Campaigners who attended a public meeting to discuss proposals to put two extra access points into a children’s recreation ground say they will fight the council in court if the plan goes ahead.
The meeting was attended by 70 people and heard Cambridge City Council’s plans to install two new access points to Histon Road Recreation Ground from a new housing development to be built by Cambridge Investment Partnership - the council’s development arm - on an adjacent site.
Parent Katyuli Lloyd has set up a petition against the new access points through the park’s railings, which points out that putting in extra gateways would make the park less secure for children to explore.
And it adds the only reason to create the access points is to “maximise building plots and profits” for Cambridge Investment Partnership “by avoiding having to provide any green space or playground of their own”.
She said: “I was delighted that so many people could attend the meeting and they objected strongly to the council’s two options of putting either one or two new access points into the park.
“We said we wanted a third option to be available - no new access points. This is because the park is currently secure and surrounded by railings. It means parents can allow their children to wander around in safety and be able to observe them from the centre of the park. If you put in new access points they are immediately not safe and could leave the park or be run down by scooters or bikes crossing the park on the new paths.
“This also puts a lot of extra pressure on the public park as the 70 new houses the council plans to build would mean hundreds more residents in the area. The law states new developments must have access to a recreation ground: the council wants to get around its obligation to build a new park for the new houses by simply putting two gates into our existing park. It’s not acceptable.
“Parents and other local residents are prepared to take this to judicial review if the council goes ahead with this plan.”
The city council’s planning committee is expected to decide whether it will give the council’s development arm permission to install the two access points at a meeting in July.
So far there have been more than 90 objections to the proposals. One resident stated: “This proposal is an attempt to bypass or “depart” from current planning constraints by borrowing Histon Road Rec as the proposed development’s green space. This would be at the expense of current residents, who have to share the space with far more people, the development’s future residents who lack their own adequate green space, local children whose previous safe play space would be punctured by a bike/scooter pathway, and the environment through pressures on water supplies, sewage and loss of native biodiverse planting to landscaping “enhancements.” The main benefit seems to be for those who will profit from squeezing in as many inadequate dwellings as they can get away with on this ex-garage site.”
The meeting arranged by the council at St Augustine’s Church, Richmond Road on Thursday 23 May collected feedback from residents.
Cllr Simon Smith, Executive Councillor for Finance and Resources, said: “It was great to see so many local people taking the time to attend the public meeting on Thursday, and for us to hear what they had to say.
“Councillors and officers heard a strong message from residents that the existing secure play area is much loved by generations of children, parents and grandparents, and that any proposals for new accesses into the fenced off play area should be ruled out.
“I look forward to future meetings when residents can have their say on proposals for new play features, further planting, habitat areas, bird and bat boxes, picnic benches and cycle stands.”
