SAVE Featured on BBC News and BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

This week, Save Abington Village Environment (SAVE) was featured on BBC News and BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, giving us the opportunity to explain why we believe the proposed development at Grange Farm remains completely inappropriate for our villages.

Listen to the Interview

BBC

BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

SAVE on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire with Dotty McLeod

BBC Sounds · skip to 1:01:38

Listen

Why a Reduction Is Not a Win

The latest draft of the Greater Cambridge Local Plan has reduced the proposed development from 6,000 homes to 4,500. While this has been presented as a significant change, our position remains unchanged: reducing the numbers does not make this the right proposal. A development of 4,500 homes would still overwhelm our villages and fundamentally change the character of our community.

Speaking to the BBC, SAVE's Anna Ross described the proposals as a "complete panic plan", explaining that the Grange Farm proposal only emerged after plans for homes on the Cambridge sewage works site were abandoned.

"This was put in very last-minute. It's huge… it's completely ecologically unsound, for the community it's unsound."

Anna Ross, SAVE

Anna also made clear that SAVE is not opposed to new homes: "I'm 35, and of a generation that's struggled to afford homes. So have the generations below me." Our campaign has never been about saying no to housing. It is about ensuring that homes are built in the right places, with the right infrastructure, and at a scale that is sustainable for both existing and future communities.

Challenging Infrastructure

That message was echoed by SAVE member James Snell, who emphasised that residents support sensible growth.

"As a village, we embrace change and we very much support the idea of a village hub being supported by more people, who contribute more to the village. But this is not a question of a few houses. 4,500 is well outside an expansion of a village — it's a new town on the side of a village."

James Snell, SAVE member

James also highlighted one of the biggest unanswered questions surrounding the proposal — how the existing road network could ever support 4,500 homes.

"A new settlement needs to be a new sustainable, self-sustaining settlement with its own junctions off major roads, its own ability to cope with its own traffic. This is not this."

James Snell, SAVE member

The BBC article also noted that Greater Cambridge Shared Planning did not comment on the concerns raised by residents, but released a statement which can be heard in the radio feature.

Help SAVE Keep Up the Pressure

Being featured by the BBC is a major moment for our campaign, helping to bring our concerns to a much wider audience. But media coverage alone won't change the Local Plan.

SAVE is entirely funded by local residents and supporters. As the Regulation 19 consultation approaches — expected in August or September — we are securing specialist legal and planning support to push back against the plan. We need to raise £30,000 to fund this work.

If you believe that 4,500 homes is still the wrong scale in the wrong place, please consider making a donation to SAVE today. Every contribution helps us continue making the strongest possible case for a better, more sustainable future for our villages.