For the past 7 years Cambridge Past, Present & Future has been campaigning to save the southeast Cambridge countryside from being destroyed by the building of an unnecessary 5-mile road. The road is the Cambridge Southeast busway scheme (CSETS) which is being proposed by our local councils. We support much needed improvements to public transport, but this can be achieved without unnecessarily destroying the environment.

We have been lobbying for an alternative route for the scheme, which involves building stretches of bus lane next to the main road (A1307) and 1 mile of new bus road. This avoids building 5 miles of bus road through open countryside, crossing the river Granta twice, the Gog Magog Hills and Hobson's Conduit. You can find more information about the bus road and our alternative route on our campaign page.

Despite our strong advocacy, support from experts and a petition with over 7,000 names, our councils have recently submitted an application to government for permission to go ahead with their scheme. This means that we now face a costly public inquiry that will decide whether permission is granted. We need your help to stop this destructive development.

A public meeting has been organised for Tues 18 February 2025 at 19.30 to raise awareness of the less damaging alternative scheme and how to support it. This will be held at Great Shelford Memorial Hall, Woollards Lane, Great Shelford CB22 5LZ. Everyone is welcome to attend this.

How can I help to Save Southeast Cambridge Countryside?

1. Support the fighting fund

We need legal and expert representation to make the case at the inquiry for our alternative – a less damaging, less expensive route that meets transport needs without devastating our countryside and wildlife.

Please click here to donate whatever you can to enable us to take a stand and fight for nature and the environment. 

2. Submit your objection to government before 7 March 2025

You can also support the cause by putting your objections in writing to the Secretary of State for Transport via [email protected] or c/o Transport Infrastructure Planning Unit, Department for Transport, Great Minster House, 33 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 4DR.

Doing this will help to show the government the strength of support for our alternative and against the plans put forward by the council.

To do this you should:

• Send your response before 7 March 2025.
• State who is making the objection.
• Include your postal address (even if responding by email).
• State the grounds of your objection. We would recommend that you include any of the following but written in your own words:

Title of letter/email = Objection to Transport and Work Act Order to the Department for Transport (DfT) for a new busway to the southeast of Cambridge Cambridge

I… (Name)   of …. Postal Address …. am writing to make a formal objection to the “Application for a Transport and Work Act Order to the Department for Transport (DfT) for a new busway to the southeast of Cambridge”, as submitted by the Cambridge Greater Partnership on 9 January 2025. The grounds for this objection are the following:

The construction of 5 miles of new road through open countryside is unecessary to deliver improvements in transport. Similar transport and economic benefits can be achieved by building a version of the scheme first proposed by the applicant in 2018. This would involve building sections of bus lane adjacent to the A1307 and 1 mile of new road (busway).

This alternative would avoid building two bridges over the River Granta chalk stream and putting Hobson's Conduit chalk stream into a culvert.

This alternative would avoid creating a scar in the Gog Magog Hills landscape, one of the most important landscapes in the Cambridge area.

This alternative would avoid building a new road through a countryside park, to the detriment of its future users and nature.

This alternative would avoid severing fields close to villages making them vulnerable to future development and further harm to the countryside.

This alternative would better serve the planned expansion of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and serve more of the Campus.

Cycle routes in this area are already under construction and include the Linton Greenway which will connect Cambridge to Babraham, Granta Park and Linton; and the Sawston Greenway that will connect Cambridge to Sawston. Stapleford and Shelford are already served by the DNA cycle path.

[If you live in Stapleford, Great Shelford or Sawston you might also give your view on how likely you (or your fellow villagers) might be to use the proposed 5 mile busway. Our councils say the main reason they have chosen that route is to serve the villages but the bus stops are on the edge of the villages uphill.]

To read the documents submitted with the application, click here where there is a link to the document library.