Our papers
Our written statement for the Planning Committee of 7 October 2026
PDF · 1 page · Primary source · The text below is the PDF’s own text, page by page
The one page written statement objecting to item 6, application 26/02109/FUL, at the Planning Committee of Wednesday 7 October 2026, in the form residents sent to Democratic Services by 12 noon on Monday 5 October 2026; the page carries its sending instructions.
The document in full
Page 1
HOW TO SEND THIS · by 12 noon, Monday 5 October 1 Add a line of your own in the gold box below, then delete this blue box. 2 Leave your name and contact details off this page; they go in your covering email. 3 Email it to democratic.services@cambridge.gov.uk, saying it is a written statement objecting to item 6, application 26/02109/FUL, for the Planning Committee on 7 October. Ask for it to be sent to every Committee member before the meeting, and copy residents@christs-lane.com.
Written statement Planning Committee · Wednesday 7 October 2026 Item 6 · 26/02109/FUL · Christ’s College Library · Objection Your words here. A sentence or two of your own: how you use Christ’s Lane, or why it matters to you. No name or address. Delete this box when you’re done.
I object to this application. I do not oppose a new library, but not this building, and not now. The High Court hears the challenge to the same building on Tuesday 20 October, thirteen days after this meeting. Please wait for its judgment, or refuse the application.
The Council has already admitted it got this wrong. Last year’s approval of the same building was challenged, and the Council conceded all four grounds in writing. Two of them were that the Committee “was materially misled” (officer’s report, 1.7, 1.9 and 1.15).
The experts say it is too big. Historic England’s advice is that “the building is too big for its location” (6.47). The report calls the harm low and says that is consistent with Historic England’s view (16.35, 16.38). It is not.
A smaller library would do. In 2016 the Council approved a lower library on this site, said to “meet the needs of Christ’s College” (16.53, 16.54). No document explains why it no longer would (16.57).
The lane loses its light. On the College’s own figures, 37 of the 59 windows on the two lower floors opposite fail the daylight test, 35 of them shop windows. The report leaves them out because shoppers “only visit for a short period of time” (22.16). People work behind those windows all day. Christ’s Lane is one of the busiest thoroughfares in Cambridge; the report itself calls it “a heavily used thoroughfare for pedestrians”. Once it is built over, it will not come back. Please do not approve the same building again before the Court has ruled.
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.