This is a petition primarily for Owlstone Croft and Queens residents in solidarity with the locals who care about Paradise Reserve. Let’s get to 50 signatures (over half the number of residents at Owlstone Croft)! Then we will take this to Queens directly. There is a petition by the Friends of Paradise that you can also sign- Friends of Paradise Petition

Queens has planned to build a new accommodation block for 60 extra students on the field at Owlstone. This should be a positive thing, however these plans represent overdevelopment of a very constrained site in a sensitive area.

The garden of Owlstone Croft is part of the buffer zone for the green river corridor and is immediately adjacent to Paradise Reserve. Owlstone is already the closest building to the reserve, and has made this the thinnest, most vulnerable, section of the reserve. 

These plans pose a significant threat to biodiversity and the wildlife there. A species of endangered bat lives among the trees that queens plans to cut down. The lights produced by a new building so close to the reserve will further impact other bats and nocturnal species. 

Additionally, the drainage system plans for the new build will flood the reserve. 

There are over 200 detailed objections to the plans from individuals as well as local organisations, including Newnham Croft Primary School, the South Newnham Neighbourhood Forum, Newnham Croft Residents Association, the Federation of Cambridge RAs (FeCRA) and environmental groups such as Cambridge Past Present and Future, Friends of the Earth, Campaign for the Protection of Rural England and Friends of the Cam.

This petition will show that Owlstone students themselves object these changes too. I personally believe the original Owlstone buildings should be the focus of development rather than building new ones.