19/08/2026
I feel compelled to comment about the meeting arranged for yesterday 18/08/26 by Huntingdon District Council and their collaborative partners Capital & Centric, property developers.
It was called so the folk of St Neots could ask questions about the proposed development of Tebbutts Rd car park into 83 dwellings.
The meeting was poorly organised and at no point brought to order, with no introductions of representatives present.
It started casually with different groups chatting to various individuals about the project. I felt this was detrimental to the people of St Neots who had taken the time to attend and at best might get a few moments with different individuals.
I personally thought an open meeting where representatives could take questions from concerned residents of St Neots, and then everyone would be able to hear the responses.
I took the opportunity to call the meeting to order and wanted to ask if there had been an impact study by either HDC or capital & Centric on whether the effects of losing over 200 parking bays in the centre of St Neots had been considered.
A representative of
C & C replied saying that they were about to commission an Impact study.
I took the opportunity to help him in this quest by offering a few important hastily gathered statistics from the walk in health centre and Cedar House (Lakeside) GP surgery.
I deducted that somewhere between 150,000-200,000 appointments are made at both practises during any 12 month period and wanted to ask HDC and C & C where the sick, expectant Mums, unwell adults & their children along with the elderly and vulnerable where going to park the cars for their appointments.
Suffice to say no answer was forthcoming.
I also wanted to highlight that HDC have a flood risk map of St Neots and if the worst was to happen Tebbutts Rd car park would be under water according to HDC’s flood risk assessment map on their website.
Surely this makes the site unsuitable for dwellings.
Capital & Centric representatives made it clear that they thought the site unsuitable for development but fell short of saying they would pull out saying that the final decision was with HDC.
This poses the question.
Are HDC determined to sell off one the single biggest attractions to shoppers visiting St Neots?
More important than any business because without this parking facility to welcome people into the heart of our Town there will be no recognisable Town Centre for any of us.
In summary the meeting was shoddily organised with no PA system allowing speakers to be heard and no declaration of attendees.
Shame on HDC for treating the community I serve and cherish this way.
We all deserved better from our District Council.
I would encourage local business and residents to share this post in order to highlight the importance of potential catastrophic changes to the heart of our Town.
Paul Goldstraw.
