Tag: Community

Annual General Meeting and Executive Committee Summer 2026 update

Cambridge Area Bus Users’ Annual General Meeting was held on Saturday 11 July 2026 at 14:45, in the Great Western Room, The Signal Box Centre, 82 Glenalmond Avenue, Cambridge, CB2 8DB
Eighteen members were present, with apologies received from another ten members.

Chair’s remarks, Secretary’s and Treasurer’s Reports

Hugh Taylor (Vice Chair 2025-26), Richard Wood (Secretary 2025-26) and Miranda Fyfe (Treasurer 2025-26) contributed opening remarks, including a special thanks to Peter Griffin (Chair 2025-26, who needs to move to Nottingham for family reasons) for steering the Executive Committee through the first post re-launch year; an overview of the Executive Committee’s work over the year; and the financial report, respectively.

Executive Committee member Sarah Hughes (also Campaigns Officer of the Cambridgeshire Sustainable Travel Alliance) added further detail of Cambridge Area Bus Users’ collaborative work with the Sustainable Travel Alliance and with Cambridge Citizens.

For full details, view/download the Report on Cambridge Area Bus Users Annual General Meeting 2026 (PDF)

The work of St Ives Executive Committee member Anthony Stanton, in collaboration with St Ives Cares, St Ives Town Council and others in producing publicity to promote local bus services was also highlighted. View/download the excellent St Ives Bus Leaflet (PDF). The Executive Committee believes that this is an exemplar of how our transport authority (Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority) should be marketing our bus services.

2026 Constitution Update

In 2018, Cambridge Area Bus Users was established as an affiliate of Bus Users UK. the constitution adopted at the Inaugural General Meeting reflected this. Bus Users UK no longer have an affiliate structure. An update to our constitution was required. View/Download the 2026 constitution here.

2026-27 Executive Committee

The following ten members of Cambridge Area Bus Users were elected, nem con:

Aland Chan
Miranda Fyfe
Geoff Heathcock
Sarah Hughes
Mark Reader
Anthony Stanton
Hugh Taylor
Martin Thorne
Peter Tribble
Richard Wood

At the first Executive Committee meeting for 2026-27 held online on 4th August 2026 the officer positions were agreed as follows:

Chair: Hugh Taylor
Secretary: Richard Wood
Treasurer: Miranda Fyfe
Vice-Chair: Peter Tribble

Recent Executive Committee Activities

  • St Ives Bus publicity (see above) and improvements to information in St Ives bus station and the Station Road stop
  • Frequent reports on errors with at-stop and online real-time bus information
  • Liaising with Living Streets, Cambridge, and Highway Officers about improving safe pedestrian routes across Emmanuel Street and St Andrew’s Street
  • Liaising with the Cambridge Citizens group campaign to retain and enhance the Tiger Pass for  young passengers
  • Collaborating with planners and designers working on improvements to Mill Road, Cambridge, to improve bus stop infrastructure
  • Pressing Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority for improvements to bus stop infrastructure (see separate, forthcoming post)
  • Questioning Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority about funding for improved bus services
  • Meeting with senior management of bus operators and with key politicians to share insights
  • Continuing work on improving and updating our website
  • Increasing and improving the relevance of our social media channels
  • Responding to the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Bus Network Review (see separate post)

Membership fees

With Cambridge Area Bus Users having returned to active campaigning, we hope that many more of those on our mailing list will be inspired to make the suggested £5 per year (£10/year for a family) contribution towards this work.

Members can make one-off payments or regular (Standing Order) payments into our bank account or you can  donate using PayPal (opens in a new tab). Our bank account details are:

Bankers: Barclays
Account name: Cambridge Area Bus Users
Sort Code: 20-17-20
Account No: 33197727

(Please note: we are unable to support Direct Debits. Sorry.)

Beehive Centre Planning Update

Note that this planning application includes a number of bus service enhancement proposals.

poster text as accompanying text in this post
Click the image to download a printable PDF

Nick Vose​​​​, Director, Marengo Communication, writes:

We are pleased to provide you with an update on Railpen’s proposals for the Beehive Centre.

As you will be aware, we first submitted plans last year, including proposals for new retail, leisure, and community space, as well as laboratory, workspace, and green public space.

However, following feedback on the plans we decided to come back to you with revised designs.

The key uses proposed for the site remain the same, but we have reduced the height and massing of a number of buildings and adjusted building footprints and locations to increase separation distances between buildings and our neighbours.

A new park roughly the same size as St Matthew’s Piece has been introduced and we will plant even more trees (275 in total).

There is also a new direct cycle/pedestrian route through the site and Coldham’s Lane Roundabout will be upgraded to a four-way signalised junction, creating safer connections for pedestrians and cyclists.

Around 20 new shops and leisure facilities, including a small supermarket and gym are included on the ground floor. This is in addition to our plan to invest in Cambridge Retail Park which is also moving forward and will support the re-location of several retailers from the Beehive Centre. The development will also fund an additional 15 public buses per hour with a service extension to the train station, a new service to Milton Park & Ride, as well as new direct services to Cambourne and St Neots, Huntington and St Ives, Ely and Waterbeach. More than 4,200 cycle parking spaces will be created, and 460 car parking spaces – a third of which will provide electric vehicle (EV) charging.

Finally, in response to earlier feedback, we are also looking carefully at how our proposals can help reduce urban temperatures. We know that green spaces, trees, green roofs and vegetation are all very helpful as natural cooling measures and we are planning to replace large areas of concrete with new landscaping, 275 new trees, rain gardens, permeable surfaces and green roofs. In addition, we have committed to undertaking an Urban Greening Factor assessment to evaluate the quality and quantity of green space provided. More commonly used in London this voluntary assessment will demonstrate how green infrastructure has been integral in the design of the development.  Several other design choices will also be taken, including carefully selected materials with a higher albedo, which is the metric for how much incoming sun is reflected by a material surface.

We are still listening and are now inviting residents and stakeholders to comment on these revised plans before we submit an amended planning application.

You can find out more about our updated plans on the 17, 18 and 19 July.

Wednesday 17th July 2024, 12pm – 4pm
ScS – Unit 11 (next to Nando’s), Cambridge Retail Park, Newmarket Road, CB5 8JG

Thursday 18th July 2024, 4pm – 7.30pm
ScS – Unit 11 (next to Nando’s), Cambridge Retail Park, Newmarket Road, CB5 8JG

Friday 19 July 2024, 12 noon
Online webinar: Register here: Beehive Centre Update – Online Webinar Registration

We are also holding a further event for adjacent neighbours on Wednesday 17 July between 6pm and 7.30pm. This event will also be held in the ScS and a separate letter has been sent via the Royal Mail.

Further details of our events are enclosed in the attached community flyer – which has been sent this week to over 6,000 local residents – and we have prepared a social media friendly graphic, also attached, which we are asking stakeholders to share via their own social media channels. 

We look forward to talking you through the latest proposals.

Best regards,
Nick
For and on behalf of Railpen