Date published: 2009/06/26
The BBC says:
Plans for a 220-bed hotel, thought to be a Travelodge, in Cambridge have been withdrawn after public opposition.
Developers Eastern Gate Properties had put forward proposals for the hotel on the south side of Newmarket Road.
But after Cambridge City Council officers recommended refusal of the plans, they were withdrawn before the planning committee met on Wednesday.
The scheme, opposed by the Riverside Area Residents' Association, was seen as too big for the site.
Residents felt the planned hotel was too big and would cause traffic problems.
The Cambridge News should have said that "the usual academic middle class NIMBYs felt the planned hotel was too big because they oppose all change". The bit about "traffic problems" is just a catch all phrase that anybody who opposes anything in Cambridge uses as a convient excuse. (Since of course traffic is evil, at least that caused by anyone except for the usual academic middle class suspects themselves. Not surprisingly the residents of Riverside own plenty of cars.)
Unfortunately all developers know that the NIMBYs will always complain no matter what. So all developers ask for more than they want. If they are lucky it gets through, if they are unlucky then they go away and come back with a smaller plan and say they have "compromised" and everyone is supposed to be happy. But nobody ever worries about whether the design is any good or not, only whether there is allegedly too much traffic, and whether the academic middle class can emotionally cope with the proposed change. It's why British urban design is so bad.
As it happens, that part of Newmarket Road is a complete dump, and the residents of Riverside deserve to continue having to look at that eyesore every day for the forseeable future. The same thing happened with Mitcham's Corner N years ago. The academic middle class objected to the plans there, and as a result the Staples eyesore (well, except for the cute parking ramp) is still around, years later. And the proposed Cambridge railway station development has gotten worse and worse the more and more that the academic middle class have managed to skewer the planning.
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