UK Construction and Law
The Cambourne to Cambridge guided busway order is made after a 22 day inquiry, and tendering for detailed design starts now
By Staff Writer | 9 September 2026
A decision letter dated 8 September makes the Transport and Works Act order with modifications and grants deemed planning permission for a segregated busway from Cambourne to Cambridge, a 2,000 space travel hub at Scotland Farm and bridges over the M11 and Bin Brook. The scheme is inappropriate development in the Green Belt and takes about 39 hectares of best and most versatile farmland; the Secretary of State found very special circumstances. Contractors are expected to be appointed in the new year.
The application was made by Cambridgeshire County Council in November 2024 on behalf of the Greater Cambridge Partnership. A panel of two inspectors sat for 22 days between 16 September and 21 November 2025 and recommended that the order be made with modifications. The decision was allocated to and taken by the Minister of State for Rail, Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill, in the name of the Secretary of State, and a separate letter from the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government issued the same day grants the open space certificate under the Acquisition of Land Act 1981.
What the order authorises
The order permits the construction, maintenance and operation of a guided busway between Cambourne and Cambridge with intermediate stops, an emergency and maintenance access track, a travel hub building and park and ride at Scotland Farm, Dry Drayton, bridges over the M11 and Bin Brook, access roads, temporary compounds, the stopping up, diversion and creation of rights of way, highway crossings, drainage works and attenuation and infiltration ponds. It carries powers of compulsory acquisition, temporary stopping up of highways, survey powers and the acquisition of replacement open space.
One modification matters for the design. The environmental statement referred to a kerb guided busway, but the drawings, the statement of case and nearly all the inquiry evidence assumed road based sensor guidance, vehicles that can run on a road and are guided mainly by sensors on board. The panel considered the scheme on that basis and said it was not confident the evidence would support another mode; the Secretary of State agreed and amended the order to say so.
Ensuring that the growing communities in places like Cambourne and Bourn are well connected to job opportunities, public services and leisure facilities is a priority for us. The Cambourne to Cambridge busway will give tens of thousands of residents ease of access to low carbon and low congestion transport into Cambridge city.
Lucy Nethsingha, Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, 8 September 2026
The objections, and how they were weighed
Most objectors, including the Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and Coton Parish Council, accepted the need for better public transport between Cambourne and Cambridge. The argument was over route and mode. An on road alternative, using bus priority on the existing highway, was advanced by Cambridge Past, Present and Future and the parish council and supported by the Mayor and several campaign groups; another group proposed a route along the north side of the A428. The applicant's evidence was that the on road option had design, safety and deliverability problems, and the panel found a clear rationale for the preferred option.
The scheme is local transport infrastructure in the Green Belt and is therefore inappropriate development. The applicant put the harm to openness at moderate at worst and argued very special circumstances; the Secretary of State agreed with the panel's weightings, in which Green Belt harm, permanent harm to Coton Orchard county wildlife site and potential harm to veteran trees weighed substantially against the scheme, and found the balance in its favour. The busway crosses land safeguarded for East West Rail between Croxton and Toft; both parties were content that a mined tunnel avoids conflict. The permanent loss of roughly 39 hectares of best and most versatile agricultural land was treated as an adverse effect of limited weight because crossing points keep the wider land in agricultural use.
The letter records that the National Planning Policy Framework was updated in August 2026, after the panel reported, and that the new version did not alter the assessment.
What happens next
The county council must publish notice of the determination under section 14(4) of the 1992 Act, and the letter's Annex C sets out the route to challenge. The partnership says the full tender process begins now, with contractors expected to be appointed in the new year to complete detailed design, and that main construction follows detailed design with some preparatory works possibly earlier. Cambourne is planned to grow by up to 13,000 homes to around 19,500.
For the bidders the salient facts are in the order itself: sensor guided vehicles, a mined crossing under safeguarded railway land, two bridges, a 2,000 space hub and a planning condition set in Annex A that the inquiry has already tested.