CambridgePPF invites city residents and groups to join Big Tree Plant Campaign

On Thursday 2 December 2010 when the government announced its Big Tree Plant initiative, local charity Cambridge Past, Present & Future (CambridgePPF) calls for a major tree planting campaign to regreen Cambridge and reverse a decline in its famous population of trees.


Robin Pellew, chair of CambridgePPF said:

“Trees are crucial to the iconic Cambridge landscape, a key feature of its beautiful green spaces and part of what makes the city so special. They also reduce atmospheric pollution and help to combat climate change. Yet our trees are suffering and their decline is a serious matter. Many of our trees are mature, making falling branches a very real health and safety hazard. Others are being ravaged by disease. The horse chestnut, a familiar favourite on the Cambridge commons with its white or pink spring flowers and autumn conkers, is the latest species to suffer, with many older trees now facing the chop.

Comunity tree and hedge planting at the Coton Countryside Reserve

“We need to reinvigorate and replenish Cambridge’s stock of trees if we are to keep the green cityscape that is the envy of other places. We need to launch a major planting programme involving local community groups, schools, and charities as well as the City Council. We therefore welcome the timing of this Government initiative.

“We urge Cambridge to act fast and seize this opportunity. We want to set up a citizens group with local community organisations, charities and companies, plus the City Council to green the city with new trees. If the City Council could contribute its annual tree-planting budget to this project, it could be used as match funding to secure additional funds from The Big Tree Plant. This, we believe, would benefit the whole community and leave an invaluable legacy of a greener city to be enjoyed by generations to come.

Cambridge Past, Present & Future is willing to act as the catalyst to get this project up and running. As custodian of two country parks on the outskirts of the city we know the importance of managing green spaces as both a public and an environmental resource.
If you are interested in this initiative, please call: 01223 243830 or e-mail us using the link below.

What do you know about Hodson's Folly at Coe Fen?

As you cross the foot and cycle bridge to Coe Fen from Sheep's Green you may have noticed a small walled riverside area containing an old boathouse and a roofless folly. This is known as 'Hodson's Folly' after the Mr. Hodson who apparently built it in the 19th Century as a private area in which his daughters could bathe in the River.

The Heritage Working Group of CambridgePPF are currently considering ways to rescue this walled area from neglect and would be extremely interested in any information regarding its history and past uses.
We would especially appreciate old photographs and other images of the site.

Can you help?  Please contact us with information and images.

Street Clutter Campaign - let us have your pictures of the City highlighting issues

The Rt. Hon. Eric Pickles MP and Rt. Hon. Philip Hammond MP have highlighted the Government’s commitment to reducing street clutter, an announcement that is welcomed by CambridgePPF.

In the past the Society and some of its members have been involved with the reduction of street clutter (for details please click here) and more work needs to be done to improve the existing historic and wider city environment.



Bridge Street in Cambridge

(at St Clement's Church)

View taken in June 2004 and then again July 2010 following a successful campaign and liaison with the Highways Authority.



Currently only some influence through public consultation process is possible on elements of street design. However, in recent years Cambridge City Council’s Area Committees, Environment Scrutiny Committee and Planning Committees have taken more interest in local design and exerted some influence in street design elements where they relate to city funded-projects or new developments. A few years ago the City Council were ahead in thinking and compiled a list of unnecessary signage and redundant posts for removal in the city.

Good design is essential when developing proposals for the new urban quarters on the fringes of Cambridge or proposals in the city itself, such as the area around the train station. A wide array of background information is available to assist the achievement of good design and CambridgePPF welcomes real commitment by local developers to embrace these opportunities and to ensure that their design professionals work together – from the lighting engineer to highway advisor, landscape architect and utility providers etc. Good design can be achieved and welcomed by local people e.g. Cambridgeshire Quality Charter for Growth.

There is extensive experience which can be borrowed from other European countries as well as expertise gained from good schemes now completed in the UK. A famous example being the wonderful improvements to Kensington High Street in London; which resulted in the traffic calming of the busy road, significant accident reduction, improved parking for cyclists and crossings for pedestrians. Here a quality layout has been achieved that is both visually pleasing and practical.

Unfortunately the removal of street clutter is not easy to achieve without funding and it is not clear from the Government’s announcement where the financial support will come from; although long-term some cost savings would be achieved through the reduced maintenance costs. It may take a long time to reduce street clutter in some areas and require some expertise (professional design fees) to interpret the minimum legal requirements of signage and the government’s promised new design guidance and manuals for roads. We believe that clear guidelines are essential and would welcome a city-wide design code jointly formulated by the County Council’s Highway Authority and the City Council.

In the city centre we need to ensure the protection of the historic environment. Despite attempts to prevent damage have you noticed the harm delivery lorries cause when cutting corners and scraping the oriel windows often jutting out of historic buildings at first floor level (pictured below is the street corner at Sidney Street at a supermarket delivery entrance).

Street furniture can serve a useful function only if it’s well placed!

If you have any particular suggestions as to which areas of the City and surrounding countryside you feel have too much signage and other ‘street clutter’ (lamp columns, traffic and other signs and posts, CCTV, railings, bollards, benches, bins, city information maps, advertising hoarding etc.) - please contact us – by end September 2010 ¬ and we will pool the comments and prepare a brief report (and audit) to be sent to the relevant local authorities for action.

If you have any particular suggestions as to which areas of the City and surrounding countryside you feel have too much signage and other ‘street clutter’ (lamp columns, traffic and other signs and posts, CCTV, railings, bollards, benches, bins, city information maps, advertising hoarding etc.) - please contact us - and we will pool the comments and prepare a brief report (and audit) to be sent to the relevant local authorities for action.

Please send us any photographs of local area you think need urgent improvements.

For further (technical) design expertise and good practice guidance, background information and case studies please check the following active weblinks:

- Civic Voice and campaign street pride 

- CABE     and  campaign 'clear cluttered streets'

- Department for Transport

- English Heritage and Women’s Institute - campaign 'save our streets'

- Englsih Heritage - Street Clutter Audit

- CambridgePPF - reference list for Conservation Areas

- FixMyStreet

- Living Streets

- Ripon Civic Soicety - Civic Society takes Council to task of placing "insensitiv" placing of signs
or see Open space signs an unessecary intrusion 

- Specialist design company with national and international expertise – Hamilton-Baillie Associates see articles published

- CPRE  and their campaign Stop the Drop

 all above photographs - copyright CambridgePPF

BBQ and Cambridge Greens

Letter to the Editor, Cambridge News - issued 5 July 2010

Things have been hotting up in the recent debate about barbequing within various Cambridge parks – mainly because there is little manpower to enforce the rules that prohibit open fires.

While the problem of occasional small patches of burnt grass and associated litter does need to be tackled, what is really required is a much longer-term approach. With climate change promising hotter summers and more people living in denser housing clusters across the city with no garden or balcony, it is unsurprising that local residents are using parks to meet friends and family. That is after all what our greens spaces are for.

Taking inspiration from other cities in the UK and on the continent, local parks across Cambridge should be reassessed and suitable, well designed BBQ areas and seating facilities should be created where people can happily socialise and enjoy the outdoors – one of our real assets.

At Wandlebury Country Park, we have a designated area that people can hire for BBQ’s to limit fire risk, which proves extremely popular. At Lammas Land there is a designated, albeit small, BBQ area. It works well but is unfortunately insufficient to meet demand. If funding is an issue, local people or community groups could be encouraged to contribute or sponsorship could be sought – perhaps from the retail outlets selling the offending BBQs?

Carolin Göhler

CEO of CambridgePPF

For Cambridge News published front page article of 13 July 2010 - click here.

Call for Protection for Cambridge Community Pubs

CambridgePPF Call for planning protection for Cambridge Community Pubs.

Cambridge Past, Present & Future has written to Clare Blair, Executive Cambridge City Councillor for Climate Change & Growth, asking that community Public Houses in Cambridge be offered the same planning protection as other Community Facilities in Cambridge and that they also be subject to a business 'viability test' before any change of use or redevelopment is permitted.

A planning 'viability test' is already in place for Public Houses located in rural and local centres in both South Cambridgeshire and East Cambridgeshire.

Cambridge PPF Chairman Robin Pellew OBE commented:

"A good local pub is an asset to its area and community. We feel that this part of our culture and heritage is under threat and is worthy of protection. It is unfortunate that we are losing local community pubs where people meet and talk while at the same time seeing the creation of larger and more impersonal bars in central areas of our cities and towns."

For the full text of the letter sent 16th June 2010 - please click here.

--------------------------

Cambridge News:

Published: 21/06/2010 07:45 - Updated: 21/06/2010 08:47

Conservationists want to protect at-risk pubs

Chris Havergal

Conservation experts want Cambridge pubs to get more protection from developers.

Permission for The Jubilee on Catharine Street to be flattened was given on Thursday and several other historic drinking holes are threatened with demolition or conversion to residential use.

Now Cambridge Past, Present & Future has called for city inns to be given the same special status as taverns in the surrounding rural districts.

In both south and east Cambridgeshire, pubs are classed as community facilities and there are policies which say they should not be lost if there will be a serious impact on the surrounding area.

There are also requirements for developers who want to knock down a pub to carry out a viability test to see if it could have a future in its existing form.

Pubs are not classed as community facilities under Cambridge’s planning rules but the charity believes this should change, particularly outside the city centre.

Robin Pellew, the group’s chairman, said: “A good local pub is an asset to its area and community.

“We feel this part of our culture and heritage is under threat and is worthy of protection. It is unfortunate that we are losing local community pubs where people meet and talk while at the same time seeing the creation of larger and more impersonal bars in central areas of our cities and towns.”

Cllr Clare Blair, Cambridge City Council’s growth chief, said pubs could only be given protection if a strong file of evidence of their value could be put together.

She said: “We recognise the concern there is about the loss of pubs within any context.

“The current planning policy in Cambridge doesn’t include pubs as community facilities and in order to change that we will need to look carefully at this issue.

“There is a difference between the large number of pubs in a small area of the city and pubs in outlying areas, specifically in villages.”

On Thursday the council’s west/central area committee will discuss plans to convert the Hat and Feathers in Barton Road into six flats.

How can we improve Air Quality in Cambridge?

We want your views


Cambridge has a problem with its air quality. At the beginning of this year, the EU Directive on Air Quality became legally binding in the UK. In parts of the city centre, particularly around Drummer Street bus station, the atmospheric pollution at times breaches the average annual legal level designated by the EU.

We have cautiously supported the recent Transport Commission’s report, which highlighted the need for Congestion Charging in Cambridge in tandem with major quality improvements to sustainable transport such as travel by bus and bike. Currently Cambridgeshire County Council is consulting the public on its Local Transport Plan* that will be effective from 2011 and covers the city and the rest of the county.

Recent discussions with local people have highlighted the particular but not exclusive inner city problem of poor air quality within some public areas. We consider this an important issue, which needs to be tackled. We are very keen to hear your views on the air quality problems facing the city and how you think that the issues could best be managed.

We are also keen that air quality is identified within the Local Transport Plan as a priority.

The average annual level of Nitrogen Dioxide, one of the main markers of atmospheric pollutants in cities, permitted by the EU is 40 micrograms/metre3 of air. In the quieter residential streets, it is about 29-33 mcg/m3 – below the threshold as set by the EU. However at the main ring road intersections, it is about 42-45mcg/m3, and around the bus station and stops at Drummer/Emmanuel Street, the level averages around 55mg/m3 and may exceed 100mg/m3 at times of peak traffic and stable weather conditions. Although rarely breaching the maximum EU ceiling of 200mg/m3, air pollution is worsening. In the last three years 20% more buses are operating within the city but the Nitrogen Dioxide emissions of buses have only been reduced by 12.5%.

Atmospheric pollution from vehicles, including Nitrogen Dioxide, has been linked to increases in asthma and respiratory problems, and even to premature deaths in the UK. Because of its acidity, it also accelerates the corrosion of the stonework on historic buildings.

In Cambridge one of the primary sources of this pollution is the exhaust fumes from buses. Around Drummer Street, buses account for approximately half the pollution load. Halving these emissions by introducing cleaner vehicles would bring the pollution levels below the EU standard.

Buses are a key part of our efforts to reduce congestion. CambridgePPF is not anti-bus – in fact we need more buses to get people out of their cars, but we also need buses that are cleaner and less polluting. Anyone visiting the city centre will recognise the problem of some buses spewing out clouds of diesel exhaust in the faces of pedestrians and cyclists, and what a relief it would be to have clean buses.

Cleaner buses obviously come at a cost, and this in turn could impact on services or fares. There is an inevitable trade-off between reduced emissions and maintaining services. We need to work with the operators to explore how best to introduce the higher pollution standards without impacting on fares. However, because of the legal requirement, it is not a matter of whether we should clean up our air but of how best to do it.

As Cambridge continues to expand, the number of buses will increase. The issue therefore is how to reduce emissions without threatening services and fares.

In essence, this presents a choice – should priority be given to cleaning Cambridge’s air and alleviating the potential public health problems or to maintaining services and fares at all costs?

This is the debate CambridgePPF wants to stimulate. We will be seeking to raise the issue with the City Council, that has responsibility for the city’s air quality, the County Council, that is responsible for the buses, the bus operators and the public.

Your views on this issue will help us to campaign for better quality air within the City.
Robin Pellew OBE

Chairman – CambridgePPF

* Find Cambridgeshire County Council's Local Transport Plan consultation document [LPT 3] at www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/transport/strategies/local/

Original article published February 2010.
Please let us have your comments by end August 2010 at the latest.