Cambridgeshire County Council is facing calls for transparency after the payment was revealed by a Freedom of Information request
Cambridgeshire County Council is facing calls for transparency over a six figure sum paid to a college after which they dropped their objections to a guided busway route. Clare Hall, one of the poorest Cambridge colleges, spent £537,483.75 opposing the busway route running along Rifle Range Road.
They had argued this would be “more operationally difficult to deliver, environmentally damaging, and economically expensive” than the Adams Road route.
A Freedom of Information request revealed the county council signed a confidential agreement with the college in which they paid them a total of £158,863 towards their “reasonable costs” after which they dropped their objections.
This was made up of a £48,000 payment to legal firm Dentons, £10,863 to property advisors Newsteer and a fixed sum of £100,000 for the college’s “reasonable legal and other professional costs (including surveyor’s costs)”.
Green Party councillors wrote to the county council’s chief executive, Dr Stephen Moir, asking for a “full and transparent explanation” for the payment.
It said: “We would like to see Cambridgeshire County Council release an official statement to either confirm or deny these claims, clearly and transparently setting out the terms of any agreement made with Clare Hall as well as who was aware of this deal.”
Cllr Peter Rees, of Newnham, said that he had asked three times for an explanation about the sudden withdrawal of their objection but never received a response.
He said: “Residents were surprised by Clare Hall’s sudden withdrawal of their objection and asked me for information. I asked the Council three times in late 2025 and early 2026, but they never gave a response.”
A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire County Council said they are looking into this as an internal matter and will not comment further until their enquiries are completed.
Documents from a separate FOI request submitted by a resident, showed Cambridgeshire County Council had considered Adams Road a choice “early in scheme development”. They said they consulted on the choice in 2017 and 2018 when Rifle Range was selected as “the best performing option”.
When the Cambridge Autonomous Metro was being considered, they revisited the choice as the scheme may have “rendered the Rifle Range section of CtoC redundant”.
They said this “significantly altered the scoring for ‘Future Proofing’ in favour of Adams Road” and suggested it “was the better performing option”. But the council said “no formal decisions were taken at this time”.
They held “stakeholder workshops” with local residents on September 17 and November 5 in 2019 and “opposition to the use of Adams Road was voiced by residents represented by North Newnham Residents Association”.
Two meetings of Greater Cambridge Partnership’s Joint Assembly discussed the plans on January 30 and June 4, 2020, at which they said “significant public concern” was noted over the Adams Road option.
They said there was “particular focus on the need to consider cyclists and cycling safety along with forecast growth of cycling from the West Cambridge site”.
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