Last Wednesday, Cambridge City Council’s Planning Committee approved construction conditions for new student accommodation next to Newnham Croft Primary School and Paradise Nature Reserve. This controversial development was originally refused planning permission by the council but the decision was overturned on appeal.
“The only access to Owlstone Croft is through narrow streets of terraced houses with tight bends and poor visibility” explained Cllr Hugh Clough. “Having up to 30 HGVs and other construction vehicles thundering in and out six days a week for two years is a recipe for disaster.”
“It is telling,” he added “that Queens took over a year and 11 attempts to come up with a plan for construction access.”
Residents were so worried by the plans that they raised funds for top independent experts to review the proposals for air pollution monitoring and construction traffic management, and they found both were deficient.
“It was surprising and very disappointing that the views of these experts were completely ignored by councillors who approved the plans despite the concerns that were raised,” said Cllr Jean Glasberg.
“The College has permission to build at Owlstone Croft, but these conditions are not a formality – they are intended to mitigate the harmful impacts of development. Since the decision, I have had non-stop calls and emails from anxious residents. They tell me that their houses shake when the HGVs go past, that they are larger than shown in the plans and they are having to reverse down narrow streets. There are serious concerns over safety and there have already been several near misses”.
People are also worried about the dust and pollution from the demolition and traffic. Even though it is the school holidays, there are still clubs and activities at the school and as officers confirmed at the meeting there is no safe level for particulates and young children are the most vulnerable to air pollution. Newnham Croft Primary School is only a few metres from the site and the Planning Inspector said that work on the development should meet the standard of best practice for air quality to protect the children there, but councillors at the meeting approved a much lower standard.
“Darwin Green residents were protected by real time air quality monitoring but Newnham residents were told that it was too difficult and that they would not understand it.“ commented Cllr Hugh Clough. ”Why is this possible for Darwin Green but not for Newnham?”