SCDC promotes 'all route options' & environment to be fully considered by EWR
This Council believes that at this stage in the design process it is essential for all route options to be evaluated. The selection of route options must take account of analysis of how they support and unlock housing and employment growth and how they fit with our existing development strategies.
 
This Council acknowledges that infrastructure investment on this scale carries enormous risks in its impacts on the environment while also presenting us with an unprecedented opportunity to make positive contributions to the net biodiversity and natural capital gain of the areas affected. This Council therefore commits itself to promoting environmental enhancement of benefits (such as flood management, water availability, noise and air pollution mitigation, health and landscape/amenities) along the corridor and asks that this is included in the route evaluation criteria."
 
This extract is from item 15c of Council decisions dated 27 Sep 2018: see full text here.
Aidan Van de Weyer
(Deputy Leader, South Cambridgeshire District Council)

“The vitality of the Cambridge – Milton Keynes – Oxford corridor is crucial to the future prosperity of the whole country. We need to make bold investments in infrastructure to support that growth and make it sustainable. The East West Railway is the most important piece of the jigsaw, so we've got to work together and get it right by looking at what all the options can bring.”