Newsletters
"Breaking News: Christ’s College Library Plans Hit Sewage Wall": our newsletter of 3 September 2025
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Our newsletter of 3 September 2025.
The document in full
Page 1
Dear friends and valued supporters,
Get ready for some breaking news!
Christ’s College’s controversial library redevelopment plans have just been delivered a knockout blow. Anglian Water has issued a holding objection with serious legal clout, citing critical infrastructure failures and scuppering the College's multimillion-pound ambitions until at least July 2026. Their blunt warning: “Any connection into our foul network… will contribute to pollution and deterioration of the watercourse.”
This isn’t just a setback for the College; it’s a powerful testament to our collective voice. We’ve even landed on the front page of the Cambridge Independent (full article attached below).
Our message is out there, loud and clear!
💩 The sewage crisis is the perfect symbol for what we’ve been fighting against:
Disregard for our public realm
Harm to Cambridge’s heritage
Endangerment of basic pedestrian safety
Residents, traders, and Historic England have all warned about the looming, overbearing bulk of the proposed megadevelopment.
“They keep selling this as progress, but all we see is yet another project that ignores the people who actually live and work here. If the drains can’t cope, neither can the city.” — Christ’s Lane shopkeeper
Anglian Water’s objection has literally piled sewage on top of Christ’s College’s public-realm failures, proving our campaign’s points were spot on.
✅ This is a victory — but the fight isn’t over.
It’s time to press our advantage. Let’s keep this incredible momentum going:
🗓 Mark your calendars: Guildhall, Sept 11 at 11am – Attend the Developer Control Forum (the Agenda for the meeting has now been uploaded).
💻 Object online: [Planning Ref. 25/02161/FUL] via the Cambridge Planning Portal ✍️ Sign & share (30 seconds): Petition against Christ College's Mega-Building, the "Factory-Library" in the centre of Cambridge
📣 Spread the word like wildfire
Page 2
Together, we are proving that Cambridge deserves respect, not arrogance disguised as progress.
Let’s keep pushing.
In solidarity,
The CLAG Team
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.