Agenda

Application No:    26/02109/FUL

Site Address:       Christs College Library Christs College St

Andrews Street Cambridge

Description:          Demolition of 1970s library and replacement with new library, social and study spaces including re-provision of bridge to the Bodley Library. Alterations to kitchen, Upper Hall and adjacent areas including new plant, access improvements and alterations to wc, provision in the south east range of Second Court. Re-landscaping of Bath Court and ancillary works, installation of temporary kitchen and dining facility in Second Court for the duration of the works.

Applicant:             Lord Simon McDonald

Agent:                   Ms Ellie Drozdowska

Address:               Turley, 8 Quy Court Colliers Lane Cambridge CB23 9DH

Case Officer:       Dominic Bush

Lead Petitioner:   Christ's Lane Action Group

The grounds for asking for a Forum on this application are as follows:

The Christ’s Lane Action Group supports the provision of a new library for Christ’s College. We do not object in principle to a new library. We object to this particular scheme. Application 26/02109/FUL is the same physical building as the previous application (25/02161/FUL). Rather than defend the judicial review of that permission, the Council and the College signed a Consent Order on 28 April 2026 agreeing that it should be quashed on all four grounds and that the Action Group’s costs should be paid; the Court has not yet made a final quashing order, and the substantive hearing remains listed for 20 October 2026. The resubmission reproduces the same reasoning, and now goes further, recharacterising as a “minor beneficial impact” the very bulk and massing that the heritage consultees had identified as harmful. A Development Control Forum is needed so that residents, retailers, the College and the Council can discuss how a new library can be delivered without that harm.

1)       Historic England, the Victorian Society and the independent heritage consultant Alec Forshaw each assessed this scheme and found harm, and none of them has withdrawn that advice. Historic England (29 July 2025) found the building “too big, overdominant” and confirmed on 1 September 2025 that “the overall massing of the building remains unchanged”; the Victorian Society (August 2025) suggested reducing the height by approximately half at each floor to improve the overall scale of the current proposals; and Alec Forshaw (October 2025) found less-than-substantial harm “at the upper end of the scale” to the setting of the Grade I listed Bodley Library. These and other heritage consultees, including the stautory consultee, the Gardens Trust, have not had the opportunity to respond to the resubmission’s new claim of a “minor beneficial impact”.

2)       The scheme creates a canyon effect on Christ’s Lane. It places a sheer wall of approximately 14 metres on the north side of a lane only approximately 6 metres wide, an enclosure ratio of roughly 2.3:1, far exceeding historic streets such as Trinity Street and Rose Crescent (approximately 1.5:1). The height further exceeds the 11.4-metre height limit set for this lane in the 2002 Joint Planning Brief by around 3 metres. Christ’s Lane is a designated principal pedestrian  ...  view the full agenda text for item 4.