Saturday 12 October 2024, 12 noon – 3pm

Find out about the work we do, and how you can join us to protect the local river system at the Friends of the Cam stall at the Eco-Festival.

The festival celebrates how we can live a more ecologically aware life with stalls and sessions on gardening, natural soaps, bike repairs, willow weaving, pottery, a book swap, fair-trade goods, bee keeping, organic foods and local environmental groups.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Friends of the Cam is working with local visual artist, Linda Mayoux, to develop the use of art in river campaigning, through her current projects on the river and on plants.  Linda is hosting an Open Day of her work on 

Friends of the Cam is a member of the coalition organising The March for Clean Water and will join with other groups from Cambridge and across the country on Sunday November 3rd (note date change). We will be demanding clean, plentiful and healthy water in our rivers and seas for all species, including humans, and to end the profit driven pollution which drives water companies.

⁨⁩On Friday 13 September, Friends of the Cam and XR staged an action against Anglian Water dumping sewage in local rivers, prompting the water company to state they had heard the message “loud and clear”. This was followed on the 14th by an afternoon of outreach and family fun on Jesus Green, demanding that Anglian Water #ActNow to stop polluting our rivers.

Friends of the Cam is one of four groups working on the “Meeting of Rivers” programme. Its inaugural workshop was co-hosted by the Friends of the Cam on the 19th and 20th of September at St Lukes Church, Cambridge. A report was published in the Cambridge Independent here.

The Public Inquiry on the relocation of Milton waste water treatment plant is entering its 3rd phase. Save Honey Hill is exposing the weakness of Anglian Water's case, but needs to raise money to retain their impressive legal representation. If you can, please donate here. 

Friends of the Cam was delighted to host Tony Eva's award winning new film, 'Pure Clean Water', in December. The film demonstrates how the Cam and its tributaries - a rare chalk stream system - have been exploited to the brink of extinction. The film played to a full house of people who are increasingly concerned about the impact of growth on the river system, as well as on green belt land, farming and people's wellbeing in general.

Swedish climate academic Martin Hultman was in Cambridge on Saturday 30th September and Sunday 1st October, during which time we had an informal discussion and a walk along the river Cam. Martin was also interviewed by the Cambridge Independent in a piece: Masculinity 'weaponised' by the far right says Swedish academic ahead of Cambridge talk.

Friends of the Cam campaign for an unpolluted river, against over-abstraction from it, and the unsustainable growth in buildings and infrastructure that impact on both. Designating short stretches of rivers may lead to some very limited local improvement of water quality, at the expense of water quality elsewhere. Friends of the Cam will be opposing the DBA application in the consultation for reasons given below. You can respond to the on-line  consultation here.