Update 15th July 2025
Dear All,
Update 15th July, 2025
Cambridge Market Traders concerns about the Civic Quarter plans and Market petition see
MARK OUR WORDS
Our 1,200-year-old market survived Black Death & world wars…but council’s ‘Harry Potter plan’ may finally kill it
Locals fear it will become another tourist trap after surviving intact for so long (link below)
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/35797401/old-market-black-death-harry-potter/
Cambridge Market Petition
https://www.change.org/p/please-help-us-to-save-cambridge-s-traditional-locals-market-and-its-traders?utm_medium=custom_url&utm_source=share_petition&recruited_by_id=1fe45840-c555-11e7-b616-33b02da3e4fd
https://savethemarket.co.uk/meet-the-traders
The traders have produced a bag which is now available on several stalls, see photo in Sun Report above ( contact trader Zoe Hardinge zoe@bucklesbooks.co.uk who designed the bag) together with a list of their concerns and the petition. See below:
‘As Cambridge Market Traders we wish for the market to keep its traditional feel and retain permanent, robust, versatile stalls as we have them now. We do not believe that the council’s plans to replace the market with 36 permanent shop type kiosk and up to 55 gazebos, that will be put up and down every day will be viable and is certainly not an improvement. The council will raise rents by a minimum of 18% over the first five years of the new style market making it impossible for many businesses to survive the uncertainty, the unfit trading spaces and the rent increases,
WHAT CAN I DO?
If you are a resident of the city of Cambridge please email your city councillors and let them know you want the market to remain with a minimum of 54 traditional stalls as we have them now. Your ward councillors can be found here. Please email all three of them. If you live in the Greater Cambridge area, you can still email the city councillors also your local rep and your local MP.
https://democracy.cambridge.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?FN=WARD&VW=LIST&PIC=0
Most residents and market shoppers will be unaware that the plans for Cambridge Civic Quarter include a full clearance of Cambridge market in 2027. This has huge implications for the viability of the small businesses of Cambridge’s traditional market and their regular customers.
Civic Quarter update meeting 5-6pm Wed 16th July Guildhall and also online (see link below).
Meeting ID: 336 375 767 242
Passcode: GM2CV3yJ
Members of the Cambridge Market Support Group say it is not at all clear who has received the email about the Civic Quarter meeting sent out (14th July) and the link to attend the meeting on line. They say supporters who have attended the previous Civic Quarter Liaison meetings did not receive information about this meeting
The Council’s current Civic Quarter project website: https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/civic-quarter-liaison-group includes material from the most recent meeting on 25 May, but the website does not mention Wednesday’s meeting.
The Market Support group have also learned from discussions with traders that, once again, a separate meeting for market traders will be held AFTER the Civic Quarter Liaison Group meeting. Cambridge market traders work a long day with a very early start. It is hard for them to attend meetings at the end of a working day. Shared discussion and input and support from market customers is vital for this iconic market to get the investment that will enable it to thrive as a traditional market that serves residents not just tourists. It is disturbing therefore that meetings with traders are being held separately from their customers and support group. The Market Support group are aware that key information has been communicated to traders, but not to the public, or even formally to members of the Liaison Group.
It was only through talking to traders that they became aware of key issues. including the proposed full clearance of the market in 2027, contrary to the traders’ expressed preference.
The Market Support Group say what is also missing is how the decant of the traders and the market will be managed? Or how essential traders (i.e. those who served the public during covid) will be supported to continue in business during the works?
Residents who attended the first meeting called by trader Glenys Self on behalf of the traders at Great St Mary’s Church remember that the Leader of Cambridge City Council Lewis Herbert assured attendees that the council would support the traders and ensure they would be able to continue trading during the works.
Since then however councillors have delegated decision making about Cambridge’s city centre and its green spaces to the company Visit Cambridge. The directors of Visit Cambridge include representatives of King’s College (whose business plan The Times and Varsity reported is focused on ‘growth in overseas tourists, especially from China’); Cambridge University, Cambridge Bid and a City Council officer.
On 20 November 2020 the Cambs and Peterborough Combined Authority Board attended by City Council leader Lewis Herbert approved funding for a Cambridge Visitor Growth Scheme Project which included the market. A supplementary question put to officers and councillors about the governance of the Wider Cambridge Visitor Consortium deciding on the city centre and its green spaces was not answered. See
https://www.fecra.org.uk/update-22nd-march-2021/
Market shoppers say it is strange that Cambridge’s traditional market where residents can buy fresh, local food and other products from local suppliers is under threat when the Cambridge reps on the Food Farming and Countryside Commission, a partner of Cambridge University, are promoting Cofarm plans for Community Farms and a Community Barn on the green belt. The chair of the Food Farming and Countryside Commission is Dame Fiona Reynolds chair of the Bennett Institute.
https://democracy.cambridge.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=257&MId=4732
Cofarm’s original business plan states that if demand for the project grows, ‘a patchwork of additional sites within and surrounding Cambridge will be sought and sites may be integrated into plans for new housing developments and new communities to ensure that Cambridge’s rapid growth is sustainable and ensures a high quality of life for residents’. See link below
CAMBRIDGE CIVIC QUARTER PROPOSALS JUNE 2025
For comments on the proposals by John and Kati Preston see link below
https://www.fecra.org.uk/docs/Civic%20Qtr%20response%20from%20J%20and%20K%20Preston%20.pdf
Queens’ College Construction and Transport Management Plan for their Owlstone Croft development Planning Committee 10 am 23rd July
There is a lot of concern about the impact of Queens’ College’s major construction work at Owlstone Croft on traffic in Newnham and the wider West Cambridge area and the area’s businesses and shops over the next two years. The CTMP is now due to go to the Planning Committee on the 23rd July, and if approved work will start on 28th July 2025.
- Residents and councillors say the latest plan has even more HGVs – 30 a day every weekday including Saturday for at least 2 years
- unspecified numbers of other construction and delivery traffic from 8am to 6pm every weekday
- proposes using the diversion route along Eltisley Avenue and Grantchester Meadows while UK Power Solutions is carrying out cabling work for the development in Grantchester Street and Owlstone Road over the summer holidays.
- has a Traffic Regulation Order approved to ban parking on the Owlstone Track and ShortLane. Residents and councillors have asked for this to be revoked as the Council’s procedure has not been followed – they say there has been no consultation and it is solely to enable access for construction traffic, which is not a valid reason for a TTRO.
The cabling work will be very disruptive, but it is only for 6 weeks. With widespread parking restrictions and a large number of HGVs trying to negotiate the narrow streets in addition to all the usual traffic this CTMP would be far worse. It would mean traffic chaos and gridlock in Newnham Croft and the wider West Cambridge area for most of the day every weekday for at least two years.
What you can do
Write ASAP to: the planning officer tom.gray@greatercambridgeplanning.org with name, address, and planning ref 22/02066/CONDR ; Chair of Planning Cttee martin.smart@cambridge.gov.uk ; our
MP daniel@danielzeichner.co.uk and Highways Chair alex.beckett@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Best wishes,
Wendy
Wendy Blythe
Chair, FeCRA
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