Another guest blogpost from Protect Fenner’s Action Group.
Hughes Hall have confirmed that it has purchased land on Fenner’s and plans to extend the college campus, including student accommodation, onto the ground adjacent to the cricket pitch. This is currently designated as Protected Open Space in the Glisson Road-Newtown Conservation Area, used for all sorts of cricket-related activity, and is a precious green lung in an increasingly built up city.
looking towards Covent Garden and the land Hughes Hall has purchased for development
(photo: Lionel Sheffield)
We are asking people to sign a petition to stop Hughes Hall in its tracks – Save Cambridge’s Protected Green Spaces – Protect the historic Fenner’s Cricket Ground.
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?
Protect Fenner’s Action Group Petition – Read full details.
Please read the details and sign. You can add a comment after you’ve signed and verified your signature by email.
for building student accommodation
(Proposal shown to residents, 30 November 2023)
For further information, see our guest blog posted in June, on this website Fenner’s Protected Open Space – at risk?
Thank you everyone.
Our green and open spaces are of fundamental importance to our city’s character, ecology, and our own wellbeing. We must support all efforts to preserve them in the face of the constant drive to build and develop.
Please email protectfennersactiongroup@gmail.com to support our local campaign to save Fenner’s and green spaces in Cambridge for future generations. We will let you know when further details, including architects’ plans, are published.
Protect Fenner’s Action Group in the local and national press
- Fenner’s cricket ground faces threat from student block
Residents fear the three-storey block could spell the end of cricket at the home ground of Cambridge University Cricket Club
Laurence Sleator, The Times, June 13 2024 (£) - Residents alarmed at plan for land by Fenner’s ground
Alex Spencer, Cambridge Independent, 16 June 2024
Historic cricket grounds are part of our culture. Once they are gone there is no way of getting them back. We need green spaces.