St Ives-a new millennium4/10/023:47 pmPage 43Below: The ‘Gang of Nine’ Town CouncillorsPhoto: Stuart Littlewood/Pentax MXNicknamed the Gang of Nine by their opponents, a group of town councillors in 2000 mounted achallenge to the District Council’s attempt to impose its elaborate plans for revamping the towncentre without adequate time for discussion. The group favoured a scheme more in sympathywith the town’s character and insisted that the voice of townspeople and traders be heard. Theiraction caused heated debate at the Town Hall and in the press, and led to the setting up of anadvisory panel by the District Council to find a way forward. As a result, major interest groupswere 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, JasonAblewhite, Peter Baker, Ian Dobson, Douglas Dew, Michael Jennings and Mike Ellis.Above: Nick Dibben, rail campaignerPhoto: Stuart Littlewood/Pentax MXThe last passenger train in and out of St Ives was in 1970 - the rail link toHuntingdon had been closed in 1959.Nick has campaigned to reopen the St Ives-Cambridge line since 1985, and hehelped to run special trains from Swavesey to Cambridge in 1990 to demonstratehow easily the service could be re-established. He is now East Anglian Branchsecretary of the Railway Development Society, a national group whose mission is toimprove rail services in general.Nick is disappointed with the multi-modal transport study proposal to turn the lineinto a guided bus-way. The technology, he believes, is questionable for such a longdistance, high-speed application. He argues that any solution should include thebenefit of cross-Cambridge access, for example to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, anddirect connection to the ThamesLink service. A bus-way cannot provide this. Herehe surveys the bridge that carried the old line, closed in 1956, over the Great Ousenear St Ives.A chartered electrical engineer, Nick has lived in St Ives for 15 years and commutesby train to London.Page 43
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