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Hughes Hall is proposing to build accommodation blocks for up to 100 students on the iconic Fenner’s Cricket Ground, next to the cricket pitch. 

This means scarce and precious green space in the most densely populated part of Cambridge will be lost forever. 

In planning jargon, Fenner’s is Protected Open Space with a quality rating similar to the Botanic Garden and Parker’s Piece. 

If protected recreational grounds like Fenner’s are developed it will set a dangerous precedent for the whole city. If this is allowed, what green space is safe in the future?

Sir David Attenborough recognises the threat:

“The open green spaces of Cambridge need protection because they are always in danger of being swallowed up.” 

Fenner’s was always open to the public until Hughes Hall locked the gates and turned it into a private campus. 

Open spaces with trees, grass, birds and wildlife, green lungs such as Fenner’s, are crucial for our health and well-being as Cambridge is faced with hotter summers and becoming ever more crowded. 

Since 1848, Fenner’s has been a cherished cricket ground, hosting university cricket teams, local clubs, county and national teams. 

Cricket on Fenner’s will have to compete with Hughes Hall’s ambitions to provide more and more exorbitantly priced places for students. 

Unstopped, Hughes Hall will be able to keep expanding until there’s nothing left for cricket but a circle, and Fenner’s will become just another court in the middle of a college campus.

We’re justifiably proud of our two universities and the energy and enterprise they bring to the city. We like the commons, the colleges, and love that we can cycle across it. But Cambridge is expanding and its very attraction means further growth is inevitable. It’s difficult to do much about house prices and traffic, but we can protect our open spaces.

Hughes Hall could easily avoid building on this beautiful green space by using university land in West Cambridge or a brownfield site. If planning approval for a large development on Fenner’s is given, no protected open space in Cambridge is safe.

Read the Action Group Statement HERE