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"The High Court hears our case tomorrow at 10.30 am. Be in the room.": our newsletter of 19 October 2026
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Our newsletter of 19 October 2026.
The document in full
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TOMORROW
Monday 19 October 2026
The High Court hears our case tomorrow at 10.30 am. Be in the room.
Ten months after residents of Christ’s Lane took Cambridge City Council to the High Court, the case is heard tomorrow at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. The hearing is public. Every seat in the gallery is open to you. Dear friend,
Tomorrow morning a judge of the High Court sits in the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand to hear R (Christ’s Lane Action Group) v Cambridge City Council. The Council will be there with its barrister. Christ’s College will be there with its barrister. We will be there with ours. We want you there too. Tuesday 20 October 2026, 10.30 am
Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London WC2A 2LL R (Christ’s Lane Action Group) v Cambridge City Council, Christ’s College interested party, AC-2025-LON-004656
Arrive by 10.00 am for security. The court number is published this afternoon; we will email it to you on request, and put it on christslaneactiongroup.org.
How we got here: please read the full story, with the court papers and the press coverage, on our website: christslaneactiongroup.org
Why tomorrow matters
This is the case about the first permission, granted in November 2025 for the library scheme on Christ’s Lane. In March the Court gave us permission to bring it on all four grounds. The judge, Mr Justice Kimblin, wrote that we had raised "important issues about the decision making in this case" and that our grounds were "strongly arguable".
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In April the Council and the College stopped defending the decision. They signed a draft order conceding that the permission be quashed on all four grounds, and they asked us to sign it too. We refused, and we have refused ever since. In August the Court sealed an order quashing the first permission, which we had not agreed to. We have applied to set it aside, and the Court hears that on 20 October.
Why refuse an order that quashes the permission we challenged? Because a quashing by consent leaves the record blank. Nobody has to say what went wrong. The report that told councillors Historic England found no harm, when Historic England had written that the building was "too big for its location", would disappear unexamined, and the same report, with the same errors, would come back before the same Committee.
That is exactly what happened. On 7 October the Committee approved the identical scheme on a report that repeats the errors and introduced new ones. So we are asking the Court for more than a quashing. We are seeking judgment. A judgment of what errors were committed is public and permanent. That is what we are asking for.
Why this reaches Christ’s Lane now
The identical scheme approved on 7 October is frozen. On 13 October the Secretary of State, Angela Rayner, directed the Council not to issue that permission while she decides whether to call the application in and decide it herself. Her Planning Casework Unit has told us in writing that the direction has no end date.
So the timing could not be sharper. A High Court judgment naming the errors would land on the Secretary of State’s desk beside the identical scheme that repeats them.
Why your being there matters
The hearing is in open court. Anyone may walk in and sit down.
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You will hear the Council’s barrister explain to a High Court judge why, in the Council’s view, four conceded errors should never be examined. You will hear our barrister, Emma Dring of Cornerstone Barristers, put the case that residents built for High Court On 7 October the public gallery at the Guildhall was full, and councillors saw it. Tomorrow the Court, the Council and the College should see the same: a case brought by a neighbourhood, with the neighbourhood behind it.
For most of us it is the only time we will see a case about our own street argued before a High Court judge. The Court may rule on the day or reserve its decision. Either way, what is said tomorrow is said once, in public, and you can be there to hear it.
Coming along
1. Getting there. King’s Cross is about an hour from Cambridge. Nearest Underground: Temple, Holborn or Chancery Lane.
2. Arrive by 10.00 am. There is airport-style security at the entrance. 3. The court number. It is on the Daily Cause List this afternoon. We will email it to you on request, and put it on christslaneactiongroup.org. 4. Inside. Phones silent. No photographs or recording. You may come and go quietly.
5. How long. Listed for one day; the Council estimates half a day. 6. Afterwards. We will write to you tomorrow evening.
If you cannot come
Forward this to a neighbour who can. Watch christslaneactiongroup.org tomorrow evening.
And so that nobody mistakes this
We do not oppose a new library. We never have. We oppose this building, which Historic England called "too big for its location". Christ’s needs a new
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library. It does not need this one.
Tomorrow, 10.30 am, Royal Courts of Justice. Be in the room.
Chris
Lane
Actio
CHRIST’S LANE ACTION GROUP
CAMBRIDGE
christslaneactiongroup.org | residents@christs-lane.com
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.