Build the Darwin Green School NOW

Liberal Democrat councillors representing Darwin Green have slammed fresh delays to the long-awaited awaited Darwin Green Secondary School, after developer changed drainage and power plans days before submission was due.

Cambridgeshire County Council has been forced to pause the planning submission for the new Darwin Green Primary School after developer Barratt changed the way it plans to provide drainage and electricity to the site at the eleventh hour.

The Council had already prepared its planning application for the school, only for Barratt to alter its servicing plans just days before it was due to be submitted. The changes mean the site would no longer receive enough electrical power for the planned design and would require additional water storage tanks to manage drainage. As a result, the designs the Council had prepared no longer match the infrastructure Barratt is now proposing to provide, and the application cannot be submitted until the changes are resolved or renegotiated with the developer.

Cllr Rory Clark (Lib Dem, Castle) expressed their frustration at the latest delay:

“Families have waited years for this school to be built; this fresh delay is completely unacceptable. The Council did its job and had an application ready to go, only for Barratt to pull the rug out from under them at the last minute. 

“Families in Darwin Green have been let down time and again, and they deserve so much better than this. I will keep fighting, alongside my colleagues, to get this school open as soon as possible.”

Local campaigner Luke Patterson echoed this frustration, saying:

“Families have once again been left in the lurch after Barratt moved the goalposts. This isn’t good enough, and Barratt need to sort this out with the Council immediately, not string our communities along any further. Local families need certainty, not more delay.”

Cllr Rory Clark is now urgently arranging meetings with Barratt and council officers to press the developer to resolve the drainage and electricity issues without further delay, so that a revised planning application can be submitted as quickly as possible. 

Cllr Clark, Cllr Payne, and local campaigner Luke Patterson have launched a petition demanding clear answers for how and why this delay happened so late in the process, and demanding that Darwin Green Academy be built as soon as possible.