We remain unconvinced that realistic traffic modelling has been used. Roads of concern - Newmarket Road / Coldhams Lane, main roads into city which already struggle with high volumes and are gridlocked every weekend and rush hour. Coldhams Lane, south of the airport, is a particular concern as parts are very narrow with a small footpath and no cycle path. Marleigh, land north of Cherry Hinton and Marshalls developments will have big impact to these roads and volume of traffic regardless of the optimistic wish to minimise private car use.
There is a huge challenge to get a balance with wildlife / people in the urban environment - new
developments may offer a green space with a park but how many households have gardens? More gardens are better for more wildlife. We understand that grassland has decreased from 30% in 1930s to less than 10% in 2018, this is a massive loss and has a negative impact on the environment and quality of life / mental health benefits. We are concerned about flooding as a result of the loss of soakaway green areas city wide.
On the positive side it is good to see there are proposals making use of a number of "brown field" sites within Cambridge for development (as this could well reduce pressure on rural areas like ours), however we would question the benefits of some of the sites, such as retail parks (for example suggesting developing the Beehive centre and the retail park opposite, where Homebase/Currys/Argos are) and the football ground (which of course has been proposed before), for potential development as they would have a detrimental effect on the local facilities and may well result in more rural development (if the retail outlets look for new sites).
Also, very little regard is given to the traffic issues more housing will produce, it seems to assume that somehow magically people who move into these developments will not have cars and will all walk or use bikes/public transport. There is policy promising there better public transport will be provided but, especially for the Newmarket road/Coldham's Lane sites identified, the roads are already at capacity and things like adding bus lanes will make congestion worse if people do continue to use cars.
There is also a proposal for an industrial development on Land South of Coldham's Lane (effectively expanding the Norman Way industrial estate). Again our worry here would be supporting infrastructure, especially as industry will only make limited use of public transport and instead adds lorries etc. to the roads. Alternatively this could be a new retail park (if areas such as the Beehive are redeveloped) which would again increase not decrease car use in the area.
Finally, the plan mentions the brownfield housing developments will be enforced to "create character", but does not really say how - if building and street designs that have "character" all well and good, but we suspect in practice we would end up with blocks of flats like the ones on Marleigh which do not really match the surrounding area.