Future of Anstey Hall in Trumpington to be decided as Cambridge city councillors debate retirement village plan

The future of the 17th-century Anstey Hall will be determined on Wednesday (4 September) when councillors debate plans for a new retirement village within its grounds.

Owner John de Bruyne wants to create 87 two-bedroom flats across two buildings in the grounds of the historic hall in Maris Lane, Trumpington.

The hall itself would be used as a centre for the retirement community, as well as offering meeting rooms for charities and organisations in the area.

It would also house a collection of paintings with regular exhibitions and collaboration with other galleries and museums planned.

Mr de Bruyne says the development would open the hall up to the community and provide funding to maintain the grade II*-listed building in perpetuity.

But a report to Wednesday’s Cambridge City Council’s planning committee recommends that councillors refuse the plans from Trumpington Investments Ltd, after an objection from Historic England, which claimed the development would “harm” the hall.

Previous plans for retirement flats were refused by the council last year.

Some councillors said they supported the principle of retirement homes but urged that the plans were revised.

But Historic England remains opposed.

It told the council: “Having considered the current, revised proposals in detail, which are very similar to those previously submitted, we maintain our in principle objection to the two new-build residential blocks on heritage grounds.

“In our view any development that would encroach upon the open space to the south of the hall would cause a high level of less than substantial harm to its setting and significance.”

Historic England argued it had not been demonstrated that providing central facilities for the retirement community would be the optimum use for the hall.

Mr de Bruyne disagrees and points to the high costs of maintaining the hall.

He stressed the idea for the hall “extends far beyond just being a club house for the elderly residents”.

And he said: “The report ignores the core of the optimum viable use which is to curate and display the collection of paintings, so that Anstey Hall will function like Kettle’s Yard.

“We have just appointed a professional curator who is an academic working at both Cambridge University and Anglia Ruskin University, who will establish formal links with Cambridge art schools.”

Council officers noted that “minor technical reasons” for the refusal of the previous application had been addressed, but said the two applications were “substantially the same”.

The report said: “Whilst the proposal would provide private retirement accommodation for an ageing population, the proposed retirement blocks would consume a substantial portion of protected open space which would not be satisfactorily replaced in terms of quantity elsewhere.

“Moreover, the open character of this park and garden and setting of this listed building would be significantly eroded and the setting of the city would be adversely impacted.

“The proposed retirement blocks would fail to appropriately relate to the Anstey Hall in terms of their design, siting and scale and therefore have an adverse impact upon the character and appearance of Trumpington Conservation Area and the setting of the grade II*-listed building.

“The harm to the character and appearance of the conservation area and to the setting and significance of Anstey Hall is identified as a high-level of ‘less than substantial; harm and it is not considered that the public benefits arising from the scheme would outweigh this identified harm.”