Plans for £200m busway set to go to public inquiry after campaigners raise objections
A public inquiry is set to take place after a local campaign group complained about the impact of a £200m busway connecting Cambourne and Cambridge on the region’s countryside.
Local charity Cambridge Past, Present & Future (CPPF) argues that the 2.5-mile route should be scrapped and replaced with plans to enhance bus services on existing roads.
The GCP submitted a Transport and Works Act Order (TWAO) to the Secretary of State for Transport in November 2024, seeking approval for the project.
CPPF has since issued an objection against the project, triggering a Planning Inspectorate-led inquiry.
CPPF is leading a group of organisations that object to the busway, including Coton Parish Council, Coton Busway Action Group, Coton Orchard, Coton Loves Pollinators and the Sadler family.
Part of the route will pass through the countryside, including Coton Orchard and Madingley Hill, areas that CPPF says are renowned for their environmental significance, heritage and agricultural value.
Around 500 trees will likely be removed from the orchard if the scheme is approved.
The GCP – which is made up of Cambridgeshire County Council, Cambridge City Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council, the University of Cambridge and the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority – said the plan had undergone an extensive process of consultation.
Commenting on the route's passage through Coton Orchard, the GCP said: "We recognise the environmental impacts of an alignment through the orchard and we are instigating numerous measures to limit and mitigate these. But there are no reasonable alternatives that don't have their own environmental impacts or transport limitations."
As part of mitigating efforts, the CGP said it will create new habitats on what is currently intensively farmed land, including new hedges, trees and grassland areas.
It also plans to create new habitats away from the scheme to compensate for the habitat loss in the orchard and elsewhere.
A GCP spokesperson said: "In the meantime, we would remind interested parties we have submitted a Transport and Works Act Order application for the Cambourne to Cambridge scheme to the Secretary of State in accordance with UK legislation and anyone wanting to make a submission to the Department of Transport has until Wednesday 8 January."
Adam Carey
