Planning and Open Spaces – Katie Thornburrow

Twice as Good…

I was lucky to move near St Matthew’s Piece in Petersfield in 2021, and was fascinated to see how much use single basketball net and single bench got used.

I really thought that it would be a neglected piece of outdoor equipment, but I was so wrong. The small square of tarmac, was used every day, by so many people – old, young, groups, individuals, families, school children… the list goes on.

But now, another pole and net, and another bench have been installed – well to be more precise, two new nets and two new benches, plus markings for basketball shooting.

It’s a joy to see how the space is used, often with different groups gathered around the two nets, or resting on the bench.

Thank you Cambridge City Council Open Spaces team for the great little space, which is being used so much and brings so much pleasure to everyone – even those of us who are watching rather than playing!

Let’s talk about the Beehive Centre

In mid 2023 Railpen submitted an outline planning application for the redevelopment of the Beehive Centre, which backs onto several streets in Petersfield Ward. The proposed remodelling of the retail centre as a life sciences facility with offices and some retail was not well-received, particularly by residents of the streets affected.

Petersfield ward city councillors were also highly critical of the scheme. Mike Davey and Richard Robertson were especially concerned about the scale of the buildings, their height and the proportions, and particularly the impact on the view from the rear gardens of York Street.

There was a formal consultation to which many of you contributed, and Mike Davey and Richard Robertson continued to speak out and met representatives of Railpen.

Following the public response, Railpen is working on a revised scheme which they will then submit for planning approval. They have prepared one version of this, and they are now carrying out their own, private, pre-submission consultation as part of their community engagement.

We expect them to make a formal submission the council based on the results of the consultation, but what they submit could well be different from what is in the leaflets and presentations.

Until that happens your ward councillors are monitoring things, talking to residents and will meet the developers of they feel it’s necessary. I am a member of the planning committee and I can’t pre-judge applications which I then decide on, not because I don’t care but because there is a later stage where I need to be able to act in accordance with planning law and in the best interests of Cambridge.

The discussion about the future of the Beehive has been heated and sometimes angry. It is understandable that feelings run high over a major development like this, and as a City Council we are working hard to make sure that we listen to concerns and that the process for doing that is open and honest.

In March the Council published its statement of community engagement which includes how we will run planning consultations. At the time I said ‘it’s through a concerted effort by everyone involved in planning that we can work towards improved transparency and arrive at a place of mutual trust’. I still hold to these principles

It is vitally important that everyone knows how to influence development in our area and make their voice heard. That remains a central principle, when it comes to the Beehive or any other planning application.

If you want to know more, please get in touch.

What does it mean for Cambridge to ‘grow’?

Last week I took part in an excellent event organised the Department of Land Economy at Cambridge University and the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH) looking at the question ‘What does it mean for a city to grow?’

This matters a lot to me, both as a councillor and as an architect and maker of spaces, and so I was pleased to join a panel with Peter Studdert, a former Chief Planner for Cambridge, and Cambridge Ahead’s Director of Programmes and Partnerships, Andrew McGowan.

It was nice to see familiar faces in the audience (hello, Anthony!) and I really enjoyed the discussion. Here are some of the points I wanted to make as my contribution.

Perhaps we should start by asking what we mean by ‘a city’ – is it the historic centre, the local authority boundary, the green belt, the travel to work area, the economic region…and how far does it go? All the way down to KX?

Ironworks Time Capsule

[Image shows Gerri Bird, Richard Robertson and Katie Thornburrow with the steel time capsule]

The Ironworks development on the old council depot site off Mill Road has brought 182 new homes, half of them new council homes, as well as the much-needed community centre.

On Thursday 26th Cllr Gerri Bird, our executive councillor for housing, helped to bury a stainless steel time capsule in the Ironworks community garden, accompanied by council officers and representatives of Hills, the contractors.

The capsule contains material commemorating the area’s time as a main depot for council vehicles, as well as memories of those who worked there and local residents, and its location is marked with a plaque.

I cycle through the Ironworks on my way to and from Mill Road, and it’s a lovely development with a growing community. It’s nice to know its history hasn’t been forgotten.

Building Quality Forum

The Grenfell Tower disaster in 2017 alerted us to unsafe cladding, but there are many other concerns about the quality of the buildings we live and work in. As a councillor, I want to know more about the situation, and about what we might be able to do about it.

So on Friday July 22 I’m bringing together a group of experts with a panel of councillors to find out more, and discuss what might be done

You can register for the panel on Eventbrite, and read more about it here on my blog.

Sorting out Clay Farm Allotments

When I became a city councillor in 2018 one of the top items on my list of things to sort out was the delays in handing over allotments in Trumpington from the developers of the new estates to local residents. Since then we’ve managed to get three out of four sorted – Glebe Farm, Trumpington Meadows and Nine Wells are all now growing local food for local people.

However there are still issues over the Clay Farm allotments, and I’ve just written to Dave Fox at Cambridge allotments to explain what’s going on.

You can read it here

Clay Farm allotments ongoing delay, obstacles explained

[the image shows a screenshot from allotments.net with a map of Clay Farm allotments]

The short version: the original agreements between the council and the developers in 2007 and 2010 weren’t properly thought through and the local councillors at the time did not seem to understand the issues.

Planting the Turing Tree

One of the most important activities I am responsible for as the executive councillor for Planning Policy and Open Spaces is the Cambridge Canopy Project, which is planting 2,000 trees across the city between 2019 and 2022.

This is part of a bigger European project to roll-out ‘green infrastructure’, or natural solutions, to make cities more resilient to the likely impacts that will be brought about by climate change.

This week we hit two milestones – the 1,000^th and 1,024^th trees – so it seemed fitting to make an occasion of these milestones and celebrate accordingly, and I’m really pleased that we are going to commemorate one of the city’s best known residents in the process.

The 1,000^th tree – a magnolia ‘Galaxy’ – was planted in Stourbridge Grove, adding spring colour with its large pink flowers, and today (Jan 29) we are planting the 1024th in Christ’s Pieces. This will be the Turing Tree, named for the mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing.

Open Spaces in Cambridge

One of my roles on Cambridge City Council is to look after our open spaces, ranging from Midsummer Common, where we host so many community events, to the new allotment on Glebe Farm and everywhere in between.

The open spaces team do a magnificent job keeping them in good order, and ensure that they are accessible to everyone. They also work hard to keep them litter free

Open spaces are good for people but they are also good for the environment, helping support many species of plants and animals, especially now that we have planted so many wildflower meadows across the city to replace grass and formal flower beds.

This has been a key element of our response to the biodiversity emergency which the council declared last year, at my request, along with our successful hedgehog awareness campaign.

We have also stopped using herbicides on land owned by the council.

Looking forward, I’m making sure we deliver on our tree strategy, looking after the thirty-three thousand trees in public places across the city and planting more as part of our Tree Canopy Project

I’m also continuing to work closely with all the relevant bodies to find a way to deal with the water stress that we face in Cambridge and the surrounding area, following the Forum I held last November.

We still have a lot to do to ensure that our long term water supplies meet our needs and preserves the natural beauty of our chalk streams and the River Cam.

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Please note that my brief has now changed and as of June 2021 I am Executive Councillor for Planning Policy and Transport, having covered Streets and Open Spaces 2018-2019 and Planning Policy and Open Spaces 2019-2021

Keeping Cambridge Going

This is an enormously difficult time for so many people and we are all struggling in different ways as we cope with the pressures of being unable to live and work as normal as we deal with Covid-19.

As a City Councillor and member of the executive I’m spending a lot of time working to ensure that the council does everything it can. Many of our staff are working from home, and doing a great job, while some, like refuse collectors and street cleaners, have had to adapt their working practices in order to stay safe. Children’s parks are closed and we have limited car parks for use by essential workers.

The City Council has details of where to ask for help

If you live in Trumpington then we have set up the Trumpington.info network and there are details of local resources there.

And of course you can always contact me directly as your local councillor or for issues around planning and open spaces.

We all need to work together to get through this and I want to thank everyone for all they are doing. Stay safe.

We Need Safe Junctions in Trumpington

If you shop at the Waitrose in South Trumpington, or pass it regularly on foot, cycle or by car, then you may have noticed how hard it can be to turn into or out of the site, and how badly positioned the traffic lights are.

The issue of safety at the junction was first brought to my attention during my campaigning in 2017 and 2018, when I heard from several families with small children about their concerns. It’s not just that the road is inherently unsafe as cars approaching from the south can always turn into the junction, but it’s also impossible to teach young children to cross the roads safely as there is no safe way to cross here.

There are often queues building up to get into the carpark, and then a rush to drive over during the short period when the cars have the right to cross. And the visibility for cars turning in when coming from the M11 junction can be an issue if not kept under control.

When the junction was built, long before the thousands of homes in Trumpington Meadows and the new junior school, it was a minor inconvenience as it was only really used by people walking to Monsanto or cyclists heading south.

However, it is now part of a major thoroughfare.
There are many families who live in old Trumpington who cross twice a day to go to the Trumpington Meadows Primary School.
People who live in Trumpington Meadows use this route to go to the Clay Farm Centre, and the recreation ground.
Then there are visitors who go to the successful Country Park or want to walk over to Byron’s Pool Local Nature reserve.
And of course, the Harston – Trumpington cycleway also uses this route.

With so many more people using the junction, it has become a real concern, and not just because of the way cars turn into the site. Last week I heard a really worrying story from a local resident about a father and son who were heading south and waiting to cross.

A bus was pulling out but did not have enough time or space to leave the site, so ended up blocking the pedestrian route over the junction. The family crossed in front of the bus, with the father leading the way. The lights went green and the bus pulled forward without the driver noticing that the young son had not reached the safety of the crossing island.

As a result, the boy was trapped between the railings and the departing bus, and ended up bruised, and in shock. It could have been so much worse.

It’s clear that as well as some traffic control we need a safe crossing for pedestrians and cyclists before someone is seriously hurt. Having worked closely with local residents to support the campaign to put safety measures in place along the guided busway, I hope we can pull together similar support here.