Tag: Community

Not ANOTHER One!

No, it’s not Brenda from Bristol bemoaning another election; it’s yet another threat to the three trees on St Matthews Piece.

It is hard to believe but the same three magnificent trees on St Matthews’ Piece are again at severe risk.

Photo of two of the trees with a banner reading 'These 3 trees are still at risk'.

The Friends of St Matthew’s Piece, write:

  • The insurance company hopes you will get tired of repeating yourself.
  • Meanwhile the three trees are each facing a new and truly deadly threat. 
  • Please help stop this, by writing an objection to planning application 24/0413/TTPO – ideally by mid-July 2024.
    (Friends of St Matthew’s Piece have learned that 24/0413/TTPO will not come to the Cambridge City Council Planning Committee before 24 July, at the earliest.)

THE THREAT

An insurance claim at 193 Sturton St (a 28-year-old new-build property) blames ‘clay shrinkage subsidence’ on three 126-year-old Sturton St trees. This is the third time in three years these insurers have applied to severely harm – or kill – these three trees.

PLEASE HELP FIGHT THIS

  • Objections from members of the public are needed at least through mid-July 2024.
  • Comment on planning application 24/0413/TTPO via the Council’s Planning Portal or via email. Read below for how to do this. 
  • Any brief objection on what matters most to you is perfect!
  • Some possible grounds to use in your objection are outlined below.
Photo of one of the trees with a poster giving some of the details in this blogpost

SUGGESTED OBJECTIONS

You will have good reasons of your own but here are some extra suggestions:

  1. The 4.5 m deep trench proposed (in 24/0413/TTPO) would be dug to install a root barrier that would be a minimum of 7m from 193 Sturton Street – placing it about 5 m from the three protected trees – well within their vital “root protection areas” (RPAs).
  2. Cutting the roots at that location would destroy up to 26.5% of the three trees’ essential RPAs.
  3. The British Standard BS5837 : 2012  defines the RPA as the minimum needed for trees to be viable.
    A tree’s Root Protection Area can be equated to a circle, using the tree as the centre-point, with a radius that is twelve times the tree’s Diameter at Breast Height for a single stemmed tree.
  4. Cambridge’s Petersfield ward has only one public park – St Matthew’s Piece – vs 56 official parks in Cambridge’s other 13 wards. (More details can be found in The Background section, below.)
  5. Petersfield has a particularly poor tree canopy, with very few mature trees.
  6. Every tree matters in Petersfield, which suffers badly from the ‘Urban Heat Island Effect’.
  7. Each of these 126-year-old Plane Trees has a Tree Preservation Order (TPO), and is in our Conservation Area.
  8. These trees are vital to the wellbeing of every person who lives, works or studies in our community
  9. Harming these trees would breach Cambridge Local Plan 2018 policies 55, 56, 61, 67 & 71 and, being within the Eastern Gate Opportunity Area (p89) policies 14 & 23, as well as the National Planning Policy Framework [Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, December 2023] ¶96abc, ¶97abc and ¶102 (pp28, 29).
  10. In 2006, 2007 & 2008, in connection with another planning application (06/0567/FUL), the City Council’s own tree expert repeatedly stressed the importance of preserving all the trees on St Matthew’s Piece, both individually and as a group – these trees have only grown in importance since then.

HOW TO SUBMIT AN OBJECTION

  • Follow this link: 24/0413/TTPO | The works involve digging a trench to severe [sic] roots of protected trees 
    OR: search on the planning portal for 24/0413/TTPO2.
  • In order to comment you must be registered.
    If you’re not already registered, start with this registration link on the planning portal.
  • Go back to 24/0413/TTPO, and choose the tab for Comments.
  • Select Make a Comment.
  • Type in your comment.
    You might like to draft your comment in your preferred word processing app (Apple’s Pages, MS Word, etc) in case of any glitch on the Planning Portal. When you’re satisfied with your wording and have corrected eny mystaikes any mistakes and typos, you can copy’n’paste into the box on the Planning Portal.
  • Every adult in your household may register and comment.
  • You should receive a confirmatory email immediately; if not, something went wrong, find the comment tab and copy’n’paste again.
  • If you continue to experience difficulties, you can email planning officer joanna.davies@cambridge.gov.uk citing 24/0413/TTPO. Once again copy’n’paste your comments into the email. You must include your full name and postal address.

THE BACKGROUND

Previous posts about the three trees:

The area around St Matthew’s Piece lies in the bottom 20% nationally of the ‘Environment Domain’ in the government’s Index of Multiple Deprivation. Read more on the history of St Matthew’s Piece, on the St Matthew’s Piece Timeline 1890–2020.

Local residents have been fighting to protect and conserve local amenity and environmental assets via Friends of St Matthew’s Piece since 30th April 2020 – and, before that, via Petersfield Area Community Trust, since 1998). Friends of St Matthew’s Piece stand on the shoulders of the giants who, 100 years earlier, in 1898 had established St Matthew’s Piece. This included planting the magnificent London Plane trees that provide all of us with such wonderful benefits today.

IN FUTURE

To be kept up to date, please email friends.of.st.matthews.piece@gmail.com and ask to be added to the FoSMP Supporter’s List. You will be led through a GDPR-compliant sign-up process. This will make sure you receive very occasional email updates on issues like this one.

If you would like to join Friends of St Matthew’s Piece or assist in any of the issues raised in this blogpost, kindly hosted by Mill Road Bridges, please use this email link.

Please forward this blogpost to people who care about trees in or around Cambridge!

Mill Roaders needed for PhD Research

Kieran Gleave, a second-year PhD student at the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge writes:

I am conducting part of my PhD research in Cambridge’s Petersfield and Romsey areas. Through my data collection, I aim to explore the relationships that community identities within the Mill Road area have with the ‘everyday’ traces of the industrial past. In essence, I’m trying to understand how the remnants of the industrial past inspire or shape what it means to belong to a community within the area. 

To collect my data, I’m recruiting local people to get involved with my project by participating in one-to-one interviews.

Kieran Gleave
Poster advertising the research. Details as in accompanying text.

Kieran seeks to recruit local people who feel a sense of belonging to a community within Petersfield and Romsey to participate in one-to-one interviews for PhD research between June and October 2024. The research aims to explore how the ‘everyday’ traces of the industrial past inspire what it means to belong to a local community within the area.

The research will be through informal one-to-one interviews, of between 30 – 60 minutes, talking about:

  • The community or communities to which you feel a sense of belonging;
  • What it means to belong to these communities;
  • The relationships your community has with the industrial past.

If you are interested in participating, or in learning more about this research, please email Kieran Gleave at ktg29@cam.ac.uk.

If somebody you know might be interested in participating in an interview, or in learning more about this research, please forward this blogpost to them.

‘Heritage-making’ in Cambridge

Rana, a Master’s student at the Department of Archaeology (Heritage Studies) at the University of Cambridge. Has been in touch.

As caption
Mill Road Central Mosque dome, seen from roof-height

I am conducting research on ‘heritage-making’ in Cambridge, looking at the Cambridge Central Mosque in particular and how locals respond to/ engage with the space. This is in relation to broader community and cultural relations in the city.

Rana, MPhil Heritage Studies, University of Cambridge

Rana is hoping to contact individuals in the Mill Road “Community of Communities” who might want to take part in her research.

Taking part in Rana’s research would consist of a chat (around 30 minutes) either online or on the phone.

Rana adds that she would also be happy to meet in-person at the Cambridge Central Mosque, Mill Road, and show them around. She is looking for a diverse range of participants local to the area – no specialist or previous knowledge needed – just anyone who is local and enthusiastic about Cambridge!

If you’re interested, contact Rana through this email link, before 28th  June 2024. She will get in touch to organise a chat.

Rana would also really appreciate you forwarding this blogpost, or the email link to anyone else who you think would be interested in contributing to her research.

See our other posts on Mill Road Central Mosque:

See also the Cambridge Central Mosque website.

BBC Make a Difference Awards

Nominations are open for BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s Make a Difference Awards

BBC Radio Cambridgeshire Know a local hero in Cambridge? Make a Difference Awards 2024 Other details as per caption and subsequent text
Click the image above to visit the BBC Make a Difference Awards website
and to read full terms and conditions

BBC Radio Cambridgeshire are searching for local heroes to recognise their efforts.

Who are Mill Road‘s unsung local heroes who deserve a special thank you? 

Nominate them for a BBC Radio Cambridgeshire Make A Difference Award.

There are Great Neighbour Community and Volunteer categories for people/groups who help those around them.

Visit the BBC Make a Difference Awards website for category list, terms and privacy notice.

But hurry: nominations close Sunday 10 March 2024 at 11:00 pm.

Ed Lloyd Jenkins

Many of us will have fond memories of Ed Lloyd Jenkins. And Mill Roaders may wish to attend Ed’s Memorial Service at St Philip’s Church, 185 Mill Road, CB1 3AN on Saturday, 24th February at 4:30pm.

Photo of Ed with accompanying text: In loving memory of Edward Lloyd Jenkins friend, neighbour and Cambridge community champion Memorial Service Location - St Philip's Church, 185 Mill Road, CB1 3AN Date - Saturday, 24 February Time - 4:30pm To share your memories of Ed please feel free to add to this online message board

Memories can also be added to this Facebook page for Ed. And appreciative comments can be added below this post.

Mill Road History Society hopes to post a tribute page on the Capturing Cambridge website and there are plans to collate as many of Ed’s poems as possible – anyone with one is asked to email it, along with any photos or memories of him, to millroadhistory@gmail.com.

Cambridge Independent’s Paul Brackley contacted Mill Roaders to compile this lovely piece – Tributes paid to Edward Jenkins: A figure as unique as the community he loved in Mill Road, Cambridge By Paul Brackley – 26th January 2024. We couldn’t better this, so we won’t try.

See also Ed’s poem MILL ROAD 2018 on the Mill Road Poetry page, and The Road – The Film (2013) in collaboration with John Caldwell.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=sFfktGTe3eM%3Fsi%3DVLRp9vTt-B3fLFfp

EcoChic Fashion Event

Poster illustrating people modelling chic clothing. Other details in accompanying text.
Shops and railings along Mill Road displayed a version of the above poster for several weeks

The call went out to Mill Road area’s fashionistas to try their luck as models for the forthcoming Mill Road Preloved Fashion Show.

Organisers were overwhelmed as nearly 40 men and women of varying ages, styles, heights and ethnic heritages – credible super models every one – turned up for the casting event at the Mill Road Community Centre.

Poster illustrating people modelling chic clothing. Date/time/location/price Saturday 2 March, St Barnabas Church Doors open: 6pm Fashion show: 7-9pm Tickets: £5 (or donation) Other details in accompanying text.
The event is part of Love Mill Road’s Fringe Celebrations
Click the image above to view/download a printable PDF to display in your window

For full details and to book tickets, click through to the Mill Road Fringe’s Mill Road EcoChic Fashion Show page.

Despite the models’ diversity there are uniting features; all participants love Mill Road and walked with elegance; candidates expressed their love of pre-loved clothing in advance of their screen shots and turns on the catwalk.

It was interesting to learn why they all preferred charity shop and other pre-loved clothes.

Kitty told Mill Road Bridges that she had always worn pre-loved clothes. As a child in Essex her mother would get outfits from Ebay because they searched for quirkiness. Now, as an adult, she continues to shun new clothes.

Pam Wesson, a well-known local trader in pre-loved fashion, is attracted by value and quality, brand-new Amani suits for around £50 for example. She enjoys acknowledging provenance and when she is selling at her outlets she often mentions previous ownership.

Emma and Nicky have collected so many fabulous garments that they now concentrate on looking for statement jewellery; whereas younger people are motivated to get a basic wardrobe economically.

Naturally many participants are motivated primarily by sustainability. Academics and administrators from both our universities were present at the audition. They seem to choose pre-loved to relax in for ethical reasons even if they buy high end High Street and tailor-made suits for work.

Carol’s relationship with preloved fashion stretches back many years, as a young single parent she would dress her children in items from jumble sales out of economic necessity but never resented doing it. Jumble sales gave way to charity shops and styles change but, although she found herself on a firmer footing financially, she refused to buy distressed jeans with holes and grunge shirts at high street prices.

It comes as no surprise that so many participants are motivated by ethical concerns. Fast-fashion is wasteful of energy and water, it exploits human labour and is ruining the planet.

Mill Road EcoChic showcased clothes and accessories from Mill Road’s charity and vintage shops on the catwalk, alongside local designers who specialise in sustainable fashion.

  • Photos of catwalk event
    Photos Chryssie Greece
  • Photos of catwalk event
    Photos Chryssie Greece
  • Photos of catwalk event
    Photos Chryssie Greece
  • Photos of catwalk event
    Photos Chryssie Greece
  • Photos of catwalk event
    Photos Chryssie Greece
  • Photos of catwalk event
    Photos Chryssie Greece
  • Photos of catwalk event
    Photos Chryssie Greece
  • Photos of catwalk event
    Photos Chryssie Greece
  • Photos of catwalk event
    Photos Chryssie Greece
  • Photos of catwalk event
    Photos Chryssie Greece
  • Photos of catwalk event
    Photos Chryssie Greece
  • Photos of catwalk event
    Photos Chryssie Greece

The show offered a unique and memorable celebration of creativity and sustainability, reflecting the diversity and independence of Cambridge’s distinctive Mill Road neighbourhood, featuring stylish, exciting finds curated by enthusiastic fashionistas and modelled by local real people.

Stylish, exciting finds curated by enthusiastic fashionistas and modelled by local real people.

Mill Road EcoChic Fashion Show provided: 

  • pop-up stalls focused on sustainable fashion
  • a spectacular catwalk fashion show featuring clothes from Mill Road’s fabulous charity and vintage shops
  • food & drink – pizzas from Scott’s All Day and drinks from Bacchanalia.

For full details and to book tickets, click through to the Mill Road Fringe’s Mill Road EcoChic Fashion Show page.

For any other information email community@millroadwinterfair.org.

EcoChic Fashion Show

The next Mill Road Fringe event will be an EcoChic Fashion Show, on Saturday 2nd March 2024 at Mill Road’s St Barnabas Church, featuring clothes from Mill Road’s charity shops, vintage stores and designers.

Poster illustrating people modelling chic clothing.

Your spotlight moment has arrived! Mill Road Fringe are looking for models for the Mill Road Eco-Chic Fashion Show in March. Please register your interest by emailing community@millroadwinterfair.org and come along to the Mill Road Community Centre (behind the Old Library) on Sunday 21st Jan between 2.00 pm and 4.00 pm to sign up. All genders, ages (18+) and sizes are welcome.

Community Grants from Cambridge City Council

Could you, or your group, help to improve people’s lives, locally?

Click the image to read the the guidelines and start your application

If only you had a little bit of funding…

Community groups can apply for up to £5,000 grant funding from Cambridge City Council’s Area Committee Community Grants scheme.

Voluntary and community organisations, or groups of local residents, can apply for the grants. But hurry, the deadline for applications is 31st January 2024.

Get your paperwork in good shape. (You’re getting public money, so you need to show that everything is legit.) And get cracking.

Apply online. Click here to read the the guidelines and start your application.

Grants could be for venue hire to host activities; costs to run activities that benefit people on low incomes; or activities that reduce poverty.

Examples of successful applications from 2023-24

Ainsworth Area Residents’ Association

Provision of mini allotment planters and mural signage for Ainsworth Street community garden plus additional new allotment planter to be located in Ainsworth playpark.
Aims…

  • Improve urban landscape.
  • Encourage social connectedness and reduce isolation through engagement in community activities.
Merry-go-Round Toy Library

Twice monthly Toy Library at Ross Street Community Centre.
Aims…

  • Reduce social and economic inequality for local families via free sessions.
  • Allow families regardless of income to access safe, good quality toys and equipment at a nominal charge.
The Signal Box Centre

Weekly summer holiday activities for children aged 6-18 years particularly those living in social tenancies.
Aims…

  • Provide physical and creative opportunities in a structured and positive environment to those who would not otherwise have access.
  • Reduce social isolation and improve confidence and mental wellbeing through making new friends and playing together.

Successful applications will be for activities which reduce social and/or economic inequality for Cambridge City residents with the most need, taking place between 1st April 2024 and 31st March 2025, in a defined area of the city.

Need more guidelines on what makes a successful application? You can read the full list of successful and unsuccessful applications from last year, in the PDFs below.

Need a little more guidance from the Grants Officers? You can contact them by email grants@cambridge.gov.uk or phone 01223 457875.

Click the image to read the the guidelines and start your application

Grafton Centre Redevelopment – How Big?

A guest post from Friends of St Matthew’s Piece

A planning application for quadrupling the height and mass of the Grafton Centre has attracted far less attention and comment than the parallel one for the Beehive site. Almost none. But it would have comparable impact on the Mill Road Conservation Area environment, including the ‘green lung’ of St Matthew’s Piece. Read/download the documentation on the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Portal, here.

Showing existing Grafton Centre – height 10.5 m to 14 m

The applicant’s Landscape And Public Realm statements fail to mention that the proposed structures would look directly into the residential housing estate, on the opposite side of East Road (from south to north – Amblecote, Fazeley House, Shenstone House, Wheaton House, Hilderstone House, and the new housing, under construction on the site of the former garages). Views shown from the proposed structure’s roof terrace reveal just how much the building will dominate the skyscape from much of central Cambridge. See the documentation on the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Portal.

Showing proposed Grafton Centre with a height up to 41 m

There has been no consultation in the Mill Road Conservation Area, although the views from so many of these homes and streets would be dramatically impacted by substantial changes to the skyline from this enormous development.

An objection to these proposals (PDF 2.9MB) in the name of Friends of St Matthew’s Piece has been submitted to Greater Cambridge Shared Planning. 

The dramatic graphics (above), in addition to those in the Friends of St Matthew’s Piece submitted objection, show the existing vs minimum heights of the structures proposed in Planning Application 23/02685/FUL. The actual impact would be even worse, as the footprint also expands, and the height of the proposed structures rise to 41m. If we add in flues and vents, which (as revealed in the Beehive application) can rise to 25% again of these building heights, these proposals will dominate the skyline over a wide area of the city’s Petersfield ward.

To make clear what this means for residents of the Mill Road Conservation Area, not one of whom was at any stage informed of or consulted on these proposals, a technically adept Friend of St Matthew’s Piece has taken the developer’s precise figures from today’s new image and made an animated gif to show what the Old vs New Grafton Centre would look like, combining (a) info from this most recent image from the developer with (b) the image the developer provided on p.33 of their Design & Access Survey of the existing “low level” Grafton Centre…

Image as foregoing text.

The formal comment deadline for Planning Application 23/02685/FUL passed on Tuesday 28th November 2023. However public comments can still be uploaded to the the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Portal – and will be taken into account – right up until the date of the Cambridge City Council Planning Committee meeting at which this application will be considered, which has not yet been scheduled.

More about Friends of St Matthew’s Piece

Local residents have been fighting to protect and conserve local amenity and environmental assets via Friends of St Matthew’s Piece since 30th April 2020 – and, before that, via Petersfield Area Community Trust, since 1998). Friends of St Matthew’s Piece stand on the shoulders of the giants who, 100 years earlier, in 1898 had established St Matthew’s Piece. This included planting the magnificent London Plane trees that provide all of us with such wonderful benefits today.

Blogposts on other issues concerning St Matthew’s Piece

If you would like to join Friends of St Matthew’s Piece or assist in any of the issues raised in this blogpost, kindly hosted by Mill Road Bridges, please email Friends of St Matthew’s Piece.

Musical Christmas Party…

🎅🏻 Wondering what to do when the Mill Road Winter Fair has finished, and Christmas is still soooo long away? 🎅🏻

🪕🥁 The Peg Leg Pub Band have the answer. And they’re coming to Mill Road! And the gig is open to a all… And it’s only £10 on the door! 🎸 💃🏽🕺🏿

as caption
Four of the band, in action.
Christmas Party In aid of the Red Cross PEG LEG PUB BAND Toe-Tappin’ Hand-Clappin’ Finger-Snapin’ Thigh-Slappin’ Musical Fun The Salisbury Club, 272 Mill Road from 8pm, Saturday 16th December 2023 Tickets £10 on the door
Click the image to download a printable PDF of this poster

But are they any good? Read this review, then come along and find out for yourself.

I have never had a night in the pub as enjoyable as this one

Lisa, the Black Horse, Swaffham Bulbeck, New Years Eve 2022

Find out more about The Peg Leg Pub Band.