As one of Europe’s oldest university cities, Cambridge has a long legacy behind it, and has developed over the centuries in parallel with the sprawling university colleges at its heart. But while the university is usually the centre of attention from a heritage perspective, the wider town is interesting on its own, having grown from a tiny medieval village to a Victorian railway town, to a commuter city swelling with ex-pats from London. Any building work that needs to be carried out in Cambridge has to be done with reference to its impact on the many ancient collegiate buildings in the city, as well as to its conservation areas and the local pastoral landscapes, making it a bit of a minefield to navigate. That’s where Blue Willow Heritage can lend a hand.

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Blue Willow Heritage is a built environment consultancy that has built a strong reputation for quality and expertise, helping to take dozens of projects from difficult positions all the way to successful planning applications. Thanks to our collaborative approach, we work with all stakeholders on a job from the architects and planners through to the local authorities and builders, to make sure everyone can get what they want from a project. Combined with a deep and thorough knowledge of planning and heritage issues, this helps add genuine value to every job to create higher quality buildings.

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We don’t just do the bare minimum, we work with our clients to come up with balanced and creative solutions to the most intractable planning problems in conjunction with local conservation officers, helping to turn even a firm ‘no’ into a ‘yes’. We also work at all stages of the project, from before the land is even purchased or the changes planned to the specification, planning, building and handover stages, offering our advice and expertise to add value throughout.

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In the service of your objectives we can also create a full range of heritage documents to support your case, including Listed Building Consent, Desk Based Assessment, Building Recordings, Character Appraisals and Heritage Impact Assessments. We can even do wider ranging work such as Local Area Character Appraisals and Local Plans, for anything from single parishes up to whole local councils. Whether you’re a homeowner with a single family dwelling, or a developer with a heritage mill renovation project, we have the expertise to shepherd your project through planning.

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We work all over the UK on projects of all kinds, meaning we have a tremendous amount of knowledge about local history and local architectural styles, allowing us to work equally well anywhere: whether you’re in central Cambridge or Newmarket, Haverhill, Saffron Walden, Royston, Biggleswade, St Neots, St Ives or Ely. If you’re planning a new project to make your historic home fit for modern living, or if you’re converting or building totally from scratch, Blue Willow Heritage can help make sure it goes ahead without a hitch. Even if you’ve had planning problems in the past, or don’t seem to be getting anywhere, Blue Willow Heritage can give your project the help it need to succeed.