Cambridge demolishing council homes
by Stephen Hewitt | Published | Last updated
On Saturday 16 December 2017 I saw excavators and large mounds of rubble where not long before had stood flats and council homes at Anstey Way, Cambridge, CB2 9JA. (First photograph).
A passing local resident told me that the demolitions had occurred within the last two weeks.
The demolition site, approximately a rectangle of 50x100 metres, was surrounded by solid fencing panels on which there were several different notices.
One of these notices was an A4-sized sheet stating:
“Cambridge Investment Partnership hereby give the necessary notice that it has made an application to determine whether prior approval is required for the demolition of no's 9 to 28 Anstey Way, Cambridge.” ...“The date on which the applicant proposes to carry out the demolition is Summer 2017.”
At the bottom there was a hand-written signature legible as “S Longstaff” and printed after it “(On behalf of Cambridge Investment Partnership) Date: 30/06/2017”.
Cambridge Investment Partnership (company number OC415211) was incorporated in 2016 as a limited liability partnership. The legality of any council using a limited liability partnership for such purposes was being challenged in the high court in 2017 in the case of Peters v London Borough of Haringey & Anor . The judgement in that case, which confirmed such a use was legal, was handed down on 8 February 2018.
This was not the first time Cambridge City Council had demolished council homes. The photograph dated 2 July 2015 shows a similar scene at Water Lane.
