The Future
Having considered the past of Great Shelford it is perhaps of some interest to project oneself into the future and try to envisage the village in a few years' time. The next ten year period is covered by proposals for the village drawn up by the Planning Department of the County Council and taking the village as a whole, very little change is envisaged. The present population of Shelford is about 3,910 and the Planning Department estimate that during the next ten years this should increase by about 13% to 4, 400.
The Planners have drawn a "Green Belt" line, beyond which no form of development would normally be permitted, tightly round the existing built-up area of the village and scope for the modest increase in population over the next ten years will be taken care of through building houses in the gardens of existing dwellings and some building on larger areas of land such as on the North side of Hinton Way, close to the Mingle Lane junction.
A development likely to occur in the more immediate future is for shops, car parking, offices and dwellings to be built on the North side of Woollards Lane, towards the High Street end. This should much improve the general Woollards Lane shopping centre in the village and possibly ease the present congestion of the road by cars during principal shopping days. Some municipal functions such as a Clinic could also be catered for in this development.
Beyond this next ten year period the future development of the village becomes very hazy and any opinion must necessarily be speculative. One wonders whether British Rail will keep open the railway between Cambridge and Royston; whether electrification of the main Liverpool Street line will take place; what new problems will arise as more and more cars are owned both in the village and elsewhere in the country; whether a Village Plan a few years hence will reserve land for a Helicopter Landing Ground etc. , etc. , It is interesting to speculate on the future of the village but only advancing years can finally answer the many possible questions that can be asked as to the future.
Page last updated October 29th 2009