St Ives-a new millennium - Flipbook - Page 45
St Ives-a new millennium
4/10/02
3:47 pm
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Below: The ‘Gang of Nine’ Town Councillors
Photo: Stuart Littlewood/Pentax MX
Nicknamed the Gang of Nine by their opponents, a group of town councillors in 2000 mounted a
challenge to the District Council’s attempt to impose its elaborate plans for revamping the town
centre without adequate time for discussion. The group favoured a scheme more in sympathy
with the town’s character and insisted that the voice of townspeople and traders be heard. Their
action caused heated debate at the Town Hall and in the press, and led to the setting up of an
advisory panel by the District Council to find a way forward. As a result, major interest groups
were included in the consultation process and broad agreement was reached on all sides.
Eight of the notorious ‘Nine’ are pictured here (left to right): Tom Rawlinson, David Jennings, Jason
Ablewhite, Peter Baker, Ian Dobson, Douglas Dew, Michael Jennings and Mike Ellis.
Above: Nick Dibben, rail campaigner
Photo: Stuart Littlewood/Pentax MX
The last passenger train in and out of St Ives was in 1970 - the rail link to
Huntingdon had been closed in 1959.
Nick has campaigned to reopen the St Ives-Cambridge line since 1985, and he
helped to run special trains from Swavesey to Cambridge in 1990 to demonstrate
how easily the service could be re-established. He is now East Anglian Branch
secretary of the Railway Development Society, a national group whose mission is to
improve rail services in general.
Nick is disappointed with the multi-modal transport study proposal to turn the line
into a guided bus-way. The technology, he believes, is questionable for such a longdistance, high-speed application. He argues that any solution should include the
benefit of cross-Cambridge access, for example to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, and
direct connection to the ThamesLink service. A bus-way cannot provide this. Here
he surveys the bridge that carried the old line, closed in 1956, over the Great Ouse
near St Ives.
A chartered electrical engineer, Nick has lived in St Ives for 15 years and commutes
by train to London.
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