Following the very helpful residents’ meeting arranged by our Parish Council, the Ickleton Society has put together this leaflet which describes the proposals in brief and the issues and problems stemming from it which we believe will impact our village and others nearby.  This should be delivered to homes in Ickleton in the next week.

The deadline for commenting on the application is 4 February 2019. The leaflet explains how you can do this.  The leaflet is not set out as a letter to the planning department at South Cambs District Council but you might base a letter around some of the points we have identified.  Please check back here and on our Facebook page for updates.  More information may well emerge before the deadline for comments.

The Society will be objecting to this application.  The scientific research done on the Campus is held in high regard and we know that many people would not oppose some expansion if it was done in the right way.  However, as someone at the meeting said, the current proposed development is at the expense of the landscape and the local community.  It is extremely disappointing that the Wellcome Trust, contrary to the image it portrays of itself, has not listened to points raised by residents during the consultation process about traffic and other issues.

Traffic – the Wellcome Trust knows about the problems we have in Ickleton which will be made worse if this development goes ahead but the proposals contain nothing that would mitigate them.  The only small crumb of comfort is the setting up of a fund to mitigate “unforeseen impacts” whereby initiatives in local villages that seek to implement additional traffic calming measures could be funded if agreed by a Transport Review Group, a group that would not include Parish Councils or any other representatives from the villages.  The displacement of traffic to the villages as a result of an expanded Campus is completely predictable, is not acceptable and any development proposal must, in our view, contain measures to mitigate it.