Today Jim and local Waterbeach Councillor, James Hockney, met with the Minister for Armed Force, Nick Harvey MP, to discuss his constituents’ concerns about the closure of Waterbeach Barracks and the future of the site. Jim raised with the Minister the massive local opposition to the plans and challenged him about whether the site is only being closed because of its potential development value.

Jim said, ‘I know there is grave local concern about the decision to close Waterbeach Barracks, but also about the future of the site and the possibility of an enormous amount of houses being built on it. I have made clear to the Minister the opposition there would be locally to a large development on the scale of previous applications and questioned the need for such a large development in the light of work beginning at Northstowe. I also challenged him about whether the site was only being sold solely of the potential money it could raise from developers.’

James said, "Waterbeach Barracks is a key part of the local community. This is backed up by the petition signed by over 2,000 local residents stating their opposition to the idea of a new town of 13,000 houses. We made clear to the Minister of the very strong feelings in the community on this issue and that three times before the barracks has been rejected as a site for a new town. Already we know that a new town - Northstowe - of 9,500 houses is on its way just a matter of miles down the road".

The Minister was interested to hear the views of the community and has asked officials to provide him with details about the plans for the disposal of the site and how it fits into the wider programme to optimise the Defence Estate, both in terms of money and in terms of the future lay-down of the Armed Forces.

Jim added, ‘As I have previously said I am committed to working with the MOD, the Council and the community to ensure that to ensure the best possible outcome for Waterbeach and intend to write to the Minister to keep the pressure on.  I am also chairing a public meeting on the issue next week and would encourage any local resident who is concerned about this issue to come along.’

The public meeting is being held on Friday 4 November at 6:30pm at Waterbeach School. It will be chaired by Jim and is co-organised by James Hockney and his fellow Waterbeach Councillor, Peter Johnson, and will be attended by representatives from the Defence Infrastructure Organisation and South Cambridgeshire Planning Authority.