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Teacher who could lose home on river buoyed by petition




The Lad family on the boat on Water Lane, Cambridge . Picture: Keith Heppell
The Lad family on the boat on Water Lane, Cambridge . Picture: Keith Heppell

A petition to help secure a mooring spot on the River Cam for a Cambridge teacher and her family has gathered more than 1,100 signatures in less than two weeks.

Eleanor Lad – whose pupils know her as Miss Lad – has lived with her husband and four children on the Cam for three-and-a-half years. They are into their fourth year on Cambridge City Council’s waiting list, but are yet to be offered a space.

All the family live, work and go to school in Cambridge. The private land on which they currently moor is under new ownership. As a result, they face having to leave but have nowhere in the city to go.

Hundreds of Miss Lad’s former pupils from Castle School and Cambridge Regional College – as well as her current students at Parkside and Coleridge community colleges, where she teaches nutrition – have taken to the internet to sign a petition in a bid to secure her and her family a place on the river.

“I’m still in shock,” Eleanor said. “The thing that’s most overwhelming is that I thought we’d get maybe 30 signatures, but my daughters shared the petition on social media and before we knew it it went viral.”

A message left by one of the signatories says Miss Lad is ‘one of the kindest and most caring teachers I’ve ever met’.

Eleanor said: “That support has really buoyed me, personally, and made me feel like actually we’ve got a lot of support out there.

“The local residents in the houses where we are seem to be really supportive.”

The family have been moored next to houses being built off Fen Road, by agreement with the developer. Now, the property they moor on has been sold, and Eleanor said they do not want to outstay their welcome.

She said: “I thought four years would be long enough.

“I wrote to the council to say who we are, that this is our family, we’re willing to pay whatever it takes for a mooring licence.

“We’ve never moored illegally, and the developers have been wonderful.

“The agreement was that we keep an eye on the properties at night, because there have been a few break-ins around Fen Road. But residents have said that since we’ve been here there haven’t been any.”

The city council is reviewing its mooring policy through a public consultation that ends on Friday, January 20. It is reassessing the mooring licence fee to be based on boat length, and is considering relocating around 20 boats moored along Riverside in response to concerns about safety.

The consultation also covers the location, type and number of mooring berths, provision for visitor moorings and ways of managing mooring waiting lists.

Residents can have their say at cambridge.gov.uk/consultations.



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