Village at heart of ITV drama in High Court challenge over greenway

The parish council of a Cambridgeshire village at the heart of an ITV drama has lost a High Court dispute over a greenway through its centre.

Grantchester Parish Council challenged the Greater Cambridge Partnership’s (GCP) 2023 decision to construct the Haslingfield greenway through the village, which gives its name to the ITV drama starring Robson Green, James Norton and Kacey Ainsworth.

The show was adapted from the Grantchester Mysteries novels by James Runcie, with a 10th series having been commissioned since it first aired in 2014.

Barristers for the council told the High Court last month that the greenway, one of 12 aimed at encouraging residents to cycle, walk or ride horses rather than drive in the Cambridge area, would cause harm to the village’s character and appearance, and should instead be placed along an alternative route.

In a ruling on Monday, Mrs Justice Lieven dismissed the challenge.

The judge said that the parish council was “supportive of the greenways proposal in principle but considers the ‘through Grantchester’ route to be unacceptable”.

It argued that a councillor, Bridget Smith, who also sits on the GCP executive board, had given a “binding commitment” in 2022 that the greenway would not run through the village if residents were opposed to it.

The GCP argued that no such commitment was given, with Mrs Justice Lieven finding that Cllr Smith made “no binding promise of the requisite level of clarity and unequivocality”, adding that it would have been “a fairly extraordinary thing to do” had she done so.

Grantchester was also home to poet Rupert Brooke, who died during the First World War.