I/FD: Freight and delivery consolidation

Support local transport hubs to ensure smaller vehicles undertake local deliveries. Particularly important in villages which have many heritage assets, conservation areas and narrow streets.

USS supports the ambitions of proposed policy I/FD to support development / enhancement and safeguarding of local delivery hubs. USS requests that the role of larger logistics / warehousing facilities as well as last mile hubs is recognised and supported in the Local Plan.

The policy proposes that support is given to the “development / enhancement and safeguarding of local delivery hubs that help consolidate deliveries into Cambridge and reduce vehicle traffic, where they accord with other policies in the plan, provided they do not cause unacceptable impacts on Greater Cambridge’s strategic road networks”.

Huntingdonshire District Council think that consideration should be given to how unacceptable impacts to the strategic networks are to be assessed to ensure a clear approach for developers. Further detail would be useful for surrounding districts in order to assess the knock-on impacts of such developments, especially in terms of congestion and carbon emissions.

Cambridgeshire County Council as landowner is seeking to promote land adjacent to Buckingway Business Park (reference 40191) for a new Highways Depot for the County Council. This would involve the relocation of this use from their existing premises on Station Road, Whittlesford, thus freeing up that land for development as part of the Opportunity Area (GCLP policy reference S/SCP/WHD).

The existing depot at Whittlesford Parkway is too small for operational purposes. Its location off the A505 impacts its accessibility at peak times, which in turn impacts the County’s ability to efficiently treat the road network. It is also an unneighbourly use in close proximity to residential and leisure uses as it requires 24hr access. Noise, odour, dust and lighting can all have adverse impacts on neighbouring amenities. Further, the existing buildings are no longer fit for purpose and require significant investment for continued use.

For these reasons the County as landowner and as highways authority would support the relocation of their highways depot to the land north of the A1307 at Buckingway Business Park. The 7.54ha site is located immediately north of the de-trunked A1307. It is currently accessed via Anderson Road which runs through Buckingway Business Park and CCC's site identified for proposed employment allocation (reference S/RRA/BBP). It has the potential for direct access to the A1307 and A14.

This allows co-location of compatible uses away from sensitive neighbours. The site has much better access to the strategic road network and is central within the County, minimising lengths of journeys that highways vehicles need to take. Please see letter of support from the Director of Highways, Cambridgeshire County Council.

Requested Change
It is requested that the development strategy for freight and delivery consolidation includes an additional allocation at Buckingway Business Park, as promoted by Cambridgeshire County Council, with the following policy requirements:
• Site Area of 7.54 Ha
• Provision of highways depot and associated facilities
• Access from Anderson Road and A1307

We support this policy.

We support the proposed policy

Need to talk to industry about their ideas. My brother works in this area and he has far more creative solutions but they need to be supported at planning stage. Eg. in blocks of flats if you're offering a last mile ebike/scooter option can you either park your scooter loaded up with stock securely in the flats or take it in the lift? This level of detail must be in the plan. Please talk to industry, I know that the officers writing the NE Cambridge travel statement had not spoken to industry about this at that stage.

I would support the idea of a local delivery hub, or edge of city collection point if it can be shown to be commercially viable for delivery companies to consolidate services at these hubs.

We welcome restricted deliveries in urban centres to low-traffic times, and using innovative measures such as using cargo cycles for local deliveries and the provision of cycling logistics depots. These should be the common feature across Greater Cambridge existing areas as well, not only in the new developments.

The success of this policy depends critically on having land available in the right locations to create a functional and hierarchy of break-out/consolidation centres around the region.
– The site should be able to operate around the clock without causing undue disturbance to any nearby residents.
– Site locations should support the most efficient movement of freight, minimising vehicle-mileage associated with moving freight, especially in HGVs and MGVs.
– Access roads need to be appropriate for the number, size and weight of vehicles entering and leaving the site.
– Non-motorised user routes connected to the site must be sufficiently wide and safe for cargo bikes to use.
Sites meeting the above criteria should be identified in the Local Plan for:
– Major hubs on the strategic road network.
– Hubs for processing rail-born freight.
– Smaller hubs to serve all parts of Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire villages.
Land within the Girton Interchange could be a prime location for the principal road-freight hub for Cambridge. It would require additional slip ramps to be built to enable direct access from the A14 east, A428 and M11.

COMMENT

Policy I/FD seeks to support the development of local delivery hubs. However, as set out in the representations to Policy J/NE: New Employment Development, the identified need for strategic logistics floorspace of Greater Cambridge will not actually be met. As such, while local delivery hubs may help to divert delivery related traffic from Central Cambridge, it does not seek to address longer journeys by delivery vehicles from logistics hubs located elsewhere because units are not provided in Greater Cambridge through emerging GCLP. In effect Greater Cambridge is relying on other parts of the region to provide industrial and logistics premises, and Policy I/FD is only addressing the ‘last mile’ part of the delivery chain. It is for this reason that Endurance Estates has requested a specific strategic employment allocation at land at Caxton Gibbet for Class B2 and Class B8 uses.

No changes are requested.

Local delivery hubs encouraging last-mile by electric vehicle of cycle is very good.

We support the need to reduce the number of road freight and servicing vehicles, but would like to see strong wording concerning the need to move to a system of rail freight and other sustainable delivery mechanisms. We support the policy proposal concerning local travel hubs, and urge the Planning Authority to take note of the specification for Travel Hubs set out by Smarter Cambridge Transport [1].
A further ‘Green Line’ should be established such that existing levels of road freight transport will not increase as a result of developments and that, just as in the case of human transport, planning will be made to account for end-to-end journeys and to provide infrastructure broad enough to lower net carbon emissions. This would include for example enabling neighbouring villages or other settlements to have convenient access to freight travel hubs, while avoiding consequential environmental degradation.
[1] https://www.smartertransport.uk/travel-hubs/