The Save Honey Hill Group registered as an Interested Party (IP) sent our Representation to the Planning Inspectorate on Tuesday 18th July.
All 309 Representations have now been published. Go have a read of the many different ones from your neighbours and beyond. It is heartening to see such objective, personal and varied comments.
The Planning Inspectorate will inform all IPs of the timetable for the next stage – the Examination, which is likely to start in September. At that stage anyone who has registered as an IP will be invited to make further comments in a Written Representation. We expect our barristers to give more input into that Representation.
During the Examination stage, which usually lasts six months, the Planning Inspectors will send questions to Anglian Water and to stakeholders for further information raised by the Representations. They will also hold issue-specific hearings. We will keep you updated when we have more detail. There is more information on the NI website National Infrastructure Planning; all Representations will be published there shortly.
We are very grateful for your support and donations. We have budgeted for further advice but more income would give us confidence to use this even more effectively. So please spread the word to your friends and garner their support. More information on how to donate can be found on our website SHH – donate now.
The Save Honey Hill Cookbook, full of some fantastic recipes from villagers and friends, is now on sale. The price is now £10 for one copy. Orders are very welcome and we can deliver. All profits to the Save Honey Hill campaign, against the relocation of the Cambridge Sewage works to Honey Hill, between Horningsea, Fen Ditton and Quy.
Last Stand on Honey Hill by Liz Cotton at The Junction on 19th November 2022
Following on from her very successful stint at the Edinburgh Fringe earlier this year, Save Honey Hill’s very own comedy songstress, Liz Cotton, finally brought her show, Last Stand on Honey Hill, to the Cambridge Junction on Saturday night.
With her marriage on the rocks and her children flying the nest, Liz has used a well-honed skill of writing comic songs to help her cope with all life can throw at her, including a billion pound private water company wanting to plonk its new sewage works on her doorstep.
Fortunately for the Save Honey Hill campaign, Liz took umbrage with these plans and decided to hang her new show around her escapades with some of the Save Honey Hill campaigners who she came to know during the course of writing campaign songs and putting together a campaign choir (The Crap Community Choir).
Saturday night’s show was a sell out and for good reason. Liz’s reputation obviously preceded her and she did not disappoint – people had come from as far away as London. I must confess, I didn’t really know what to expect. Liz had warned us that her show was most definitely for adults only as it included very adult language. But I could not have foreseen how clever and accomplished her writing skills are that her saucy and yes, at times very adult themes and language, were simply hysterically funny and not the slightest bit offensive. Certainly for me, there was more than a hint of recognition in her song titled “Why Don’t You Know What To Do?” as she reeled off a myriad of examples of how her husband, Phil, ‘annoys’ her.
After briefly covering personal and family trials and tribulations, Liz proceeded to bring the audience up to speed with the ridiculous plans Anglian Water have for Honey Hill, ramming home with the use of video and photos, the beauty of the Fens landscape with resident wildlife, that’s being targeted by Anglian Water as the new location for its industrial plant. Through the power of laughter, comedy and Liz’s adorable cat, Purdy, we were all reminded of why we have spent the last couple of years fighting this heinous plan and I for one am incredibly grateful to Liz for the injection of fun in what could otherwise have been a thoroughly miserable time fighting for our Green Belt.
At the end of the show, members of the It’s Crap Community Choir were on hand to join Liz on stage to debut a new number, Honey Hill Honey. They were greeted with rapturous applause and I even spied some younger members of the audience clapping and nodding approvingly with more than a hint of respect for these oldies getting down and strutting their stuff in the name of protest.
Finally, it did not go unnoticed that aforementioned, Phil (Liz’s long suffering [??] husband), was standing proudly at the back of the venue as we all headed to the bar at the end of the show. Clearly their marriage has had a happy ending and hopefully so too will the Save Honey Hill Campaign!
With her marriage on the rocks and children leaving home, Liz writes saucy songs to help her cope with life, but when a billion-pound private water company reveals its plans to build a sewage plant next door, can Liz and two small villages in the Fens harness the power of song to save their community – and her future? Comic songwriter Liz Cotton and her cat Purdy star in this comedy about the environmentally disastrous national infrastructure project planned for Cambridge.
After wonderful run at the Edinburgh Fringe Liz brings her very rude and equally funny show about Anglian Water’s plans for relocating the Cambridge sewage works to Cambridge Greenbelt slap bang in between Fen Ditton and Horningsea.
The Auction of Promises took place at Horningsea Village Hall on Saturday 17th September. It was a fun evening with Richard acting as auctioneer and Catherine as his magician’s assistant. There were 68 Promises, including, a ride in a Lamborghini, river cruises with Camboats, meal for 4 at Quy Mill Hotel, tea at Scotsdales, portrait painting and much more.
Our auctioneer at work.
Due to the amazing generosity of both those who donated Promises and those who purchased them, a staggering £5,561.00 was raised for the Save Honey Hill campaign, against the relocation of the Cambridge sewage works from Cowley Road to Honey Hill, prime Greenbelt land, between the conservation villages of Fen Ditton, Horningsea and Quy. Sincere thanks to all involved in organising and helping with the event.
Of the estimated £50,000. needed for specialist reports, legal advice and representation, approximately £33,000. has now been raised. The Save Honey Hill group is against the huge carbon footprint of the move and the use of £227 million of taxpayers’ money. Moving the sewage works less than a mile onto Greenbelt land, to allow for housing and office development on the current sewage works site at Cowley Road is difficult to justify. Anglian Water has stated that there is no operational need to move or upgrade the sewage works for another 30 years, having upgraded it in 2015.
Moving the sewage works would cause four years of traffic disruption, to build a site larger than Wembley (and flood lit ) from the ground up. Despite landscaping, the site would be highly visible with tall digester towers and would not be in keeping with our historic rural landscape.
It’s not too late to donate..
A hearing of the planning inspectorate is due to take place in quarter one of 2023. If you would like to support the group’s effort, you can donate on our Justgiving page.
Our Fundraising page has other ways you can donate.
There will be an Auction of Promises in Horningsea Village Hall on the 17th September in aid of the Save Honey Hill campaign against the relocation of the Cambridge Sewage Works
There are some fantastic offers available (see the list below). Tickets to attend on the night at Horningsea Village Hall are limited to 75. These cost £1.00 and attendees receive a complimentary glass of wine. So please buy them soon to avoid disappointment.
Saturday 17th September starting 7pm at Horningsea Village Hall
Right under our noses, a Crime against our environment is taking place. Anglian Water is preparing an application to move a fully-functioning sewage works less than a mile to a new location on arable farmland in the Green Belt at Honey Hill between the villages of Fen Ditton, Horningsea and Quy. They are doing this with £227 million of public money too1. Save Honey Hill will challenge this application and need legal advice in its preparation and legal representation. Save Honey Hill need £50,000 to cover the cost of the required legal expertise.
This is our last chance to stop the relocation. Please donate whatever you can (no amount is too small):
Since we distributed the fundraising leaflet amongst villagers and local businesses around Fen Ditton, Horningsea, Quy and Teversham we have been heartened by the response from all four villages.
Many people and businesses across the area have donated. From being initially daunted by the prospect of going up against a network of large commercial interests, those donations and letters of support have really given us energy and enthusiasm to continue. It so helps to know that we have wide support throughout the villages. Thank you! Community works!
We still have a long, long way to go though. Our JustGiving page is now live but you can still contact us and offer support.
It’s not just donations we need. We really need expertise from residents with experience in planning and protecting the Greenbelt.
