Friends of the Cam's River Festival in Robert Macfarlane's 'Is A River Alive?'
Robert Macfarlane writes about his experience of Friends of the Cam’s river festival and declaration in his new book ‘Is A River Alive?’
News and Events
Friends of the Cam co-founder stands for Chancellor of Cambridge University
One of the co-founders of Friends of the Cam, and the organiser of our annual Festival, Tony Booth, is standing for Chancellor of Cambridge University. His decision to do so has been prompted by two other candidates: Lord Brown, ex-CEO of BP, one of the most polluting companies on the planet; and Mohammed El-Erian, the President of Queen’s College, which is determined to extend student accommodation at Owlstone Croft, against the decision of the City Council and local residents, and to the detriment of Paradise Nature Reserve.
Rob Larter on The changing West Antarctic Ice Sheet and its implications for East Anglia
We were pleased to host Rob Larter on May 21st 2025, who spoke about how the West Antarctic Ice Sheet change is the largest source of uncertainty in future sea-level rise predictions and how accelerating sea-level rise impacts coastal erosion and the risk of coastal flooding events around East Anglia. A copy of Rob's slides can be found here. He highlighted how a relatively small rise in sea level has a disproportionate effect on the recurrence interval of extreme high wate
Cam River Rights Festival
Save the date: Saturday 21st June. Friends of the Cam will be holding its 5th River Rights Festival at which we will be rededicating the rights of the river. We will have live songs, music, poetry and short talks, and as the Cambridge Folk Festival and Strawberry Fair have both been cancelled this year, this is the summer festival fixture in the city!
Challenging the Cambridge Growth Company
The Federation of Cambridge Residents' Associations (FeCRA) hosted Peter Freeman, Chair of the Government’s new ‘Cambridge Growth Company’, to explain what his vision for the growth of Cambridge means for its infrastructure, water and housing, and this was an opportunity for us to question him directly. Friends of the Cam challenged the appropriateness of growth in our dry, increasingly hot, and water stressed region, which is also threatened by flooding from sea level rise.
Challenging the Growth Machine in Cambridge
The Financial Times' 'long read' ‘Can Cambridge be a model for kick-starting the British economy?' featured Friends of the Cam steering group member Wendy Blythe stressing the problems that the growth proposals will cause for the river and local communties.
Challenging the Fixed Bus Way through Coton Orchard
Friends of the Cam submitted an objection to the plan to build a fixed dedicated bus route from Cambridge (Grange Road) to Cambourne, via Coton, destroying a traditional orchard of national importance in the process. The Department of Transport have now announced a Public Inquiry, and Friends of the Cam have registered as an interested party and will be making our objection. The reasons for this objection are set out below.
March for Clean Water, Sunday 3rd November
Friends of the Cam is a member of the coalition organising The March for Clean Water. We joined other groups from Cambridge and across the country on Sunday November 3rd to demand 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.
Latest action demanding that Anglian Water stops polluting our rivers
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.
A Meeting of 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.