Hanley Grange transport strategy "confusing" and fails
to meet targets for an eco-town

Communities and Local Government 31st July 2008

Thank you to all our supporters! 

Thanks to everyone who put up posters, signed our petitions, wrote letters, donated money, displayed a car sticker, attended our meetings, manned information stalls, collected signatures, wrote on Facebook, spoke to the press, offered suggestions and advice, or contributed in other ways such as organising the children's poster competition and writing poems.

Thank you also to the Parish Councils, County and District Councillors and staff, Cambridgeshire Horizons and the local MPs, Sir Alan Hazelhurst, James Paice and Andrew Lansley. 

The Open Meeting at Whittlesford Village Hall on Monday 1st September to discuss the future of the campaign has been cancelled! 

Tesco Announces Withdrawal of Hanley Grange from eco towns initiative

Tesco have this morning announced the withdrawal of Hanley Grange from the government's eco-towns initiative and advised that they will pursue the development through the review of the Regional Spatial Strategy instead. 

Work on the Regional Spacial Strategy (RSS) review by EERA (the East of England Regional Assembly) began this year, with a view to the submitting the draft RSS to the Secretary of State in 2011.

Read the details of Tesco's announcement in the Cambridge Evening News here .

Hanley Grange masterplan is a masterjoke

Sat 9th August 2008

Julie Redfern, Chair of the Stop Hanley Grange campaign, said “This so-called ‘masterplan’ is a joke.  It’s just a drawing of a map of the site with a few roads and different coloured areas for houses, shops and so on.  My 11 year old daughter could have done just as well.”  

To read the press release click here

Is this the best they can do?

After 4 months, promoters of Hanley Grange, Hinxton have presented a three page 'Master Plan' to CLG that is clearly lacking in detail  Sufficient information should now be availble for the governments' advisers to conduct sustainability and financial appraisal before the final short list can be decided - this appears not to be the case at HG. Revised details (such as they are) can be found here

Jarrow Investments publish new site plan (Updated)

Friday 31st July 2008

Promoters Jarrow Investments today published a site plan showing more detail of the proposed development which has been revised as a result of Wellcome Trust refusal to include it's land in the scheme here.

The fight goes on: 6,500 houses proposed on the smaller site

The promoter's have announced:

HANLEY GRANGE PROJECT SET TO CONTINUE TO NEXT CONSULTATION STAGE

Read the promoter's press release here . 

The Stop Hanley Grange action group will be working closely with all interested parties  - including Cambridgeshire Horizons, district and county councils, and relevant experts - to pick out the weaknesses in these submissions to ensure that these are properly highlighted during this consultation. This will help ensure that they don't pass the criteria for eco-town approval by Ministers, towards the end of the year.

We don’t have the financial resources of Tesco, and we would plead that anyone with relevant technical expertise who might be able to help us - whether planning lawyers, people who understand the water issues, or environmental specialists - or in any other way - can they let us know. Contact us .

Local Government Association (LGA) legal challenge over eco-towns

Sir Simon Milton, chairman of the LGA, said..."Now leading lawyers have said that the Government’s approach is open to legal challenge under both domestic and European law. Ministers must talk to council leaders about adopting a new approach that will deliver development in places where councils and local people agree that eco towns can work.

Full details here. 

The promoter's plans for Hanley Grange

The promoter's Jarrow and Tesco published their plans for Hanley Grange on 1st July 2008 which is the day after the public consultation closed. You can see their plans at www.hanleygrange.co.uk/news.

Since publishing this document, the Wellcome Trust have refused to sell their land and the promoter's are now planning 6,500 houses on the remaining land on the site. We have no details of their proposals. 

We know their plans include a Tesco store. When we asked how big the Tesco's store would be (in their 1st July proposal) and they said "5,000 square metres". To compare that to other shops in the area, click here.

If you want to write to Tesco with your views, the address is:

Sir Terry Leahy

Chief Executive 

Tesco PLC
New Tesco House
Delamare Road
Cheshunt
Hertfordshire
EN8 9SL 

You can still write to the government

Although the original deadline was 30th June, we have been assured that all letters written will be read. So, if you didn't have time to write before, or if you want to tell the government what you think of the consultation process or the developer's proposals, you can still write. Contact details are here. 

Government publishes eco-town criteria

The Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) had published its latest eco town progress report. You can read the press release and download the full report here.

Other eco-towns

See here for details of the original 15 eco-towns proposed, now down to 12. 

Wellcome Trust have announced they will not be part of the Hanley Grange proposal!

On Thursday 17th July, Wellcome Trust announced they would not be a partner in the eco town submission at Hanley Grange. You can read their short press statement, here .

Wellcome Trust and Hanley Grange

The Wellcome Trust owns around 270 acres of land on the Hanley Grange site. The proposed Hanley Grange town site is  927 acres.

More details here.

Campaign News

Our petition

We have reopened our online petition! If you haven't already signed, please sign here .

We gave Housing Minister, Caroline Flint,  a copy of our petition when she visited Cambridge on Thursday 26 June and handed in the petition on Monday 30th June 2008 to 10, Downing Street at 2pm.

A big thank you to everyone who has signed and another big thank you to all our volunteers. When we handed to petition to 10 Downing Street, we had

3,202 online signatures

7,100+ paper signatures.  

Our Downing Street petition will continue.

Campaign poetry: Read Lydia Macpherson's Requiem for Hanley Grange here and another supporter's Ode to Hanley Grange here . 

TV coverage: Hanley Grange was featured on Channel 4 News on Saturday 28th June. Watch the video here.

Facebook: we have a lively group on Facebook with over 2,400 members. You can join in here .

 Stop Hanley Grange at Westminister, 30th June

DEVELOPER'S PLANS

The Developer's submission to the Eco-town Team (published on 1st July) is available. You can read their plans at www.hanleygange.co.uk. Please note that these plans were published before the Wellcome Trust pulled out. The developer's have not bothered to update the public with details of their new plans for 6,500 houses.

As part of their publicity campaign, the developer's have produced a glossy leaflet inviting people to respond to their proposals. If you are against Hanley Grange, we believe you should not fill in the developer's response slip as it may imply you are in favour. If you wish to make your views known, write to the eco-towns team. 

"Building brand new eco-towns ... is really bad idea when there are 675,000 homes in England alone sitting empty, all ripe for refitting with green technologies."

Federation of Master Builders, May 2008

What Can I Do?

Write to the Eco-town team

Sign our online petition

Sign our petition on the Downing Street website 

Print a poster

Support our campaign events

Tell your friends

Donate to the campaign