Newsletters
Our covering email of 1 October 2026
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Our covering email of 1 October 2026.
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The CLAG Newsletter October 1 is attached. Below is a short account.
Last year Cambridge City Council approved a new library for Christ's College. We took it to the High Court and the Council gave in on all four grounds. Two of them say its own councillors were "materially misled". The College has sent in the same building again, which the Council calls "identical". The vote is on Wednesday 7 October. The High Court sits thirteen days later, and the Council will not wait. On 29 September the Council told the High Court that last year's permission had been quashed. The next day its report told councillors the permission "still stands".
Its report tells councillors the 13-metre stair tower beside the Grade I Bodley Library "has a minimum height requirement" as a fire escape. There is no fire strategy on the public file.
It says one window fails the daylight test; on the College's own figures 37 of 61 windows across the lane fail, and people work behind them all day. It brushes aside the harm to the shopping lane. The Council's own policy says development should "add to the vitality and viability of the city centre". The report says that the test does not directly apply here. It calls Christ's Lane "a heavily used thoroughfare for pedestrians ... linking the shopping area of the City Centre including the Grand Arcade with Christ's Pieces". Yet it ignores the effect of an oversized building that will enclose the lane and darken its shops.
The benefit the Council conceded in court is back in the report under new words, with "significant weight".
We sent the Council seventeen documents on 25 September. None reached the public file until after the officer's report was out. We have put 92 points to it; on 2 July it wrote that it "is not obliged to respond".
What you can do. Write to PlanningComments@greatercambridgeplanning.org quoting 26/02109/FUL. Ask for the decision to be deferred until the High Court has ruled, or for the scheme to be rejected if the Council rushes ahead. Come to the Guildhall at 10 am on Wednesday 7 October. Forward this to everyone you know.
In March a High Court judge told the College it "has been educating students since 1505" and could manage some additional time. The Council will not wait thirteen days.
Christ's Lane Action Group
https://www.christslaneactiongroup.org
The first permission is quashed. The second is frozen.
On Tuesday 20 October 2026 the High Court quashed the first approval, 25/02161/FUL, on all four grounds of our claim. The Secretary of State has frozen the permission. On 13 October she directed the Council not to grant it without her authorisation while she considers whether to call the application in, six days after the identical application 26/02109/FUL was controversially approved. If you would like to support a call in, write to us and we will tell you how.
Email residents@christs-lane.com.