Campaigning for a neighbourly Beehive

We believe in a development that respects our community, our homes, the climate, open spaces and our cityscape.

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Together, we can make a difference. Thank you.

Current status of the application

The developer lobbed for the application to be called-in by the Secretary of State. This means that the Planning Inspectorate’s decision will override the Cambridge Planning Committee’s unanimous decision to be ‘minded to refuse’ the plans, in agreement with the case officers on 12 February 2025.
The deadline for reports and comments to the Planning Inspectorate was 1 April, and we have made our submission. This will form part of the enquiry along with all the documents held on the GCSP planning portal for this application including public comments. We now have to wait for the case to be heard, which is scheduled for 24 June and may last between 3-6 weeks.
If you are interested in attending the hearing in London, you may do so, and we’ll update this website when we have more details.

Read more on our blog

Featured

Planning isn’t sexy but it’s important

We were delighted to be included in The Cambridge Room event on 26 March, their first talk on ‘Let’s talk about the Beehive’ and grateful to know that our work has been recognised with comments on how helpful our website is and our considered contributions to the planning process.

Freedom Of Information request fulfilled

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request allows the public to access information held by UK public authorities, requiring these authorities to respond with the requested information within 20 working days, unless an exemption applies

Current status of the Beehive planning application

An update on the status and an invitation to comment with points of concern that you may wish to cover.

The Planning Inspectorate process

What happened at the planning committee meeting on 12 February when the Beehive plans were discussed? Here’s our summary of what we expect to happen next.

How to help

Railpen have lobbied the Secretary of State to get their plans called-in, thus bypassing local democracy. Here’s how to help if you want a better plan for the Beehive site.

Planning committee refusal but there’s a catch

The proceedings of the planning committee meeting, their decisions and all the comments and reports will be sent to the Planning Inspectorate for review. Because the committee can’t actually refuse due to the ‘calling in’, as recommended by the case officers, they were ‘minded to refuse’, so had this been a standard planning meeting, we’d have been very pleased with the results, which was a unanimous refusal on the grounds of residential amenities.

“We consider that the proposed development, despite changes from 2021 proposals, represents a massive over-development of the site that is surrounded by two-storey residential neighbourhoods.”

— Sarah Nicholas, Cambridge Past, Present and Future (from Cambridge Independent, 11/8/23).

Timeline 2025

Feb 12th 2025 At the Planning Committee meeting on 12 Feb 2025, those attending found out that Railpen lobbied the Secretary of State to get their plans called-in. Despite this, the plans were debated in full, and we shared our concerns in objection. The Planning Committee unanimously were minded to refuse on the grounds of ‘loss of residential amenity’ as concluded by the case officers. You can read about the concerns over loss of daylight and sunlight in this correspondence.

Feb 27th 2025 The Neighbour Appeal Notification Letter was posted from the case officers to parties who commented. You can find this letter on the Greater Cambridge Planning Portal. It explains the process after RailPen lobbied the Goverment to call this application in. Read our press release in response to the events of 12 February, 2025

March 2025 Silverwood Close and St Matthew’s Gardens residents are helping surveyors from Railpen and GCSP with detailed measurements inside their homes and gardens.

12th March 2025 The Freedom of Information request is responded to.

26 March 2025 We attended a forum held by The Cambridge Room and met with people experienced in planning from Cambridge and beyond. We thank them for their facilitation of this event.

1st April 2025 We submit our report to the Planning Inspectorate.