Welcome to the Gamlingay ward page. 

Local contacts

Sebastian Kindersley (County Councillor)

 skindersley@hotmail.com       01767 651982       @SebKindersley

Bridget Smith (District Councillor and Leader, South Cambridgeshire District Council)

 bridget@glockling.com       07729 836449      /CllrBridget      @cllrbridget

You can also get in touch with any of our main South Cambs contacts found here

We produce a regular email newsletter. If you would like to receive these then please subscribe here.

If you have an issue which you think we should be looking into, then please do get in contact with a member of the team. We are always happy to hear from you.

Updated 20/11/20:

Additional parking on Gray’s Road

Work is now underway on the much-needed additional parking spaces on Gray’s Road, Gamlingay. We know that parking is limited in the area and that these works will add to this issues but please bear with us - they should only take about ten days in total. 

Proposed new Luton Airport flightpaths

Last month we wrote about the National Air Traffic Service consultation on its proposed new flightpaths to Luton Airport, which all entail aircraft descending to 7000ft over Gamlingay.

We have since signed a joint letter to all local MPs with our colleagues over the border in Bedfordshire, asking the MPs to intervene in the NATS proposals.

The letter in full:

“We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the flight path proposals recently put forward by Luton Airport in conjunction with NATS Holdings. The proposed flight paths head directly over a significant number of rural communities in your constituencies, not limited to but including Arlesey, Shefford, Gamlingay, Potton, Biggleswade, Sandy, St Neots, Abbotsley, Wrestlingworth and Langford.

As these flights descend there is likely to be significant noise and pollution impact on our area. Prior to COVID there were an average of 300 flights a day landing at Luton Airport. This consultation and the flight paths contained were not shared with local authority councillors during the analysis stage, meaning neither elected representatives nor residents were able to influence the options.

It is clear there are other options for flight paths which would have not resulted in such an impact. It is not clear why these have been excluded from this consultation. It is also far from clear that the existing situation is sustainable for some time to come.

The consultation represents a fait accompli and offers no choice to the communities who see all options head directly over them.

In February 2020, the UK Court of Appeal declared the planned third runway at Heathrow Airport illegal as it breached the UK’s climate mitigation commitments and the Paris Accord. In October 2020 Heathrow Airport commenced an appeal to the Supreme Court. In spite of a dramatic Covid-19 fall in passenger numbers - London Luton Airport passenger numbers for the first nine months of 2020 were half those of the same period in 20191- and despite the UK having the world’s third largest CO2 emission from aviation after China and the US, ‘every major commercial UK airport has plans to expand, with many hoping to double passenger numbers by 2030.’

This free-for-all, uncoordinated approach is a clear breach of the UK Government’s Aviation 2050 Strategy which enshrines ‘developing a partnership for sustainable growth which meets rising passenger demand, balanced with action to reduce environmental and community impacts.’ The London Luton Airport expansion plans are also clearly at odds with the Aviation 2050 Strategy and therefore with government policy.

We ask that you write to the Secretary of State for Transport and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs condemning these plans and seeking a restart in the whole process so that residents and local authorities are involved at all stages.

Furthermore, we ask that you do everything within your powers as the Members of Parliament for the affected areas to ensure these flight paths do not run over the areas currently selected.”

Liberal Democrats run local campaigns across the District. We all support each other to do this, pooling our knowledge and efforts. You can view our campaigns on the campaigns page of this website.

Campaigns which are particularly relevant to us here in Gamlingay are highlighted below.