East West Rail (EWR) is planning to build their railway through the rural villages of South Cambridgeshire from Cambourne to Great Shelford. This will irreversibly change the character and peace of local villages. Other route options would be more appropriate and less invasive but have been discarded by EWR without good reason. Time is running out for us to have our say. This requires us all to take action.
The Cambridge Approaches Oversight Group includes a collection of local parish councils discussing route alignments in the area for the new East West Railway. Although EWR have not yet proposed detailed route alignments the Cambridge Approaches Working Group has produced some representative options and they are set out here. Read more
The Cambridge Approaches working group published a map of alternative route alignments in EWR’s option E search area. These have been presented to about twelve local parish councils (Toft, Comberton, Barton, The Eversdens, Harlton, Haslingfield, Harston, Hauxton, Little Shelford, South Trumpington, Great Shelford) and some district and county councillors. The presentation and discussion has been at an on-going series of meetings, with the aim to reach some consensus about their relative merits and for subsequent presentation to other stakeholders including East West Rail. Note these are not the EWR route alignments, we expect those to appear in January 2021. Read more
AC7XAK Freightliner freight train, pulling out of the North rail freight terminal, Port of Felixstowe, Suffolk, UK.
Background
After the public consultation last year, East West Rail (EWR) decided in January this year to focus their attention on route ‘option E’ for the section of their new railway between Bedford and Cambridge. It is classed as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project and will form the busy central-section of the final East West Railway between East Anglia’s ports and the Midlands, serving fast growing towns along its route. Why the multi-modal corridor to the north proposed by CamBedRailRoad was not selected remains a mystery. ‘Option E’ is not a rail alignment but a corridor, several miles wide in places, through which the line will run. It includes Haslingfield and the outskirts of Harlton but also extends to Comberton and Barton in the north and Newton and The Shelfords in the east. EWR are currently carrying out further design and survey work to determine different line options which are planned to be used in a public consultation in 2021 before their selection of a preferred alignment. Construction is expected to start in 2025. Read more
As presented in previous articles on this site here, here and here, the East West Rail is probably the biggest planning issue to hit the area for a long time. A new group focussed on influencing the East West Rail impact on parish in the search area for the new railway has been formed. Read more
A local resident has kindly put together a Google map of the locations of East West Rail Environmental surveys known to us. As I said in my previous post we have not yet been able to get this information from East West Rail or their contractor Ardent. The map is available on this link. Read more
EWR aims to build a railway from Cambourne to Cambridge in the 2020s. Information on the status of this section of the route can be found on their website here. They have selected a search area for the route that includes all of Haslingfield and the area to the north. In terms of possible impact on village life, this is probably the biggest planning issue we have faced in decades. Read more
The traffic survey running on Church Street recently as can be seen from the rubber cables running across the road. Shortly after the survey started this blue car was parked next to the cables. The survey has now stopped and the car has gone as well. The presence of the car would have slowed down the traffic going past, since it effectively makes it a single carriageway Hence the results of the survey would not be valid.
Our local micro brewery BrewBoard which can be found at Button End, Harston now open up their tap room to members of the public from 5-11pm every Friday. At these events BrewBoard always host one of a selection of Cambridge’s finest food trucks enabling customers to relax at the end of the week with some great food and a pint or two of local craft beer! They are also going to be opening up and showing all the England 6 Nations rugby games over the coming weekends. Keep an eye on their website www.brewboard.co.uk for details of all upcoming events.
Forgive this unsolicited message, however as users of the Cantelupe Cycling Access scheme I thought you might be interested to know that we are holding an evening tour of the farm next week exclusively for residents of Haslingfield. This will give you an opportunity to hear about what we do here and ask those questions you’ve always wanted to know the answers to. The tour will be led by Owner/Director Richard Pemberton and our Estate General Manager, David Knott and will start from Cantelupe Farm at 6.00pm. You will be taken to various places of interest on the Estate in a trailer. It is a great chance to hear and ask questions about our work here.
South Cambridgeshire District Council is about to embark on a Community Governance Review for the parish of Haslingfield as you may well be aware, to address the population growth in respect of the new housing development of Trumpington Meadows. Read more
The police have reported the following break-ins. If you live in Haslingfield, I recommend that you check your shed to see if it is OK. (I did this tonight and mine in Knapp Rise had been broken into). If you were responsible for this let’s say you are not welcome here to say the least. Read more
Registration is now open for a summertime writing course called Spilling the Ink. The course is being offered by Haslingfield resident, Melissa Fu. It will be Thursday mornings from 10-12 at Harston Village Hall from 4 June – 16 July (7 sessions). Read more
