[Members] Cambridge Market petition ; Civic quarter plans update tomorrow 16 July 5 pm Guildhall ; Planning Committee 23 July Queens College Transport plans for Owlstone Croft/West Camb

[Wendy Blythe]

Dear All,



*Update 15 July, 2025*



*Cambridge Market Traders concerns about *

*the Civic Quarter plans and Market petition see*



MARK OUR WORDS

*Our 1,200-year-old market survived Black Death & world wars…but council’s
‘Harry Potter plan’ may finally kill it*

Locals fear it will become another tourist trap after surviving intact for
so long (link below)



https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/35797401/old-market-black-death-harry-potter/



*Cambridge Market Petition *

https://www.change.org/p/please-help-us-to-save-cambridge-s-traditional-locals-market-and-its-traders?utm_medium=custom_url&utm_source=share_petition&recruited_by_id=1fe45840-c555-11e7-b616-33b02da3e4fd



https://savethemarket.co.uk/meet-the-traders



The traders have produced a bag which is now available on several stalls,
see photo in Sun Report above ( contact trader Zoe Hardinge
zoe at bucklesbooks.co.uk who designed the bag)  together with a list of their
concerns and the petition. See below:



‘*As Cambridge Market Traders we wish for the market to keep its
traditional feel and retain permanent, robust, versatile stalls as we have
them now. We do not believe that the council’s plans to replace the market
with 36 permanent shop type kiosk and up to 55 gazebos, that will be put up
and down every day will be viable and is certainly not an improvement. The
council will raise rents by a minimum of 18% over the first five years of
the new style market making it impossible for many businesses to survive
the uncertainty, the unfit trading spaces and the rent increases,*



*WHAT CAN I DO?*

*If you are a resident of the city of Cambridge please email your city
councillors and let them know you want the market to remain with a minimum
of 54 traditional stalls as we have them now. Your ward councillors can be
found here. Please email all three of them. If you live in the Greater
Cambridge area, you can still email the city councillors also your local
rep and your local MP.  *

*https://democracy.cambridge.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?FN=WARD&VW=LIST&PIC=0
<https://democracy.cambridge.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?FN=WARD&VW=LIST&PIC=0>*



Most residents and market shoppers will be unaware that the plans for
Cambridge Civic Quarter include *a full clearance of Cambridge market in
2027**. This has huge implications for the viability of the small
businesses of Cambridge’s traditional market and their regular customers.*



*Civic Quarter update meeting 5-6pm tomorrow Wed 16 July Guildhall *and
also online (see link below).



*Join the meeting now
<https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MTJiMGMyOGYtNTcyZS00NjYxLTg2NmUtMWQ0OTJlYmI4Yzdh%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22ce6ebe62-557b-4436-a19c-767eca2cd451%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22774a2eeb-400a-4911-ad48-05edae4418d6%22%7d>*

Meeting ID: 336 375 767 242

Passcode: GM2CV3yJ



Members of the Cambridge Market Support Group say it is not at all clear
who has received the email about the Civic Quarter meeting sent out (14
July) and the link to attend the meeting on line. They say supporters who
have attended the previous Civic Quarter Liaision meetings did not receive
information about this meeting


The Council’s current Civic Quarter project website:
https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/civic-quarter-liaison-group includes material
from the most recent meeting on 25 May, but the website *does not* mention
Wednesday's meeting.



The Market Support group have also learned from discussions with traders
that, once again, a separate meeting for market traders will be held *AFTER*
 the Civic Quarter Liaison Group meeting. Cambridge market traders work a
long day with a very early start. It is hard for them to attend meetings at
the end of a working day.  Shared discussion and input and support from
market customers is vital for this iconic market to get the investment that
will enable it to thrive as a traditional market that serves residents not
just tourists. It is disturbing therefore that meetings with traders are
being held separately from their customers and support group. The Market
Support group are aware that key information has been communicated to
traders, but not to the public, or even formally to members of the Liaison
Group.



It was only through talking to traders that they became aware of key
issues. including the proposed full clearance of the market in 2027,
contrary to the traders’ expressed preference.



The Market Support Group say what is also missing is how the decant of the
traders and the market will be managed?  Or how essential traders (i.e.
those who served the public during covid) will be supported to continue in
business during the works?



Residents who attended the first meeting called by trader Glenys Self on
behalf of the traders at Great St Mary’s Church remember that the Leader of
Cambridge City Council Lewis Herbert assured attendees that the council
would support the traders and ensure they would be able to continue trading
during the works.



Since then however councillors have delegated decision making about
Cambridge’s city centre and its green spaces to the company Visit
Cambridge. The directors of Visit Cambridge include representatives of
King’s College (whose business plan *The Times* and *Varsity *reported is
focused on ‘growth in overseas tourists, especially from China’); Cambridge
University, Cambridge Bid and a City Council officer.

On 20 November 2020 the Cambs and Peterborough Combined Authority Board
attended by City Council leader Lewis Herbert approved funding for a
Cambridge Visitor Growth Scheme Project which included the market. A
supplementary question put to officers and councillors about the governance
of the Wider Cambridge Visitor Consortium deciding on the city centre and
its green spaces was not answered. See

https://www.fecra.org.uk/update-22nd-march-2021/



Market shoppers say it is strange that Cambridge’s traditional market where
residents can buy fresh, local food and other products from local suppliers
is under threat when the Cambridge reps on the Food Farming and Countryside
Commission, a partner of Cambridge University, are promoting Cofarm plans
for Community Farms and a Community Barn on the green belt. The chair of
the Food Farming and Countryside Commission is Dame Fiona Reynolds chair of
the Bennett Institute.

https://democracy.cambridge.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=257&MId=4732



Cofarm’s original business plan states that if demand for the project
grows, ‘a patchwork of additional sites within and surrounding Cambridge
will be sought and sites may be integrated into plans for new housing
developments and new communities to ensure that Cambridge’s rapid growth is
sustainable and ensures a high quality of life for residents’. See link
below



http://web.archive.org/web/20230313184603/https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c780e06af468366c8ec02e8/t/5e56741b488e7a12a9f5e3ad/1582724128083/Design+Brief+CoFarm+Cambridge+December+2019+Version+1.3.pdf
<http://web.archive.org/web/20230313184603/https:/static1.squarespace.com/static/5c780e06af468366c8ec02e8/t/5e56741b488e7a12a9f5e3ad/1582724128083/Design+Brief+CoFarm+Cambridge+December+2019+Version+1.3.pdf>



*CAMBRIDGE CIVIC QUARTER PROPOSALS JUNE 2025 *

For comments on the proposals by John and Kati Preston see link below



https://www.fecra.org.uk/docs/Civic%20Qtr%20response%20from%20J%20and%20K%20Preston%20.pdf





*Queens’ College Construction and Transport Management Plan for their
Owlstone Croft development **Planning Committee 10 am 23 July  *



There is a lot of concern about the impact of Queens’ College’s major
construction work at Owlstone Croft on traffic in Newnham and the wider
West Cambridge area and the area’s businesses and shops over the next two
years. The CTMP is now due to go to the Planning Committee on the 23rd
July, and if approved work will start on 28th July 2025.

·       Residents and councillors say the latest plan has even more HGVs
- 30 a day every weekday including Saturday for at least 2 years

·       unspecified numbers of other construction and delivery traffic from
8am to 6pm every weekday

·       proposes using the diversion route along Eltisley Avenue and
Grantchester Meadows while UK Power Solutions is carrying out cabling work
for the development in Grantchester Street and Owlstone Road over the
summer holidays.

·       has a Traffic Regulation Order approved to ban parking on the
Owlstone Track and ShortLane. Residents and councillors have asked for this
to be revoked as the Council’s procedure has not been followed – they say
there has been no consultation and it is solely to enable access for
construction traffic, which is not a valid reason for a TTRO.



The cabling work will be very disruptive, but it is only for 6 weeks. With
widespread parking restrictions and a large number of HGVs trying to
negotiate the narrow streets in addition to all the usual traffic this CTMP
would be far worse. It would mean traffic chaos and gridlock in Newnham
Croft and the wider West Cambridge area for most of the day every weekday *for
at least two years*.



*What you can do *

Write ASAP to: the planning officer tom.gray at greatercambridgeplanning.org
with name, address, and planning ref 22/02066/CONDR ; Chair of Planning
Cttee martin.smart at cambridge.gov.uk ; our

MP daniel at danielzeichner.co.uk and Highways Chair
alex.beckett at cambridgeshire.gov.uk



Best wishes,



Wendy






Wendy Blythe
Chair, FeCRA

www.fecra.org.uk
www.facebook.com/CambridgeRAs
www.twitter.com/fecra2
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