We support the vision statement “for the well known characteristics of the historic core of Cambridge to be complemented by active, compact neighbourhoods – new and old. This means providing opportunities to regenerate areas that aren’t yet reaching their potential, and creating new city neighbourhoods which have the critical mass of homes, jobs and services to create thriving communities, making best use of brownfield and safeguarded land.”

We support the vision that the New Towns agreed in the 2018 plan must develop into great places to live and work. However this vision should also recognise the essential role that cultural and leisure activities play in creating great places (we suggest the inclusion of the word “play”). This will also be essential in order to take pressure off of Cambridge, which will not be able to cope if it is to serve the leisure needs of the additional 73,000 population created by this plan.

We appreciate that this is not a draft plan and we very much hope that the draft plan will set out an inspiring vision for what greater Cambridge will become - and that this vision recognises the importance of landscape, heritage and nature in continuing to ensure that Cambridge is a special place to live, work, study and visit.

We very much welcome and support the efforts to make this a much greener plan than those that have come before it and there is much that is to be commended. However, large scale new development is not yet zero-carbon or genuinely sustainable and therefore the more of it you have the more harm you inflict upon the environment, heritage and local communities – and the greater the challenges and costs of addressing those problems. There seems to us, to be a contradiction between the scale of development proposed and the aspirations for the environment, heritage and local communities.

If the councils are to proceed with such a significant level of development (equivalent to building two Bury St Edmunds in 20 years) it is essential that the policies in the plan are as strong as they can possibly be in order to protect and benefit the environment, heritage and local communities. The draft plan will also need to put in place the mechanisms to ensure that development results in the financial investment that will be needed to protect and benefit the environment, heritage and local communities. We are concerned that currently there are not sufficient mechanisms to achieve this. For example ensuring that all development contributes towards increasing the provision of large-scale green spaces so that the amount of this essential resource keeps pace with population growth. Significant investment is needed in environmental infrastructure such as water supply, sewage treatment and waste treatment.