Save Cambridge’s Protected Green Spaces - Protect the historic Fenner’s Cricket Ground
Save Cambridge’s Protected Green Spaces - Protect the historic Fenner’s Cricket Ground
The Issue
Hughes Hall is proposing to build accommodation blocks for up to 100 students on the iconic Fenner’s Cricket Ground.
This means scarce and precious green space in the most densely populated part of Cambridge will be lost forever.
In planning jargon, Fenner’s is Protected Open Space with a quality rating similar to the Botanic Garden and Parker's Piece.
If protected recreational grounds like Fenner’s are developed it will set a dangerous precedent for the whole city. If this is allowed, what green space is safe in the future?
Sir David Attenborough recognises the threat:
“The open green spaces of Cambridge need protection because they are always in danger of being swallowed up.”
Fenner's was always open to the public until Hughes Hall locked the gates and turned it into a private campus.
Open spaces with trees, grass, birds and wildlife, green lungs such as Fenner’s, are crucial for our health and well-being as Cambridge is faced with hotter summers and becoming ever more crowded.
Since 1848, Fenner’s has been a cherished cricket ground, hosting university cricket teams, local clubs, county and national teams.
Cricket on Fenner’s will have to compete with Hughes Hall’s ambitions to provide more and more exorbitantly priced places for students.
Unstopped, Hughes Hall will be able to keep expanding until there's nothing left for cricket but a circle, and Fenner’s will become just another court in the middle of a college campus.
We're justifiably proud of our two universities and the energy and enterprise they bring to the city. We like the commons, the colleges, and love that we can cycle across it. But Cambridge is expanding and its very attraction means further growth is inevitable. It’s difficult to do much about house prices and traffic, but we can protect our open spaces.
Hughes Hall could easily avoid building on this beautiful green space by using university land in West Cambridge or a brownfield site. If planning approval for a large development on Fenner’s is given, no protected open space in Cambridge is safe.
We are calling on residents of Cambridge to sign our petition and demand that our elected representatives refuse permission for this Hughes Hall development.
With your support we can safeguard Cambridge’s green open spaces, and save Fenner’s historic Protected Open Space for future generations.
3,735
The Issue
Hughes Hall is proposing to build accommodation blocks for up to 100 students on the iconic Fenner’s Cricket Ground.
This means scarce and precious green space in the most densely populated part of Cambridge will be lost forever.
In planning jargon, Fenner’s is Protected Open Space with a quality rating similar to the Botanic Garden and Parker's Piece.
If protected recreational grounds like Fenner’s are developed it will set a dangerous precedent for the whole city. If this is allowed, what green space is safe in the future?
Sir David Attenborough recognises the threat:
“The open green spaces of Cambridge need protection because they are always in danger of being swallowed up.”
Fenner's was always open to the public until Hughes Hall locked the gates and turned it into a private campus.
Open spaces with trees, grass, birds and wildlife, green lungs such as Fenner’s, are crucial for our health and well-being as Cambridge is faced with hotter summers and becoming ever more crowded.
Since 1848, Fenner’s has been a cherished cricket ground, hosting university cricket teams, local clubs, county and national teams.
Cricket on Fenner’s will have to compete with Hughes Hall’s ambitions to provide more and more exorbitantly priced places for students.
Unstopped, Hughes Hall will be able to keep expanding until there's nothing left for cricket but a circle, and Fenner’s will become just another court in the middle of a college campus.
We're justifiably proud of our two universities and the energy and enterprise they bring to the city. We like the commons, the colleges, and love that we can cycle across it. But Cambridge is expanding and its very attraction means further growth is inevitable. It’s difficult to do much about house prices and traffic, but we can protect our open spaces.
Hughes Hall could easily avoid building on this beautiful green space by using university land in West Cambridge or a brownfield site. If planning approval for a large development on Fenner’s is given, no protected open space in Cambridge is safe.
We are calling on residents of Cambridge to sign our petition and demand that our elected representatives refuse permission for this Hughes Hall development.
With your support we can safeguard Cambridge’s green open spaces, and save Fenner’s historic Protected Open Space for future generations.
3,735
The Supporters
Featured Comments
Essential to protect this green space.
As W.G. Grace's biographer and a Cambridge graduate, I know that he would have been appalled by the proposed development at Fenner's. He loved playing here, as have so many great cricketers since his time. But that's not the main reason why Hughes Hall should think again. Fenner's is a Protected Open Space and cherished by so many locals who often have no interest in cricket as a place where they can stretch their legs, walk the dog or just enjoy the fresh air, in a city which has witnessed breakneck urban development in recent decades. What is the point of a Protected Open Space if it is not exactly that? One might as well assume that over time Fenner's will go the way of so many other grounds that WG Grace played on and be obliterated by developers. Richard Tomlinson Author: Amazing Grace: The Man who was W.G. (2015) Clare College, 1977-80, Christ's College, 1980-83, Cambridge University Crusaders CC, 1977-83.
We think it very impotant to keep Fenners Cricket Ground just as it is, and to protect all other green spaces in Cambridge.
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Petition created on 14 August 2024