Today at Planning Committee, the application to demolish and redevelop 291 Hills Road was approved.

This has been a long-running campaign that we have been fully engaged with, to try to give Cambridge’s Planning Authority the confidence it apparently lacks to insist that local housing developments provide affordable housing in the appropriate proportion, as set out in the Cambridge Local Plan 2018.

Sadly, the balance of committee members felt unable to vote against the clear instructions of the planning officers that the financial viability assessment submitted by the applicant and independently verified by the council’s own experts should take precedence and excuse the requirement for affordable housing. Local Councillor Colin McGerty spoke at the meeting and argued passionately for the committee members to reject the assessment and the application. But while three of seven committee members were persuaded, others took the officers advice that to reject the application would be unsafe and likely to cost the council at appeal.

We’ve lost this one, but I hope that we have added a lot to the discussion on the kind of housing development we do and do not wish to see in Queen Edith's and Cambridge.

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