Our ‘Toy Town’ village with Harry Potter-inspired streets is being ruined by teen vandals & ‘newcomers’ who don’t fit in

WITH its faux-traditional houses and Harry Potter-inspired street names, it’s no surprise Cambourne in Cambridgeshire earned itself the nickname ‘Toy Town’.

But locals fear the quaint civil parish with 3,400 homes is under threat from swathes of “newcomers” - and “bored” teenagers being lured into vandalism.

Recent high levels of anti-social behaviour have seen it dubbed with the less appealing moniker ‘Crimebourne’.

The development of West Cambourne has greatly added to the parish's size - and gobbled up more and more of the surrounding fields.

The Sun visited on Cambourne’s 25th anniversary, and spoke to resident and local volunteer Anthea Heywood, 80, who lives on the Quidditch Lane cul-de-sac.

There some of the properties have names based on the popular JK Rowling books, including one called The Golden Snitch.

The genteel street, which has fleets of robots to deliver food shopping to residents, sees four-bedroom, detached houses go for more than £500,000 on the rare occasions they come on the market.

But Anthea says she “cannot stand” the way the village is changing, adding she is appalled by endless new developments and the accompanying influx of 'newcomers'.

She tells The Sun: “This was a law-abiding place 10 years ago but all that has changed.

“There is a huge amount of dangerous driving down this road now. People speed all the time, doing 50mph and 60mph.

“We are seeing more vandalism caused by bored teenagers with nothing to do.

"They dump bikes and rubbish all over the nature reserve and you’ll find broken glass on the ground after they’ve had a party.

“We live next to a beautiful country park and I’m forever seeing graffiti and picking up rubbish. 

“I don’t know what the solution is but if they want to build more houses they should do it in the right places – not here.”

'Big city attitude'

Anthea, who grew up in the countryside, adds that the area used to be all farmland and nature, but she fears developers are “destroying it”.

“Soon there won’t be any farmland left and then what are we going to eat?” she says.

“There's more traffic and pollution than ever before and we can spot the newcomers because they have this ‘big city attitude’. 

“They keep their heads down and won’t speak to you. 

“I’m a fresh air person and I cannot stand the way Cambourne is changing.”

Cambourne’s first residents started arriving in 1999, and since then thousands more homes have been built to accommodate people looking to escape the high prices in Cambridge nine miles away.

With no cinema or swimming pool, only one pub on the high street and a single Morrisons, locals have previously admitted it's one of the most boring places in Britain.

I’m a fresh air person and I cannot stand the way Cambourne is changing

Anthea Heywood

Perhaps the lack of things to do explains why Cambourne is famed for its historic birth rate, which with 2.4 births for every 100 women was the highest in the UK and even greater than Brazil’s and India’s.

But even that is changing. Anne Rees, 46, a volunteer at 19 The Coffee House, which runs inside Cambourne Church, says: “The birth rate is steadying. 

“I’m a governor at one of the schools and we are not seeing the levels we used to see.

“I think it’s finances, because it’s more expensive having children, so they are more mindful.”

Anne lives in Upper Cambourne, where the roads - such as Spitfire and Gladiator - are named after old World War II planes.

She tells us: “I moved here from a nice little country village and when I got here I thought, ‘Goodness, all the houses look the same and there’s no character.’

“I can see why they call it Toy Town, but it is what you make it. 

I moved here from a nice little country village and when I got here I thought, ‘Goodness, all the houses look the same and there’s no character.’ I can see why they call it Toy Town

Anne Rees

“Yes, some of the houses aren’t built in the style I would have chosen. There are some in our road with huge windows and just on a practical level, have you been into Dunelm and tried to get curtains that size?

“I think the housing developers didn’t think what it would be like to live in a house like that when you’ve got a small child.

“But it’s modern and that’s what you expect when you come here.

“It’s cheaper than living in Cambridge and it’s a good family environment.

“I don’t know if I’m here for life. Once our son is grown up we might want to go somewhere quieter, but we are happy at the moment.”

'Quirky' homes

Delia Dickinson, 40, wondered what she had gotten herself into when she moved to Cambourne with her partner in 2011, when she was in her late 20s.

But today her main concern is rocketing house prices - along with the lack of amenities.

She tells The Sun: “Properties were more affordable than Cambridge back then. 

“Now Cambourne is considered an extension of Cambridge – it will be in a few years at least – so prices are going up.

“I think you’ll still get an extra room here compared to Cambridge, but price-wise it’s similar. 

“We found it very boring prior to having children. But then, when we had our first born, we realised how amazing it is. 

We found it very boring prior to having children. But then, when we had our first born, we realised how amazing it is

Delia Dickinson

“It has beautiful facilities and most groups are within walking distance.

“I like the style of the houses – they are nice and quirky and interesting. But we don’t have a high street here and that’s what is missing.

“We would like a swimming pool and some shops but there is nothing except Morrisons, which ticks most of the boxes, but you want more than one option.”

Kara Chapman, 35, is a supervisor at the Monkfield Arms, the only pub in town, and echoes Delia’s sentiments.

She says: "We have the little robots that deliver people's shopping and I think that's the only unusual thing about living here.

“I can see why they call it Toy Town in terms of, you blink and a new housing estate has popped up.

“In terms of aesthetics, Cambourne is a lot nicer than Cambridge and it’s more family-orientated.

“In terms of socialising, the pub is the main place, aside from the pavilion, but there’s not a great deal to do.

“I go to Cambridge for a night out because there aren’t many options here. If people don’t drive, they can get stuck when the bus terminates at night."

Retired supermarket operations manager Martin Bell moved to Cambourne from Norfolk in 2010 when a four-bedroom property became available on Quidditch Lane.

I go to Cambridge for a night out because there aren’t many options here. If people don’t drive, they can get stuck when the bus terminates at night

Kara Chapman

Martin, 62, says: “My wife put an offer in on our home before I’d even had the chance to view it.

“It can be funny living on an unusual road like this. We had a Potter family living down the street until they moved out a month ago. 

“People make comments like, ‘That’s a nice name. Are you a fan?’

“But there’s a nice sense of community here and it’s fairly safe, too. 

“It’s not Toy Town, it’s a proper place to live.”

A representative for Cambourne Town Council tells The Sun: "Crimeboure was a title unfairly given a number of years ago and bears no relationship to the community spirit in Cambourne.

"There is no greater anti-social behaviour problem than any other comparable size developments, and in fact considerably lower than many because of all the positive community initiatives driven by the great community spirit of Cambourne's residents.

"Cambourne's development was approved by the planning department of SCDC in 1996 and was later in 2017 expanded to provide additional housing (West Cambourne) but confined to an adjacent finite land parcel.

"The build out has been steady with a number of community and sports facilities being provided. Further facilities will be supplied as part of the s106 for West Cambourne. The Town Council with the County Council has recently implemented a town-wide 20mph speed limit.

"We have taken positive steps to reduce our carbon footprint by installing photo voltaic panels on 12 buildings, wind turbine, heat source pups for two buildings, converting the councils building and sports facilities to LED lights, purchased electric vehicles for the grounds team, community recycling days, repair café and many more measures to reduce the effect on the environment.

"Our high street development has suffered the financial landscape vicissitudes common nationwide but is now on course to bring greater shopping opportunities to Cambourne."