Press Release: Anglian Water’s decision to put access for the proposed Sewage Treatment plant on Horningsea Rd..


To coincide with Anglian Water’s announcement on the access it has chosen to its proposed relocated Waste Water and Sewage Treatment Plant at Honey Hill, between Quy, Horningsea, Teversham and Fen Ditton.

Save Honey Hill is deeply disappointed in Anglian Water’s decision to choose Junction 34 of the A14 with Horningsea Road as the access for the proposed new sewage works despite unanimous support from all bodies consulted to go with the option of a dedicated road from the lay-by on the north side of the A14.

Our District and County Councillors, Parish Councillors and Member of Parliament all rejected the options of access from Horningsea Road and High Ditch Road.

Save Honey Hill objects to the access from Horningsea Road because:

  • it goes against Anglian Water’s professed intention of giving priority to the concerns of ‘host parishes’
  • ignoring this opinion makes the process of consultation appear to be a sham
  • the rationale for rejecting this option, as set out now, was never fully explained during the
    consultation
  • the road between Horningsea and Fen Ditton is a minor rural route (C210) which is already
    dangerously over loaded. To its load, this proposal would add all the traffic generated by 3-4 years of massive construction plus all the daily traffic in operation, including nearly two hundred trucks per day, carrying sewage sludge (from other plants) or the by-products of sludge, in and out of the works
  • there is a weight restriction on this road which, both during construction and operation, AW would be allowed to ignore
  • this plant, a piece of nationally significant infrastructure serving a population of over a quarter of a million, ought to be linked directly to an arterial road and not inflict its access or impose its presence unnecessarily on adjacent village routes
  • throughout the design process, as it has progressed, AW has ignored the possibility of pursuing an ideal design – so, for instance, the possibility of building a new plant beyond the Green Belt, where neither the setting of the City nor that of some of its necklace villages are harmed, has not been explored. In the same way, independent access is readily disregarded as a clearly widely preferred possibility
  • the A14, at the point where the access could be formed, at present accommodates a very long lay-by which is heavily used by HGV drivers taking a break. These drivers must slow down to enter the lay-by and pull out slowly and sharply to leave it. If this arrangement is considered acceptable, then an on and off pair of filtering slip roads solely dedicated to serving the plant would form a safe substitute. The engineering at this point is easy and economical with the road and the adjoining land being at the same level
  • such an access would be restricted entirely to traffic generated by the plant – so it would be little used when compared with standard A road junctions. There are examples of such limited access points serving maintenance and emergency traffic off the M11 north of Bishop Stortford and serving the new bio-fuel plant outside Baldock on the A505.
  • Save Honey Hill objections are against the relocation of the City’s Waste Water Treatment Plant in principle. However, they also insist that if it is to be sited at Honey Hill the impact on the communities affected should be absolutely minimised.

    Save Honey Hill 10/12/2021

    Protect the Green Belt: our latest banners highlighting the huge carbon footprint of demolishing a working sewage plant to build a new one less than a mile away.

    IMG 4986

    Greater Cambridge Shared Planning (GCP) are currently running a public consultation on the First Proposals: Local Plan that why published in September. The consultation ends 13th December.

    Whereas this plan is being publicised as being very green there is no mention in the Local Plan that development at North East Cambridge is dependent on moving the sewage works to Green Belt at Honey Hill just outside Horningsea and Fen Ditton.

    Save Honey Hill believes that producing a Local Plan without mention of the relocation of a major infrastructure project to Green Belt is disingenuous and lacking transparency.

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    IMG 4984

    Questions for Anglian Water on Jeremy Sallis’s Hot Seat Q&A

    Anglian Water are guests on the BBC Radio Cambridgshire Jeremy Sallis show on Monday 15th November between 10 and The Save Honey Hill group collated some questions from members and residents of the villages surrounding the proposed site of the relocated sewage works. The questions were emailed well in advance of the show. If they are answered then we will attempt to put Anglian Water’s reply here.

    Update. The Anglian Water Hot Seat Q&A was postponed due to COVID. 

    Here are the questions:

    Taking into account a motion passed by the House of Lords to place a new legal duty on water companies to ‘take all reasonable steps’ to prevent sewage discharges and the fact that the UK has some of the most polluted rivers in Europe, it would be expected that Anglian Water will design a 21st Century solution to avoid this problem. As they are hoping to build a brand new plant, it will need to be able to cope with greater rainfall, probably a larger site, with wetlands and reed beds. Not a small 22 hectare site surrounded by a bund. Will Anglian Water reconsider the design at Honey Hill due to public anger at the present low standards of water treatment?

    Horningsea resident.

    What does Anglian Water say about the fact that councillors have said that rather than being asked to move by Cambridge City and South Cambs District Councils, the relocation is of its choosing? If this is true, how then does it qualify as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project when Cambridge already has a fully-functioning sewage works and sludge treatment facility?

    Horningsea resident and Save Honey Hill campaigner.

    Is it good use of nearly a quarter of a billion pounds of taxpayer’s money (£227m) and precious Green Belt, replacing a sewage works with capacity till 2050 with a new sewage works with capacity till 2050?

    Horningsea resident and Save Honey Hill campaigner.

    What budget would be required to provide an appropriate long term solution for the City’s waste water and sludge treatment, instead of the cheapest solution with a move just a few fields along to a Green Belt location still on the edge of the city?

    Horningsea resident.

    Is it correct that the proposed plant relocation to a Green Belt location on the city edge is planned to have 146 HGV movements a day, including waste sludge being imported from as far away as Huntingdon and Ely? This doesn’t seem a very environmentally friendly solution for a new build!

    Horningsea resident.

    The carbon footprint of decommissioning the existing sewage works, building a new sewage works on Green Belt and then decontaminating the existing site ready for new building work, will be huge. Why is this being greenwashed?

    Fen Ditton resident.

    Given all the new housing planned for the area and that the chosen site of Honey Hill is still pretty much on the city’s boundary like the existing site, has Anglian Water been ambitious enough in its site selection? –

    Teversham resident.

    Given the huge amount of money already spent on this project before building has even begun, where will the rest of the money come from if the build exceeds its budget?

    Horningsea resident.

    When will we see the report of the Phase Two Consultation? It is important that we can view everyone’s comments before we go into the Regulation 19 Consultation in February 2022

    Save Honey Hill

    The proposed entrance for construction will be on Horningsea Road, a small but busy country road with a weight limit banning HGVs because it is considered unsuitable. It is also a cycling route well used by both school children going to Fen Ditton Primary School and other cyclists commuting in to town. What steps will Anglian Water take to ensure that my daughter (and the many other school children using this route) does not have to share her bike ride with these horrendous vehicles? When she arrives at school, how will she be protected from the dust and noise pollution from the construction works?

    Horningsea resident.

    What support is Anglian Water providing for the well-being and mental health of local residents who could not have reasonably expected this plant to move to the Green Belt near their homes? What compensation will be provided by AW for those who can demonstrate they have been affected as a result?

    Horningsea resident.

    How is it right that AW is receiving a fund of nearly a quarter of a billion pounds of public money to relocate a fully-functioning sewage works which was upgraded at a cost of approx. £22 million in 2015 (to future proof it!), when its Haslingfield plant, which discharged raw sewage 49 times in 2020, is being ignored?

    Horningsea resident.

    How does this move, which could be argued as unnecessary, help to address the climate emergency declared by the City and South Cambridgeshire councils when there are already sufficient housing allocations available elsewhere? Doesn’t this seem madness?

    Fen Ditton resident.

    Are the current site investigations being undertaken by Anglian Water all being funded through the £227 million Housing Infrastructure Fund grant, paid for by our taxes, including all the expert consultants who are putting together a significant case at great expense to obtain permission to re-build a fully operational plant in the Green Belt?

    Fen Ditton resident.

    Why has Anglian Water not made available for scrutiny their feasibility studies of alternative sites for their relocated Cambridge waste water treatment plant?

    Fen Ditton resident.

    Why were the shortlisted three sites so close to the existing Cowley Rd site? Why do we not know how much more it would have cost to have had a site which did not harm the setting of Cambridge and its necklace villages nor create a large ‘no-go area’ in the Green Belt close to where the city wants people to live, or a site where it might have been possible to partially sink the tallest structures?

    Fen Ditton resident.

    In order to qualify for government funding for the relocation, did Anglian Water have to produce a cheap proposal, never giving the community the option of a better or more ideal solution to consider?

    Fen Ditton resident.

    How strongly is Anglian Water pushing for a dedicated access off the A14 to the new proposed waste water treatment plant?

    Quy resident.

    The last glimpses of a sunset over Honey Hill?

    Our local free amphitheatre for watching
    the silent regional manoeuvring of clouds,
    the molten kinetics of sunsets,.
    dew’s disappearance after dawn …,
    for hearing
    the arrival of long distance breezes
    and for sizing up the sky.

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    (photo and words from David Yandell. Photo taken from Snout’s Corner. Just next to where the access to the sewage works will be constructed).

    Save Honey Hill’s response to the Phase 2 Consultation

    Here is the official response from the Save Honey Hill group to the Phase Two consultation of the Cambridge Waste Water Treatment Plant Relocation proposal (CWWTPR). The response has been sent to Anglian Water and they have confirmed receipt.

    The consultation ends tomorrow, but it’s not too late to add feedback. Even if you have submitted a response using Anglian Water’s form, they will still accept emails and letters. Anglian Water have confirmed these will be counted and accepted. Their interactive map will also be accepting comments and “likes” up until the end of tomorrow. It only takes a few minutes to go like comments you agree with. It only takes a few minutes more to enter comments about various parts of the proposal.

    Phase 2 consultation. – ends Wednesday 18th August.

    Now that Anglian Water have selected Honey Hill to be the site for their new sewage works they are consulting on mitigation measures to make this industrial site fit nicely in between the villages of Horningsea and Fen Ditton. They have even asked if we want a visitors centre for people to be welcomed to the sewage works… NO!!!

    There is little time left to Have Your Say as the Phase 2 Consultation will end on the 18th of August.

    It is extremely important that as many residents as possible have their say. Without feedback they will count their pennies and mitigation measures will be minimal! The Save Honey Hill group have written some suggestions for filling in the questionnaire if you need some help on our website. You will find a direct link to the consultation form there.

    Here’s the official response from the Save Honey Hill group.

    Please do respond to the CWWTPR Phase Two Consultation:

  • Emailing questions to Anglian Water at info@cwwtpr.com
  • Making lots of comments on its interactive map by visiting the digital engagement platform
  • Completing a feedback form per person not per household
  • Asking at least two friends to do all of the above.
  • WHERE THEY PLAN TO PUT IT Landscape