New Shire Hall is a municipal building on Emery Crescent,

Alconbury Weald Alconbury Weald is a new settlement in Cambridgeshire, England, lying to the north-west of the town of Huntingdon. The site was previously part of RAF Alconbury, with planning permission for the first phase of the new settlement being granted in ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

, England, built in 20192020. It is the headquarters of

Cambridgeshire County Council Cambridgeshire County Council is the county council of Cambridgeshire, England. The council consists of 61 councillors, representing 59 electoral divisions. The council is based at New Shire Hall at Alconbury Weald, near Huntingdon. It is a mem ...

History

Cambridgeshire County Council was created in 1889 and was previously based at various premises in the

county town In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a county town is the most important town or city in a county. It is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county and the place where the county's members of Parliament are elect ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, notably including

County Hall, Cambridge County Hall is a former municipal building, now used for student accommodation, in Hobson Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. It is a Grade II listed building. History Originally the old shire house on Market Hill had been used as the ...

from 1914 to 1932 and

Shire Hall, Cambridge Shire Hall is a former municipal building in Castle Hill in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. It was the headquarters of Cambridgeshire County Council from 1932 until 2021, when the council moved to New Shire Hall at Alconbury Weald, some 23 m ...

from 1932 to 2021. In December 2017, as part of a cost-saving scheme, the county council announced plans to move to a smaller purpose-built facility at

, a new settlement being developed on the

RAF Alconbury Royal Air Force Alconbury or more simply RAF Alconbury is an active Royal Air Force station near Huntingdon, England. The airfield is in the civil parish of The Stukeleys, close to the villages of Great Stukeley, Little Stukeley, and Alconbury. ...

site in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

The Stukeleys The Stukeleys is a civil parish in the district of Huntingdonshire, in Cambridgeshire, England, consisting of the villages of Great Stukeley and Little Stukeley, and the new settlement of Alconbury Weald being built on the old RAF Alconbury site. ...

, to the north-west of the town of Huntingdon. The site at Alconbury Weald had historically been in the county of

Huntingdonshire Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire and a historic county of England. The district council is based in Huntingdon. Other towns include St Ives, Godmanchester, St Neots and Ramsey. The popul ...

, which had been absorbed into Cambridgeshire in 1974. The county council's proposed move to Alconbury Weald was approved by the full county council in May 2018. The county council decided to name the new building at Alconbury Weald "New Shire Hall". It was built by contractors R. G. Carter to plans by the architectural firm of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, with construction work starting in December 2019. The new building was reported to cost £18.3 million. The final committee meeting to be held at Shire Hall was on 12 March 2020. Meetings were then held online due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

for the rest of 2020 and first part of 2021, during which time the council vacated Shire Hall and moved to New Shire Hall, with the first committee meeting at New Shire Hall being held in September 2021. An official opening ceremony was held on 8 July 2022, and the first meeting of the full county council to be held in the building followed later that month.

References

{{reflist

Government buildings completed in 2020