on the A1307 into Cambridge. Their preferred option is to build a new 5 mile bus road through open countryside from Babraham village to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
A new Park & Ride site would be built between Babraham and the A11. From the Biomedical Campus, the buses would join the existing guided busway route to Cambridge Rail Station and then from the station the buses would travel on roads to the Drummer Street bus station in central Cambridge.
The bus road would be 14 metres wide and made of tarmac and concrete. It would run through open countryside (Green Belt) and would be very damaging to the landscape and habitats and so we are campaigning for an alternative bus scheme which delivers similar economic and transport benefits, is much more environmentally friendly and would save the tax-payer (that’s you) around £100m.
This video shows some of the landscape that would be impacted:
The route alignment of the proposed 5-mile road is shown below:
The busway would be tarmac and look like a road. Two new bridges would be needed to cross the River Granta twice and Hobson’s Brook chalk stream would be put into a tunnel. New bus stops will also be built in the countryside, introducing urban features such as traffic lights, signs, lighting and disabled/drop-off parking. See images below:
Possible design of Park & Ride site:
The impact of this scheme will be especially damaging where it runs along the lower slopes of the Gog Magog Hills, between Nine-Wells Nature Reserve and the east of Stapleford village. It will run through a new country park that is currently being created and it will be visible from Magog Down, a popular countryside attraction which people visit for the wonderful views.
The GCP has a website with full details of the scheme, click here.
As well as the impact of this new road through the countryside, it will sever farmland on the edge of villages, which will put this land at much greater risk of future housing development, which will degrade the Green Belt countryside further. Already developers have put forward proposals to build on this land in anticipation of the bus road.
There are less-damaging alternatives that deliver the aims of faster, more reliable journeys.
Alternative 1.
Sections of new bus lane on the A1307 from Babraham to Hinton Way with a final bus road section from Hinton Way to reach the Biomedical Campus.
Traffic congestion is mainly concentrated at the Cambridge end of the A1307, in particular between the Hinton Way roundabout and the city centre. So, there is a strong case for building a bus road from the Hinton Way roundabout to the Biomedical Campus and onto the Guided Busway. This would also serve a future expansion of the Campus which is proposed in the next Local Plan. From the A11 to Hinton Way, congestion is limited to certain sections and where that is the case, bus lanes can be provided next to the road (A1307) so
that buses can avoid getting delayed in traffic. This alternative is shown in green below.
This scheme would deliver most of the benefits of the GCPs proposed scheme but with much less harm to the green belt countryside and the environment, at a much lower cost and could be delivered in stages more quickly, thus helping to solve traffic problems sooner. It would also serve more of the Biomedical Campus, including the new children’s hospital.
So, why hasn’t the GCP considered this? They did, in fact it is the first scheme that they came up with. However they dropped it in favour of building through the countryside mainly because the previous Cambridgeshire Mayor, James Palmer, required a bus road that was fully separated from traffic to form part of his plans for a future Cambridgeshire Autonomous Metro.
There has been a change of Mayor and the Metro is no longer being progressed. Time for a rethink? That’s what we have been asking for.
Click here for a fuller briefing on this alternative scheme and comparison with the GCP’s across countryside proposals.
Alternative 2.
Re-open a Haverhill to Cambridge railway
This option was considered at an early stage but discounted due to having a low cost to benefit ratio. However, as it turns out, the GCPs scheme also has a similarly low cost to benefit ratio!
Re-opening a railway is supported by local MPs and RailFutures but was opposed by the former Cambridgeshire Mayor as he felt it would compete with his plans for a Metro.
There has been a change of Mayor and Metro is no longer being progressed. Time for a rethink?
Re-opening the railway is a genuine alternative but it would be much more expensive and take much longer to achieve and so we feel that a combination of Alternative 1 (above) with the railway in the longer-term would best meet transport needs in the short, medium and long-term.
Alternative 3.
Re-use parts of the old Cambridge-Haverhill railway line
This would be a version of the GCPs scheme which would avoid one of the crossings of the River Granta and damaging the lower slopes of the Gog Magog Hills – by using the old railway line as a bus road through Stapleford and Shelford. It would also better serve those communities. This option has been explored
and we raised funds for an independent consultant to review it. It is possible, but there would be difficulties to overcome in terms of being alongside the railway and the impacts that it would have on properties close to the route. Nevertheless the public has never been given a say on this option and how much they might value their countryside.
Background Information
The GCP has carried out a series of consultations as the project has progressed. The GCP is not under any obligation to act upon the feedback they receive. There has and continues to be public opposition to their preferred scheme. In early 2022 Anthony Browne MP carried out a survey to try and guage local opinion on the GCP’s preferred scheme and some of the alternatives. You can read the results by clicking here.
The majority of the 1,958 respondents do not support the GCP scheme and there is much stronger support for alternatives.
We set up a petition asking our local councils to consider our alternative scheme (number 1 above) and over 7,000 people have signed this. You can give your views by clicking here to sign a petition.
Griff Rhys Jones visited the site of the proposed busway and gave us his views:
Latest Update
On 9 January 2025 the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) submitted an application to the Department for Transport for permission to build the 5-mile bus road through the countryside. The application is for a Transport & Work Act Order which includes the compulsory purchase of land. Anyone wishing to object to the plans has until 28 February 2025 to do so. If there are significant objections then a public inquiry would be called, which would consider the pros and cons of the plans.
A coalition of parish councils, charities, community groups and landowners will be objecting to the plans because there is a viable alternative scheme for bus roads next to the A1307 which would achieve similar journey times and economic benefits, would be much less damaging to the environment and countryside and would cost £100m less.
CambridgePPF is part of the coalition and we are raising funds to pay for legal and professional costs to submit our objections to the government and make the case for the alternative scheme.
Information on how to object to the scheme (by 28 Feb 2025) can be found by clicking hhttps://cambridgeppf.org/news/ere.
What Happens Next?
Once all objections have been received, the government will decide whether to hold a public inquiry into whether the plans for the 5-mile road should be given permission or not. This decision is likely to be made by the end of March 2025. The government will set out a timetable for the inquiry including dates by which objectors must submit their case and their evidence.
A public inquiry would be held and a government inspector would consider the application as well as any objections and alternatives. The inspector would then make a recommendation to the Secretary of State for Transport to either approve or reject the application. This process can take 6-12 months.
A number of local community groups, parish councils and politicians have come together to lobby for the alternatives set out above and to try and convince either the GCP, a government inspector or the government to choose the option which is much better value for public money and less environmentally damaging. This umbrella group is called Better Ways for Busways!.
We are raising funds for the campaign, including for legal costs for the public inquiry. Please support this if you can by clicking on the donate button.
If you would like to donate by cheque
We welcome donations by cheque, payable to Cambridge Past, Present & Future. Please include a note stating that your donation is for the Cambridge South East Busway.
If you are a UK taxpayer, you can boost your donation by 25% at no extra cost by allowing CPPF to claim Gift Aid. Gift aid raised from donation to the Cambridge South East Busway campaign will also contribute to the campaign target.
Simply confirm in your note whether we can claim Gift Aid on your donation.
Cheques should be sent to:
Cambridge Past, Present & Future
Wandlebury Country Park
Gog Magog Hills
Cambridge CB22 3AE
Who do I give my views to?
If you would like to make your views known, then you can write to the voting members of the GCP Board (local politicians representing the councils of Cambridge, South Cambs and Cambridgeshire) and ask them to carry out work to seriously look at the less damaging alternatives. Here are their email details:
cllr.milnes@scambs.gov.uk (Cllr Brian Milnes, South Cambs District Council, Lib Dems)
mike.davey@cambridge.gov.uk (Cllr Mike Davey, Cambridge City Council, Labour)
elisa.meschini@cambridgeshire.gov.uk (Cllr Elisa Meschini, Cambs County Council, Labour)
You might also like to contact the non-voting members of the Board:
Andy Williams, (AstraZenaca, Business representative)
Andy.Neely@admin.cam.ac.uk (Prof Andy Neely, University of Cambridge)
nik.johnson@cambridgeshirepeterborough-ca.gov.uk (Nik Johnson, Mayor of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough)
You can also write to the two relevant MP’s because the scheme has been submitted to the government for approval:
Daniel Zeichner MP (Labour MP for Cambridge)
Pippa Helylings MP (Lib Dem MP for South Cambridgeshire)
Previous Updates
In June 2020 the GCP Board (local politicians) voted to progress the bus road to the next stage.
In October 2020 the GCP has published its latest set of plans for public consultation, these showed the precise alignment of the route and some of the infrastructure that would be build as part of the scheme. Click here to read our response.
In November 2020 the GCP applied to the Department for Transport for a scoping opinion for an Environmental Impact Assessment for its scheme. This was approved. Click here to read our response.
We have not given up hope of persuading the GCP to choose a less-damaging alternative for this scheme. Working with the local community we have helped raise funds to commission an independent expert to review the evidence for using the old Haverhill rail route. They have produced a report which demonstrates that this alternative route is feasible and should have been considered as part of the route selection process. Click here to read about the report and what it says.
March 2021, the independent report was submitted to the GCP asking them to reconsider and re-evaluate the old Haverhill rail route. In June 2021 they have responded to say that because it would be more expensive and difficult to deliver they won’t consider it as an option and instead wish to proceed with their preferred scheme through the countryside.
July 2021 The GCP Board agree that the bus road should be submit it to the Department for Transport for approval, even though an Environmental Impact Assessment has not been completed.
In January 2022 a Planning Inspector granted permission for a new retirement village and country park on the proposed route of the busway, near Stapleford. This meant the route of the busway had to be revised and the impacts of the busway re-evaluated. This caused a delay to the project. The revised scheme was discussed by the GCP Executive Board in June 2022 and we asked them to rethink the route. They did not, instead they proposed minor alternations to their scheme and they asked for the public’s views on these. In September 2023 the GCP estimated that the costs of its scheme had ballooned to £160m and it no longer had sufficient funds.
They revised their budgets and allocated £0 to build their road. Officers recommended that they continue to progress the scheme so that it would be ready to submit to government. However the project would then be paused whilst the GCP tries to raise sufficient funds to build it.
In March 2024 the government announced £7m of funding to progress transport schemes in the A1307 corridor.
Some of this money is proposed to fund the GCP to submit an application to the government for permission to build the bus road through the countryside.
On 2 October 2024 the GCP Board voted to ask Cambridgeshire County Council to submit a TWAO application to government on their behalf (the GCP does not have legal powers to build the road and so the County Council has to make the application).