The Don (Duke of Edinburgh) Hills Road (RGL2024)

The Don, The Duke of Edinburgh, Hills Road, Cambridge

History of the Don statue

This statue was previously further south along Hills Road.

See following:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/mar/27/cambridge-council-orders-removal-statue-prince-philip

https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/6872#google_vignette

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-68674558

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/the-cambridge-statue-wars-blog-post-mary-beard/

2024 30th July

In the morning the statue was seen to have moved about 10 metres away from the corner of the corner of Norwich Street.

On the 8th August there was a site inspection as part of the Plannign Enquiry. The CambridgeLive website wrote this summary of the case up before the inspctor;

The owners of ‘The Cambridge Don’ statue have argued they do not need planning permission for the four-metre tall, three-tonne, cast bronze sculpture. Representatives of Unex Ltd said the statue, which is said to represent Prince Philip in his role as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, was never fixed to the ground and was just an object placed along Hills Road, in Cambridge.

However, Cambridge City Council has insisted that creating a concrete foundation and then erecting the statue on it does count as development. The arguments were made at a public inquiry held this week (August 6), after the statue owners appealed against the enforcement notice issued by the city council ordering for the statue to be removed.

By August 11th ‘The Don’ had returned to his original position on the corner.