We oppose the proposed extension to the Cambridge DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel for an additional 31 bedrooms and a new leisure centre.

The hotel lies alongside the river Cam and between two ancient commonlands at the southern end of Cambridge's famous Backs.  Sheep's Green and Laundress Green are on one side, with Coe Fen on the other.  These ancient names conjure up images of a bucolic past when colleges' laundry maids hung their washing to dry on the green and sheep grazed on the fen.  But this land has not changed; cows still roam freely and local residents and tourists walk and picnic here, or hire punts to take them up the river.  The only thing which has changed is the hotel.

The original picturesque Garden House Hotel was destroyed by a fire in 1970.  A modern hotel replaced it, which has since suffered large and inappropriate additions.  This latest planning application is totally unacceptable for many reasons, but in particular:

• This is a sensitive site in an important Conservation Area. The extension will reduce the appearance of Cambridge's ancient green belt.

• The mass of the proposed building is too large; it will dominate the river front and obscure the view between the fens and across to the architecturally important college and university buildings.

• The only access to the hotel is down narrow roads with a blind bend.  They are already dangerously congested and cannot cope with additional traffic.

You can find out more through the Cambridge Planning Portal at www.cambridge.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/planning-and-building-control. Follow the links through the ‘Public Access’, register, then enter application number 11/0988/FUL

Please sign our petition and help save this iconic area of Cambridge.

(You may only sign once, so please do not sign on-line if you have already signed the paper petition.)

Your email address is used only by iPetitions to avoid duplicates; your address will only be passed to Cambridge Council Planning Department, who need this as an assurance that the signatures are from real people.

You can also submit your own objections directly to the Planning Department by emailing: [email protected]