Some people have been asking why at “only” 100 years old Coton Orchard is being called “ancient”. Steve Oram @PTES #Biodiversity Officer walks along the proposed C2C busway path & explains what makes traditional orchards an irreplaceable habitat #SaveCotonOrchard 🍎🍐🌳🚌❌

@GemmaSm47547618 @david4castle @CotonView @paulbristow79 We get your scepticism. But since 2021, the Lib/Lab-run Council has relentlessly pushed the GCP busways through Coton Orchard/Madingley Hill, West and Magog Hill, South. If campaigners lose at the Public Inquiry, a change in leadership is the last chance to save our countryside.

@ClareFKing This one is equally offensive…

@CotonBuzz @briar_farm Field trip 🙌🏻😀

@david4castle Are you running for Castle? ⚪️🗳️

@NaturetasticWH @wildlifebcn @BeaverTrust @RushdenLakesSC How wonderful to have been present Henry. Bravo @wildlifebcn 👏🏻😀

@ClareFKing @Murielschild @david4castle @Engineer_Cllr Very well said Clare.

@Murielschild @david4castle @ClareFKing @Engineer_Cllr Apologies, I meant both Lib Dem and Labour. Bravo, very pleased to read Greens standing in Romsey we need that to change colour. And a group from Petersfield asked us on Saturday who to vote for to #SaveCotonOrchard now I can get back to them 🟢🗳️

@david4castle @ClareFKing Independents were the only ones to change their vote.

Not really. She and Luke said they support rail, and GCP assured them the busway could be converted—technically possible, but as one expert put it, why would you? The TWAO plans show a pinch point forcing buses to turn right onto Grange Road, adding a circuitous detour. And if a bus struggles to turn, what chance does rail have? Buses are more manoeuvrable, so if they’re already pushing design limits, the idea this route is “future-proofed” for rail is either fantasy or a deliberate fib.

@ClareFKing @puzzleGen We’re not politically savvy, so excuse the ignorance—but why would Labour’s NEC want to whip a vote on a multi-million-pound busway to Grange Road when Reeves and co. are backing EWR? CSET, maybe—we get it, that one feeds their golden goose, the BMC. But this? What’s the angle?

@puzzleGen @ClareFKing Alex is one of the good ones—she took the time to visit Coton, listen, and genuinely engages with her community. But what’s the point if she isn’t free to vote her conscience?

@herdyshepherd1 Hear, hear ✊🏻🤨🗳️

@ClareFKing @david4castle She clearly did. Ditto Lib Dems. By bundling the GCP busways into a single vote, when they are separate projects in different parts of the county, shows they had no intention of looking at the merits of the schemes.

@david4castle @ClareFKing It was deeply disappointing to see councillors of all parties nodding along positively as we explained why the C2C busway didn’t make sense—not just for the orchard, farms, but for taxpayers and those needing to travel beyond Grange Road—only to then vote en bloc anyway.

@david4castle @CotonView @paulbristow79 We’re not voting for anyone who said YES to wrecking our countryside, bulldozing farms, and trashing our heritage. We hope Cambridgeshire stands up for what matters too 🌳🚌❌🗳️✊🏻🤨

@CambridgeGreens Where else are you standing strong?

@DanicaPriest We were just saying how much it looks like a Monopoly board—though I suppose that’s how they see the countryside. Just a load of empty squares to fill with as many money-making boxes as possible.

@markrwilliamson @GOVUK Bad enough that the “taking on the blockers” rhetoric appears in newspapers, where sloppy language might be dismissed as a heat-of-the-moment remark. But in an official press release? It’s unconscionable.