On Tuesday 20 October 2026 the High Court quashed the Council’s first permission for the Christ’s College library, of 7 November 2025, on all four grounds of our claim.

The Court’s decision

Our statement on the High Court decision, Thursday 22 October 2026

Residents took on Cambridge Council and Christ’s College in High Court, and won.

“On Tuesday 20 October 2026 the High Court quashed Christ’s College’s planning permission on all four grounds we brought. The judge recorded ‘errors of approach on each of the grounds’. This is not a procedural footnote. It is a High Court record that the Council got it wrong on every ground.

The Council misled councillors about Historic England’s advice by leaving out its finding of harm. It gave them confused and contradictory advice on the harm to a Grade I listed library. It told them the scheme would secure the ‘optimum viable use’ of the listed buildings. That is a benefit national policy gives for bringing a vacant or underused listed building back into use, and the College’s buildings were already in use. And it kept from councillors the possibility that the harm could be avoided through an alternative scheme.

This is history in the making. A community of residents, with no solicitor, took on Cambridge City Council and Christ’s College, each with their full planning and legal teams, and won. It was David against Goliath. Our opponents tried to crush us at every turn, but we would not give up; each person gave huge amounts of their own time and dedication to this public cause. Our thanks go to our direct access barrister, Emma Dring, who did a brilliant job of fighting for the public interest.

The issues at stake are of significant national interest, and the Council continues to err in its handling of them. Thirteen days before the hearing, the Council approved the identical scheme again on 7 October, based on a report that repeats its errors and introduces new errors, unexamined as yet by any court.

We are not against a new library. We are against this one, a building Historic England called ‘too big for its location’ and ‘overdominant on this space’. Christ’s first attempt has been quashed in Court, and its second identical attempt has been frozen by the Secretary of State under a holding direction.

We ask the Secretary of State to call the application in, so that she decides it herself after a public inquiry.

It is time for Christ’s College to reconsider.”

Campaign Statements

Press enquiries: residents@christs-lane.com.

Statement to Planning, Monday 12 October 2026. Requested by the Deputy News Editor of Planning. Published by Planning on 13 October 2026.

On the decision of 7 October and the hearing of 20 October:

“The hearing on 20 October concerns the permission granted in November 2025 for this same scheme. We challenged it on four grounds: the committee was misled about Historic England’s advice and about the harm to heritage assets, it relied on an irrelevant consideration, and it ignored less harmful alternatives. The Council and the College have already agreed that the permission should be quashed on all four grounds. … It is extremely surprising that just thirteen days before that High Court hearing, the Council voted to approve an identical application, repeating some of the same errors and adding new ones.”

The hearing took place in Court 18 at the Royal Courts of Justice on Tuesday 20 October 2026, before Mr Justice Kolinsky, in R (Christ's Lane Action Group) v Cambridge City Council, AC-2025-LON-004656, in the Planning Court.

Source: our statement to Planning of 12 October 2026.

Statement to the Architects’ Journal, Wednesday 14 October 2026. Requested by the Architects’ Journal. Published on 14 October 2026.

“It should not take a Secretary of State to make Cambridge City Council wait for the High Court. The Council has already conceded that its first permission was unlawful on all four grounds. Thirteen days before the Court rules on those errors, members approved the identical scheme again, because they were told they could not wait. Whitehall says they can. We do not oppose a new library for Christ’s College, but this scheme is too big. The Council repeated its errors in committee, then tried to outrun the Court before judgment.”

The dates we gave the Journal: the first permission was granted on 7 November 2025, the day our request for a call in reached the Planning Casework Unit; the High Court gave permission for the claim on all four grounds on 6 March 2026; the Council and the College signed a draft consent order agreeing to the quashing on 28 April 2026; the Council’s senior planning lawyer wrote on 28 July 2026 that the application was “targeted to be put before planning committee on the 2 September, whether or not the High Court has issued a decision”; our requests that no notice issue before judgment were made on 29 September, 5 October, 7 October and 12 October 2026; the committee resolved to approve on 7 October 2026; the direction was issued on 13 October 2026; the hearing is on Tuesday 20 October 2026.

Source: our reply to the Architects’ Journal of 14 October 2026; the Council’s letter of 28 July 2026, document 9495878.

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.

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