Stop the Arc's 'The Ox-Cam Arc....what's next?' meeting
Stop the Arc held a Zoom meeting on 21st April 2022, looking at the current status of Ox-Cam Arc plans, the current situation of East-West Rail development and finally the campaign’s preparations for the May Local Elections.
We apologise to all those who were unable to log into the meeting itself due to some glitches of Zoom. You can now hear what you missed by clicking on the various talks given during the meeting.
David Rogers opened the meeting with a talk covering key ideas in the evolution of the Ox-Cam Arc scheme, and the events since mid 2021 when Michael Gove took over the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) which, in September 2021, was renamed the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). Rumours of the ‘shelving’ of the Arc scheme generated much publicity and a vigorous response from property developers and others keen to see the Arc go ahead even without Government funding or, possibly, control. The dangers of Expansion without sufficient Infrastructure are obvious, but seem to be ignored in the ‘dash for growth’.
William Harrold, co-founder of Cambridge Approaches then spoke about his search for the elusive Business Case for East-West Rail. Official sources remain silent on such matters, so William developed his own business case based on costs and journey times by the alternatives of rail and road. Benefits of rail depend very much on significant housing developments close to rail stations, but rail and housing plans are not yet integrated. Sadly, when inter-lining delays are included, the car tends to beat the train for the relatively short journey between Oxford and Cambridge and the towns in between. The proposals for the southern approach of East-West Rail into Cambridge also involve very high embankments carrying the track over roads, rivers etc., considerably increasing the cost of this section of East-West Rail.
Finally, Stop the Arc’s Nick Burton began his talk on the ‘STARC brief on the Local Elections’ by giving a timeline of recent developments of the Ox-Cam Arc that indicate a waning Government interest in the Arc over the previous year or so, again highlighting the danger of inadequate infrastructure if the scheme goes ahead without significant Government investment. Stop the Arc is preparing for the Local Elections by producing an Action Plan and is targeting those Councillors up for re-election who are also members of the Arc Leaders Group. Nick ended by suggesting how supporters and others can help with our campaign both before and after the May elections.
This is a recording of the Q&A Session run by Charles Pither, Chair of Stop the Arc, after all three talks had been given. The greatest interest and concern was shown in questions about East-West Rail.