City Council Monthly Report October 2026

In this report:

Planning

• 25/04382/FUL and 25/04383/LBC Market Square
• 25/04484/FUL 87-93 Oxford Road and Fitzwilliam College Sportsground
• 25/03746/OUT & 25/03753/OUT Land between Huntingdon Road and M11 and Madingley Road, Cambridge – known as Eddington
• 26/00318/FUL University Sports And Athletics Track Wilberforce Road
• 26/01309/FUL 49 New Square
• 26/01905/FUL 18 Carlton Way
• 26/01978/FUL Parkers Piece
• 26/02489/HFUL 69A Ditton Walk
• 26/02675/FUL  Many houses on Brooks Road
• 26/02404/FUL 5 and 8 Laburnum Close
• 26/02195/FUL 3, 10, 11 and 12, The Grove

Licensing

Housing advisory Board

Services, Climate and Communities Scrutiny Committee

• Equity Strategy
• River Cam

Cabinet

• Dog PSPO
• Punt touts
• Loan to CIP for housebuilding
• Public toilets
• Performance report April to June 2026
• State of the City

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Planning

The following planning applications were considered:

25/04382/FUL and 25/04383/LBC Market Square

This was approved and concerned the refurbishment of Market Square, Peas Hill and Guildhall Street including: provision of cycle parking, erection and siting of replacement fixed and temporary market stalls, refurbishment of Grade II listed setts, works to listed fountain and railings, and additional landscaping, street furniture and associated works.

This was quite an impassioned discussion which took a while. Broadly:

• There is a massive improvement in biodiversity with the addition of 13 trees. The Greens got very upset that this was reduced from 15.
• The cobblestones ( technically called setts) are being flattened and made easier to walk on. This was a major concern in the listed build consent (LBC) discussion.
• The road and pavement area around the market square is going to be on the same level. This will pose a danger to the blind and partially sighted as the usual border of a higher pavement will not be there and instead there will be ribbed tiles similar to those on dropped kerbs. This risk is offset against the greater accessibility for those using wheelchairs.
• Cycle parking will be displaced from where it is currently but will broadly be maintained.

25/04484/FUL 87-93 Oxford Road and Fitzwilliam College Sportsground

This application was approved and concerned the demolition of 87-89 Oxford Road and two stores and construction of replacement student accommodation, part change of use and part refurbishment of Red Cottage student accommodation, refurbishment and extension of the pavilion, erection of a new squash court and groundskeepers store, and improvement of the access.

Planning meetings start at 10am and finish at 6pm. No further items were heard and had to be deferred as the meeting ran out of time.

25/03746/OUT & 25/03753/OUT Land between Huntingdon Road and M11 and Madingley Road, Cambridge – known as Eddington

The application was approved and was an outline planning application for a new mixed-use neighbourhood including residential, student accommodation, employment and academic uses, community facilities, open space and associated infrastructure.

26/00318/FUL University Sports And Athletics Track Wilberforce Road – approved

Replacement of 12 existing floodlights and columns serving the athletics track with 12 new 18m columns with new LED luminaires

26/01309/FUL 49 New Square – Refused

Single storey dwelling with basement, garden and off-street car parking on the land adjacent to No. 49 New Square

26/01905/FUL 18 Carlton Way – approved

Conversion of Existing Dwelling to 11 Bedroom 11 Person House of Multiple Occupation with single storey rear extension

26/01978/FUL Parkers Piece – approved

Installation of ground-mounted electrical cabinets within Parkers Piece to support site infrastructure to include minor excavation, installation of the cabinets, and connection to existing services, with surrounding surfaces reinstated on completion.

26/02489/HFUL 69A Ditton Walk – approved

Single storey rear extension, following demolition of existing outbuilding. Alterations to fenestration.

26/02675/FUL  Many houses on Brooks Road – approved

Addition of external wall insulation to the solid wall constructed parts of the building, along with the replacement of the UPVC double glazed windows with replacement UPVC triple glazed windows

26/02404/FUL 5 and 8 Laburnum Close – approved

Addition of external wall insulation to the solid wall constructed parts of the building, along with the replacement of the UPVC double glazed.

26/02195/FUL 3, 10, 11 and 12, The Grove – approved

Addition of external wall insulation to the solid wall constructed parts of the building, along with the replacement of UPVC double glazed windows with UPVC triple glazed windows

Licensing

The licensing policy is reviewed annually. Changes were made to the taxi licensing policy as follows:

• New driver licences are being extended from 12 to 36 months.
• Drivers, proprietors and operators are required to complete safeguarding training with every licence renewal.
• Licence plate numbers 1-121 do not require the vehicle to be wheelchair accessible and this will be retained. Currently 41.1% of the fleet is wheelchair accessible.
• Imported ULEZ vehicles may be listed at having zero emissions when in fact this is not the case. An additional confirmation will be required.
• Drivers who have lived outside the UK for more than 3 months in the 5 years prior to their application or renewal must provide a certificate of good conduct from the relevant embassy covering the relevant period.

In addition, a convictions policy and enforcement management system are being incorporated into the Taxi handbook. The convictions policy is based on the statutory taxi and private hire standards which the DfT expects to be implemented. The revised enforcement management system has 5 rather than 3 levels of enforcement so that only the most serious issues are referred to the committee.

Housing advisory Board

A group is being set up to review the council’s response to newbuild repairs i.e. after the defects period and will concentrate of building built by Hill. Data has been gathered and the group will be meeting residents and then make recommendations.

Services, Climate and Communities Scrutiny Committee

Equity Strategy

The committee considered the Equity Strategy. This comes out of a review by the council of equality within the city and resulted in an intentional decision to focus on Equity. Action plans include:

• Work to bring communities together
• Continue with grants to promote an inclusive city
• Explore development of community hubs
• Ensure taxi services are accessible
• Build homes to help with cost of living
• Provide free cultural activities such as Music in the Parks
• Provide public toilets

And many more.

River Cam

This was a wide ranging discussion that looked at many aspects of the River Cam. The conclusion was that all these projects needed to be looked at together and co-ordinated. These included restoration of the river bank, chalk-stream restoration projects, accept funding from South Staffordshire Water/Cambridge Water of £1.9m, seek £600k for nature based pollution mitigation scheme for Hobson’s Brook, work with Conservators to find commercial solutions for repair and future management, continue to monitor water quality at Sheep’s Green bathing site, continue planning work on water abstraction, water efficiency, waste water capacity and sustainable growth, develop water drainage model bye laws and continue partnership working, developing a more coordinated programme involving statutory bodies, environmental groups, academics and community organisations.

Cabinet

Dog PSPO

Cabinet agreed a public space protection order that dog faeces need to be collected up and disposed of properly, and dogs need to be kept on leads in more places in the city including now Fulbourn Park.

Punt touts

Cabinet agreed a public space protection order for punt touts restricting them to selling tickets at 6 locations in the city which are:

• La Mimosa, on the corner of Jesus Green 
• Quayside 
• Trinity College, inside the college grounds 
• The Mill Pond, on Silver Street 
• Mill Lane 
• The Granta mill pond, near Sheep’s Green  

Loan to CIP for housebuilding

A further increase in the loan facility to the Cambridge Investment Partnership of £12m, secured on the properties that will be developed and on the terms of the existing facility was agreed. This was to fund the further housebuilding programme.

Public toilets

Under the LibDem agreement to abstain in the leadership election in May, Labour agreed to reopen public toilets in the city. This is the update report on that project. Cabinet agreed that Parker’s Piece and Quayside toilets now be operated year round subject to confirmation that there is funding for this. Contactless payments are to be introduced at Quayside and plans made to refurbish the building there.

Performance report April to June 2026

There are multiple measures in this report. To pick out a few only:

• 99.9% of bins are collected on schedule
• 48% of waste is sent to recycling. This is comparatively low compared to other cities that manage to reach over 60%.
• The quarter as a whole was overbudget by £16k which is very good on total net expenditure of £33m.
• Car parking had £322k more income than expected
• Cultural services came in at £691k over budget. This is due to the changes at the Corn Exchange in anticipation of the refurbishment.
• Investment is higher than forecast as interest rates have been higher than expected.
• The housing revenue account which is ring fenced from other expenditure is £2m overspent reflecting the (long overdue) spending on repairs and maintenance. This is on top of a huge increase in the budget for this year. This effectively means that the contribution of revenue income to capital in support of the housebuilding programme will be reduced by £2m and there will be a corresponding increase in borrowing and therefore increase in interest costs.

State of the City

The State of the City report provides a data-led overview of what Cambridge is like economically, socially, and environmentally. This is contained in the annual report and the State of the City Report. A selection of points made in the Annual Report:

• The city has 2,309 applications for social housing and made 647 offers.
• Gave £1m in grants to 79 local groups
• Dealt with 850 reports of anti-social behaviour
• Helped more that 300 refugees, including 138 children
• Was rated A for climate action for the third year running
• Retrofitted 48 council homes
• Used an AI tool to help with the Local Plan consultation feedback
• Launched Match My Project connecting businesses with local charities
• Completed 126 new council homes
• Council owned swimming pool visits exceeded 600k.

State of the City report stated that:

• Most residents enjoy a high quality of life with good employment, good income and good health outcomes. Pay and disposable income is all above the national averages.
• Housing affordability remains a significant challenge in Cambridge. The median house cost 10.8 time the median pay.
• Some measurers of inequality have improved – e.g. proportion of employees in low pay fell from 9% to 6.6% and child poverty is the 3^rd lowest of English cities
• Some measures of inequality have increased – e.g. employment rate for non-white people is 69% compared to 81% for white people.
• Cambridge continues to have high growth – second highest after Oxford and highest rate of employment in research and development. Business start-up and closure rates remain worse than the national average but businesses surviving more than 3 years is higher than the national average.
• 70% of Cambridge’s work force is in high-skill occupations
• Greenhouse gas emissions have stayed constant between 2023 and 2024 but has reduced significantly over the past 20 years. Solar energy over the same period has increased and is more than 3 times the national average.
• Percentage of adults who engage in active travel at least twice a week is 70%, compared to a national average of 46%.
• Bus, bike and pedestrian journeys from outside the city decreased by 0.5% while car journeys increased by 2.5%
• Air pollution remained statis between 2023 and 2024.
• Storm overflows of sewage into the Cam doubled between 2024 and 2025.

It is an interesting read which I recommend. The 2026 update is not yet up on the website but will appear shortly.