Post-appeal statement

Statement following the appeal for the Beehive site as a result of the decision by Railpen to lobby the government, July 2025

The Better Beehive Cambridge Group attended the public inquiry and formally shared our concerns, including, but not limited to, loss of residential amenity.

We were taken aback when the council and developer reached an agreement to recommend passing the illustrative height as opposed to the maximum height. We strongly expressed our concern about the lack of detail on the heights and took every opportunity following this news, to state that harm is harm.

We now await the Planning Inspector’s report and decision by the Secretary of State’s department in a few months. The finer details of scale and height will be agreed at reserved matters planning application. Please do keep in touch with us, follow our blog and find us here on Facebook, as we’ll need your support in the months to come.

We close by extending an enormous thanks to everyone who wrote to the planning portal. Without your support, these plans may have been passed on the original enormous scale and this site would have set a precedent for our city and beyond. Many of the points raised showed a lack of awareness about the area by the developers about the people who live here and how much we value our homes and sense of place. To get any reduction is a positive outcome

With best wishes, ‘a small but vocal group of residents’