The EA has told Cambridge council to reject the 1000 new homes at Darwin Green proposal by Barrett developers. The agency says the proposal poses a significant risk to the sustainability of Cambridge water supplies. Very odd reversal of normal thinking. Long term national water supplies ought to be the responsibility of a specialist agency, not a house builder. Apparently the EA see it differently. In which case what is the purpose of the EA? Housing and employment growth pressure in the Cambridge area has been apparent for decades. In the Thames Valley it was obvious more than thirty years ago, which is why I published a paper in 1990 on exactly this issue. Similar growth pressures on Oxford, London and Cambridge were emerging then too. Does the EA not think ahead?
Ian Campbell
6 November 2023
