The Better Beehive Blog
Planning isn’t sexy but it’s important
We were delighted to be included in The Cambridge Room event on 26 March, their first talk on ‘Let’s talk about the Beehive’ and grateful to know that our work has been recognised with comments on how helpful our website is and our considered contributions to the planning process.
Freedom Of Information request fulfilled
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request allows the public to access information held by UK public authorities, requiring these authorities to respond with the requested information within 20 working days, unless an exemption applies
Current status of the Beehive planning application
An update on the status and an invitation to comment with points of concern that you may wish to cover.
The Planning Inspectorate process
What happened at the planning committee meeting on 12 February when the Beehive plans were discussed? Here’s our summary of what we expect to happen next.
How to help
Railpen have lobbied the Secretary of State to get their plans called-in, thus bypassing local democracy. Here’s how to help if you want a better plan for the Beehive site.
Planning committee refusal but there’s a catch
The proceedings of the planning committee meeting, their decisions and all the comments and reports will be sent to the Planning Inspectorate for review. Because the committee can’t actually refuse due to the ‘calling in’, as recommended by the case officers, they were ‘minded to refuse’, so had this been a standard planning meeting, we’d have been very pleased with the results, which was a unanimous refusal on the grounds of residential amenities.
Plans at committee 12 Feb
If you have commented, you should be receiving notification that the planning committee will be considering the application for the outline planning permission for the Beehive site on Coldhams Lane on 12th February 2025 at 10am.
Planning officer recommends refusal
We have significant news from the planning officer that you need to read
Supplementary Sunlight Addendum and revised Design Code
You can be forgiven for not spending your December reading through 540 planning documents in search of the Daylight and Sunlight addendum and revised Design Code for the Beehive site ahead of the developer’s submission for outline planning permission on the Planning Committee on 12th Feb 2025.
We did!
Here is our report which was sent to the planning officer on 13th January.
On the third day of Christmas …
If you have commented on the planning application for the Beehive site off Coldhams Lane in Cambridge, you should have received a letter from the planning department advising you that there are revisions.
Our Formal Objection to Railpen revised plans, Oct 2024
The Better Beehive Cambridge Group’s response to the revised planning application for the Beehive site covering 10 areas of consideration.
Rising applications
An blog post with a list of planning applications in Cambridge where height is an issue and info on campaign groups.
Response to July 2024 revision scheme for The Beehive site
This is a quick summary of the information given to the public during the public consultation for the revised proposals for the Beehive Centre. We hope it is an accurate interpretation. The revised scheme is due to be submitted in August when much more detail will be available.
We can see that a lot of work has been done on the scheme and overall it is somewhat improved from the exceptionally poor start seen in the original scheme submitted in August last year. However, the scheme remains an over development of the Beehive site. The scale of the buildings is still overwhelming and in stark contrast to the low rise, domestic scale of buildings that immediately surround the site
Consultation dates for your diary July 2024
Dates for your diary for consultation feedback.
Our formal response
Firstly, and to be absolutely clear, we recognise and support the principle of the redevelopment of the Beehive Centre…
Not in your backyard, yet.
It’s not in your backyard yet but wherever you live in Cambridge it might be soon. This is how you can stop that happening.