The familiar face of Cambridge

Introducing Cambridge
Futures

Cambridge Futures was set up because both the City and region are undergoing massive and accelerating change. What kind of place do we want them to become? How will they shape up over the next 50 years?

About Cambridge Futures

Cambridge Futures is a non-profit making group of local business leaders, politicians, local government officers, professionals and academics who have been looking at the options for growth in and around Cambridge since 1996.

  • Our aim is to explore what kind of environment people want to create over the next 50 years.

  • Unlike local government we are not constrained by statutory obligations or boundaries. We have worked with local government and other initiatives to avoid duplication and to pool ideas.

  • The group has listened to the views of many people in the community to identify long-term preferences. We have worked through a Steering Group and an Executive Committee with one full time member of staff and a budget of £100,000 raised by voluntary subscription.

  • This website is aimed at informing the public of the options envisaged by the group and the economic, social and environmental implications for the quality of life in the region. It is hoped that discussion of the options will lead to a developing consensus that will aid the planning process.

The Study Area

The City of Cambridge is a sub-regional centre, which attracts large numbers of commuters, shoppers and visitors from a wide area. Cambridge Futures looked at the area within 20-25 miles of the centre of the City (see map below), concentrating research on the CambsTEC area.

This area, which comprises the Cambridge City, South Cambridgeshire, East Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire districts of Cambridgeshire, was chosen as encompassing the vast majority of the relevant data.

Study area map

 

Cambridge Futures research team is based at the
University of Cambridge
Martin Centre for Architectural & Urban Studies
6 Chaucer Road
Cambridge CB2 2EB
Tel. 01223 331714
Fax 01223 331701
e-mail cambfut@arct.cam.ac.uk

Computer generated images by METAPHORM

Message from the Steering Group

Cambridge Futures is a unique partnership of business, local government, and the academic world. This website, together with the accompanying report, video and exhibition, heralds the completion of its mission: to fund and publish objective research on a range of proposals for the development of the City and its region.

The Cambridge region has a role which stretches far beyond its administrative boundaries. It reaches deep into the global economy, into research and invention everywhere, into the ideas which are shaping the future of our lives and our world.

Our common goal, for all the wide range of interests of the participants, has been the fusion of sustainable development with our local, national and international functions.

We do not claim to have discovered a magic formula for growth, nor do we recommend one or more solutions. The Cambridge Futures’ contribution is to enhance the development debate by projecting the consequences of the planning options, especially their economic, social and environmental impacts. This website is an essential signpost and reference work for all those who attempt to map the future.

Professor Sir Alec Broers
Vice-Chancellor
University of Cambridge		 Councillor John Durrant
Cambridge City Council
Michael Marshall
Chairman
Marshalls of Cambridge