The Hanley Grange proposal, to build up to 12,000 houses in three phases on the triangle of land bordered by the A505, A11, A1301 was put forward presuming a level of co-operation between of a number of land-owners, not just the principal developer, Jarrow Associates. At presentation I attended on 30 June the developers stated that the second phase of development, towards the southern point, was to be on land not owned by Jarrow Associates.
This is land owned by the Wellcome Trust, and a number of people, led by Andrew Lansley MP, have been asking questions about what was going to happen to that land, which was originally acquired from South Cambs District Council in December 2002. I asked the Council in June if there were any letters or memos which explained the section 106. agreement that Wellcome had signed at the time, and there weren't, but the agreement itself states that the "Wellcome Trust for itself and its successors in title will not change the use of the Hinxton Estate."
Today the Wellcome Trust have issued a statement saying: "The Wellcome Trust was approached by Jarrow Investments Limited to consider becoming a partner in the Hanley Grange eco-town submission. The Trust has given very careful consideration to the approach and has decided not to proceed with this proposal. The Wellcome Trust owns around 270 acres of land on the Hanley Grange site. "
The consequence of this decision is that the land owned by Jarrow Associates in the central belt of the triangle is just enough to meet the threshold for supporting enough houses to form an eco-town - maybe 5,000 houses. And it could be that once that is built, or started, then maybe other landowners will come back on board. So an interesting development but not one that ends the eco-town proposal.
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