Petition to the mayor of Cambridge, 2012 - the arrival of the fence

A long wooden fence and gates were suddenly erected in summer 2012 on the Common, and many local people were horrified. We asked the council to stop, but they said they had permission and wouldn't. By the end of it around 1000m of fence had been erected with a total budget cost of around £64 000.

We petitioned the mayor of Cambridge about the council's fencing, gating and grazing in late 2012 until 14/1/13 by which time we had collected close to 200 signatures. 

The original petition to object said :

We, the undersigned as Citizens of Cambridge and members of the public, write to you to state that we :

• Object to the presently proposed "LNR" management of Coldhams Common by fencing, gating and grazing as an impingement upon our rights to free and safe access and enjoyment of the open air of the common;
• Refute that we have been adequately consulted by the City Council, who manage this land in trust for the Citizens of Cambridge;
• Ask that our views are properly heard and taken into account, in particular with respect to the fencing of the common; the introduction of grazing; and restriction of access across the common for walkers, bicycles and the disabled;
• Ask that you withdraw your authority from the project and ask the council to cease until such point as these matters can be resolved.

We also added to this that the council should also comply with the the legal requirements of the Secretary of State permission.  Seemed reasonable to us !

The petition was debated at Community Scrutiny Commitee on Thursday, 17th January, 2013 at 1.30 pm.  Full details of the meeting are here : details of Community Scrutiny committee meeting.  The Friends of Coldham's Common  had 5 minutes to present our case, followed by a 15 minute debate.

The council agreed to remove a short section of fence near the railway bridge and not to put gates onto any of the kissing gates in the fence.  We received a partial apology for the lack of proper consultation, and then they set off to gather further information during 2013...........the next we heard was ......