Fears rebuilding the Arbury estate could 'separate' families

An £80m plan to demolish and regenerate a city council estate could result in families being "separated", a resident has warned. Cambridge City Council has proposed demolishing the existing homes and the shopping precinct at Arbury Court , replacing them with more than 200 new homes, community facilities and commercial units. Gerri Bird, Labour cabinet member for housing, said the authority would do "its upmost to make sure everything is OK for the resident and shopkeepers". But Saima Din, 54, who has lived and worked in Arbury for 26 years, said: "We have families that have lived here for generations... they are now going to be separated or given the option to move out." The council said the area would be replaced with more than 100 new council homes and 100 new private homes. Din described the area as "a community which works really well together". "I am concerned that young children will be pulled out of schools and moving to new areas where they may not feel like they fit in, and families will struggle with that as well," she added. "We also have got the option for the children to move back which is going to be really difficult... I think there needs to be a lot of support put in place for them. Bird said: "Things change as you know when you do a development, but the tenants that have to move out and go somewhere else, we will do the upmost to make sure they can move around that area, and they get the opportunity to come back. "