Cambridge University is battling one of its own professors in court over plans for a new state-of-the-art 'megabuilding' library.
asserted
University → battle → library
Physics professor Suchitra Sebastian is leading the fight against the historic institution, insisting the proposed development is 'too coarse' for the charming streets of Cambridge.
asserted
development → lead → Cambridge
The university's Christ's College, which counts Charles Darwin and atomic bomb pioneer J Robert Oppenheimer among its alumni, wants to demolish its ageing 1970s library and replace it with a modern facility.
asserted
which → count → facility
The plans feature a four-storey library set around a three-storey reading room in an historic part of central Cambridge, with a bridge connecting to the historic Grade-I listed Bodley Library.
asserted
plans → feature → Library
The proposals include a 'deep masonry wall' fronting the street and a pleated sloping roof to create a 'canopy of light and shade' inside the library, collecting solar energy and rainwater and absorbing sound.
But the college has met stiff opposition from a campaign group, spearheaded in court by Professor Sebastian – a condensed matter physicist at the university's Cavendish Laboratory – who complains the planned library is 'too big' and 'too coarse'.
asserted
library → include → Laboratory
The Christ's Lane Action Group (CLAG) argues the 'bulky' building would 'destroy the integrity of Cambridge's core conservation area', dwarfing the 'vibrant and busy' Christ's Lane and robbing it of its historic character.
asserted
building → argue → character
This is as Christ's College's library currently looks, inside a flatroof 1970s building
This is how the library would look after the development, if the plans are ultimately approved, with a four-storey library built around a three-storey reading room
Professor Suchitra Sebastian is spearheading the campaign group fighting to blight the plans
But the college simply went on to make a new application – for an 'almost identical' plan – which the council voted in favour of last week, before it was then frozen by housing secretary Angela Rayner, pending a decision on whether to 'call in' the application for ministerial consideration.
asserted
it → look → consideration
The dispute reached the High Court in London yesterday after CLAG – with Professor Sebastian in court – sought a judge's ruling on what went wrong with the way Cambridge City Council made its decision on the first application last year.
asserted
Council → reach → application
Outlining the background, CLAG barrister Emma Dring said the existing 1970s library is connected to the Grade-I listed 19th Century Bodley Library, on the corner of Christ's Lane and St Andrew's Street.
asserted
library → outline → Lane
The college has twice before in 2011 and 2016 secured planning permission to demolish and rebuild the library, but not gone through with the plans.
asserted
college → secure → plans
However, a controversial new Library+ proposal was made in June last year, omitting previous plans for a basement floor, but including four above ground and with the upper floor extended.
asserted
floor → make → ground
The college says the four levels would be gathered around a three-storey reading room and would be connected directly with the adjacent historic Bodley Library and Upper Hall.
asserted
levels → say → Library
However, Ms Dring said heritage body Historic England had been consulted and, although it did not object to the application, raised concerns of 'increased massing' and 'excessive bulk'.
asserted
it → say → massing
The approximately 40ft high building would be too domineering, 'too big for its location' and 'would detract from the setting of the surrounding buildings', the heritage body said.
asserted
body → detract → buildings
The campaign group against the plans produced this leaflet encouraging locals to submit objections
But
asserted
group → produce → objections
Ms Dring said the city council had been misled as to Historic England's full concerns about the building when making its decision on the application.
asserted
council → say → application
She said the council planning committee had been given an 'incomplete and misleading summary' of Historic England's position, tainting the approval decision.
asserted
committee → say → decision
It had also failed to take into account the 'relevant consideration' of the existence of 'less harmful' alternative ways to develop the site, she said.
asserted
she → fail → site
Giving judgment and quashing the 2025 planning permission, Mr Justice Kolinsky said both the council and the college accepted in court there had been errors in the way it was considered by the council.
asserted
it → give → council
These included the fact Historic England's concerns were not fully communicated to the planning committee and that the potential for alternative plans, less harmful to listed buildings, had not been taken into consideration.
'
asserted
potential → include → consideration
It is certainly the fact that the defendant went wrong in law, but it has conceded this already,' the judge said, approving an order consented to by the council and college that the permission should be quashed.
asserted
permission → go → council
The decision means the 2025 planning permission stands quashed, with the reasons for that now officially recorded in the consent order.
asserted
reasons → mean → order
The second – and 'almost identical' – library application remains live while a decision is made whether to call it in for a decision on a ministerial level.
asserted
decision → remain → level
The Aporia
