The consultees
Historic England’s response to CLAG, 28 September 2026
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Historic England’s response to the group of 28 September 2026 (2 pages; register document 9537884).
The document in full
Page 1
From: PlanningComments <PlanningComments@greatercambridgeplanning.org> Sent: 29 Sep 2026 10:34:42 To: IDOXDMSPlanning@councilanywhere.org Cc: Subject: FW: Historic England reference L01594085; application 26/02109/FUL, Christ’s College Library: request for a statement of the degree of harm by Tuesday 29 September 2026 Attachments:
From Sent: 28 September 2026 15:52 To: Cc: PlanningComments <PlanningComments@greatercambridgeplanning.org>; Planning <planning@greatercambridgeplanning.org> Subject: RE: Historic England reference L01594085; application 26/02109/FUL, Christ’s College Library: request for a statement of the degree of harm by Tuesday 29 September 2026
re. app.no. 26/02109/FUL Christ’s College Library Dear Christ Lane Action Group representatives, Thank you for your email of 25 September requesting we state our findings on the above application in the terms of the National Planning Policy Framework. Our comments on this application were issued on 8 July 2026, where we reiterated the advice provided on applications 25/02161/FUL & 25/02162/LBC, that is, that we do not object to these applications. Following the publication of the updated version of the National Planning Policy Framework on 17 August 2026, we are comfortable that the advice given remains relevant and appropriate and consider that our existing responses provide a sufficient basis for the Local Planning Authority to assess the proposals in the context of the revised NPPF. We advised the Council of this in our email dated 27 August 2026, which is included on the planning portal. I trust the above is helpful. Kind regards
Inspector of Historic Buildings and Areas | East of England Region
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From Sent: 25 September 2026 15:00 To: Cc: PlanningComments@greatercambridgeplanning.org; planning@greatercambridgeplanning.org
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Subject: Historic England reference L01594085; application 26/02109/FUL, Christ’s College Library: request for a statement of the degree of harm by Tuesday 29 September 2026
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Dear Christ’s Lane Action Group (CLAG) requests Historic England to state its finding on application 26/02109/FUL in the terms of the National Planning Policy Framework of 17 August 2026, in writing to the Council’s case officer by Tuesday 29 September 2026. The Council’s officers are copied so that the request is on the file. 1. The request, for each of the three heritage assets your letter of 29 July 2025 identifies: (a) which of the four effects in HE5(2) of the Framework the design applied for has on the asset’s significance; (b) where the effect is harm, its degree, which HE5(2)(c) requires to be identified; (c) whether the harm arises from the building’s volume, mass and bulk as a whole, as your letter states it, or from one element of the design. 2. Your letter of 29 July 2025 finds that “in their present form, the proposals would result in certain levels of harm to the significance of the listed building, primarily as a result of the excessive bulk of the new building”. Your letter of 1 September 2025 and your emails of 8 July and 27 August 2026 confirm it, the last for the new Framework. None names a degree of harm, and the Framework’s weighing of harm to a designated asset against public benefits (HE6(3) and HE6(4)) turns on the degree. 3. The Council’s report of 29 October 2025 on the identical scheme carried your advice under the heading “Historic England - No Objection” and none of its findings of harm. The applicant tells the Council now that Historic England has “no objection”. That permission is before the Court in R (Christ’s Lane Action Group) v Cambridge City Council, Christ’s College Cambridge interested party, AC-2025-LON-004656. Permission to apply was granted on all four grounds by the order of Kimblin J signed on 6 March 2026. The Council and the College signed a draft consent order on 28 April 2026 agreeing that the permission be quashed on all four grounds, and the hearing is listed for Tuesday 20 October 2026. The first ground reads “Ground 1 – The Committee was materially misled as to Historic England’s advice”. The report on this application is to be written for the next available committee, and the date asked for puts the statement on the file before it is written. 4. Your statement is requested, since with it, the register holds the statutory consultee’s finding in the Framework’s terms, and the report weighs it as such. CLAG’s representations on the application, including its schedule of Historic England’s own file on the scheme released under reference 26/04173, are filed with Cambridge City Council today for the public register. Christ’s Lane Action Group
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.