Greater Cambridge Local Plan Preferred Options

Marshall is supportive of the net zero requirement of the Local Plan, which is in line with the ambitions at Cambridge East. The aspirations look to achieve net zero operational carbon and embodied carbon. Any remaining carbon will be offset at a site, local, and regional scale. Marshall’s ambition would be to ensure that any offsetting would be undertaken locally where possible.

Marshall also welcome the prospect of developing a more detailed approach to the use of materials with low embodied carbon, and to the achievement of a circular economy. Whilst carbon reduction is an intrinsic aspect of the Cambridge East ambition, as a team we welcome more specific emerging policies so that we can work with the authorities to test our vision.

In line with the Local Plan, Marshall recognises the complexities of water scarcity and welcome the weight placed on addressing this critical issue. Whilst the Local Plan must promote development, this needs to be sustainable and attainable. As the Local Plan evidence base suggests, this means focusing development in urban areas and developing policies for water efficiency, along with local strategies for delivery.

Water efficiency, rainwater harvesting, and greywater harvesting will be intrinsic to the emerging water management strategy at Cambridge East from the outset.

Marshall does, however, recognise that additional strategic water strategies will be required to facilitate the wider Local Plan, with potential solutions such as new reservoirs being considered. Cambridge East is keen to liaise with WRE and stakeholders in order to formulate a solution which gives certainty to communities.

Cambridge East is being designed to mitigate and respond to climate change, and as a result we welcome the proposed Local Plan policies. Buildings will be designed to reduce overheating given their proposed orientation, ventilation, and through the appropriate design of streets and green infrastructure. Site wide approaches will also be adopted, including SuDS and urban greening. Cambridge East will be fully compliant with the policies proposed.

Marshall agrees with this policy and is fully supportive. Cambridge East lies within Flood Zone 1 and is therefore at a low risk of fluvial flooding. The potential for all flood sources, including pluvial (overland surface water runoff), will be fed through design development, ensuring that flood risk is not increased elsewhere and that the development itself remains safe. This will be an integral part of the green infrastructure strategy, with ‘blue corridors’ maintained for preferential exceedance flow routes. This will ensure natural flood management is provided, in line with the principles of the Local Plan. This will ensure that the development is future proofed, and that water management is integrated within the emerging vision.

Cambridge East’s vision is for an exemplary water management strategy, ensuring that surfaces remain permeable where feasible, and that runoff rates are not increased above those existing. This is in line with the Local Plan proposals. Rainwater harvesting is top of the drainage hierarchy and is being explored in detail at Cambridge East, with potential discharge into and extraction from the aquifer using innovative techniques to maximise wider benefits, including for biodiversity. Further discussions will be held with WRE, the EA, and Anglian Water. Marshall also agrees that the future of SuDS within developments needs to be defined, and in line with the Local Plan proposals we will put in place robust management and maintenance plans to ensure that the highly sustainable water management strategy functions as intended for the lifetime of the development.

Marshall supports this policy, with regards to reducing carbon and increasing reliance on renewables. The emphasis will be to support the design of development that is very energy efficient. The potential for the use of on-site and local off-site renewables is also to be investigated as the vision develops and Marshall is currently seeking support to help develop an energy strategy focussed on renewables for Cambridge East.

Marshall also appreciates, however, that there is significant movement towards greening of the centralised national grid. Marshall considers it may be more efficient in the future to utilise green energy from the grid rather than to produce it locally and therefore believes policy should be flexible enough to support that if necessary.

Marshall is supportive and agree that a holistic approach should be taken to reducing waste and supporting the circular economy.

Marshall is supportive of a policy that seeks to ensure that carbon offsets required in order to achieve net zero, are directed locally and should also seek to support other eco-system functions too.

Marshall understands that offsetting embodied carbon from construction of Cambridge East could facilitate the creation of significant areas of new habitat locally, for example large scale woodland planting, or the enhancement of existing habitats such fenland and soils. This could create multiple benefits such as enhanced biodiversity resources and new areas for recreation.

However, in order to allow this to occur, Marshall understand that a planning mechanism will likely need to be developed so that land that could support such opportunity has been identified and made available without land ownership and other potential constraints. There will also need to be consideration paid to how a local carbon offset scheme is accredited. Marshall would be delighted to work with GCSP on scoping out such a scheme.

Marshall does, however, query recent consultation from GCSP which states that offsetting through afforestation should exclude existing farmland. In order to achieve carbon offsetting through local sequestration large areas of land will be needed and so ruling out farmland may be premature. Confirmation of this is therefore sought, in particular as to whether this includes all farmland, or farmland which is of a certain quality or currently operational.

Marshall is thoroughly supportive of a Local Plan that seeks to ensure an enhanced biodiversity resource, with new and better green spaces, within the city of Cambridge and its surrounds. Marshall appreciates that cities that can provide access to a range of green spaces including those that support high levels of biodiversity are better for the people that live there and the environment more generally. The ambitions of Cambridge East align with that of the Authorities as has been set out in the Local Plan evidence submitted by Marshall. Cambridge East can help the GCSP achieve their Local Plan proposals by providing significant green infrastructure to, amongst other things, help provide an enhanced biodiversity resource, a natural water management solution and formal and informal areas for recreation.

Marshall acknowledges the GCSP’s emerging target to achieve Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) of at least 20%. This is a challenging target but Marshall appreciates the ambition given the global biodiversity crisis and that locally there is seen to be a significant opportunity to ‘double nature’. However, it is appreciated that it comes not without its challenges, as achieving BNG of this level on a site where development is proposed, is likely in many cases to prove to be very difficult given other land-use constraints. Marshall’s view is that, as a result, there will be a need for GCSP to have clearly identified appropriate planning mechanisms for achieving off-site BNG provision likely through the ability to buy off-sets. This should be achieved in areas identified as having strategic biodiversity potential, for example the Local Nature Networks or areas identified as priorities in the Greater Cambridge Green Infrastructure Strategy. This will allow off-site BNG to be targeted in the areas where it will provide most potential value, and balanced against other needs for open and green spaces, including for recreation and wellbeing of existing and future residents.

Marshall would like to, as a part of the evolving Local Plan process, work with the GCSP to help develop these mechanisms. For Cambridge East, Marshall commits to seeking to achieve Biodiversity Net Gain of 20% or more. The ambition will be to achieve as much of this as is possible through on-site BNG provision and via a significant Green Infrastructure Strategy that will include a major green corridor that will run from west to east through the development. In addition, green infrastructure of value for biodiversity will penetrate the built environment too, creating a series of green networks that will allow wildlife to occupy the urban areas of Cambridge as well as the large areas of greenspace.

If development is confined to the airfield, Marshall will seek to achieve BNG of 20% or more within the area of the airfield itself albeit the initial view is that even with large scale green infrastructure provision there is likely to be a need for some off-site provision. For this Marshall would seek to engage with the GCSP to utilise any BNG off-set mechanism that has been developed (and as stated previously Marshall would like to engage with GCSP as soon as is possible to help support the development of such a scheme).

If the extent of the development area was to be extended to cover land to the east of Airport Way, Marshall would propose to continue the green corridor through the development. This would have the benefit of creating an accessible green link that extends from the centre of Cambridge to the countryside that lies to the east. In fact, and as shown in the Cambridge East submission Marshall made in December 2020 to support the evidence base for the Local Plan, if access could be achieved across only a small area of land just to the south and north of the A14, this connection could extend all the way into the area of the Wicken Fen Vision, creating a hugely significant new green network and active travel route. This could potentially link to green infrastructure being proposed as part of Anglian Water’s DCO for the Cambridge Waste Water Treatment Works.

Development in this area would also support the potential re-wetting of Teversham Fen which occurs in land east of Airport Way. This would have a multitude of benefits for wildlife including through the reinstatement of an important biodiversity habitat in its right, and by potentially taking visitor pressure from nearby and more sensitive fenland. Although Marshall has not yet investigated the feasibility of this in detail, it is thought most likely achievable if development was to occur to the east of Airport Way so that surface water run off could be utilised.

In summary, Marshall therefore support the ambition of BNG of 20% or more and will be seeking to achieve this at Cambridge East. The focus will be on provision on-site, but we acknowledge that it is likely that off-site provision will also be required. To achieve this Marshall would like to engage with GCSP at the earliest possible point. In addition Marshall feel that the greatest BNG opportunity would come with extending development and BNG provision to land east of Airport Way, thereby allowing a more extensive Green Infrastructure network to be created.

Marshall acknowledges the GCSP’s emerging target to achieve Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) of at least 20%. This is a challenging target but Marshall appreciates the ambition given the global biodiversity crisis and that locally there is seen to be a significant opportunity to ‘double nature’. However, it is appreciated that it comes not without its challenges, as achieving BNG of this level on a site where development is proposed, is likely in many cases to prove to be very difficult given other land-use constraints. Marshall’s view is that, as a result, there will be a need for GCSP to have clearly identified appropriate planning mechanisms for achieving off-site BNG provision likely through the ability to buy off-sets. This should be achieved in areas identified as having strategic biodiversity potential, for example the Local Nature Networks or areas identified as priorities in the Greater Cambridge Green Infrastructure Strategy. This will allow off-site BNG to be targeted in the areas where it will provide most potential value, and balanced against other needs for open and green spaces, including for recreation and wellbeing of existing and future residents.

Marshall would like to, as a part of the evolving Local Plan process, work with the GCSP to help develop these mechanisms. For Cambridge East, Marshall commits to seeking to achieve Biodiversity Net Gain of 20% or more. The ambition will be to achieve as much of this as is possible through on-site BNG provision and via a significant Green Infrastructure Strategy that will include a major green corridor that will run from west to east through the development. In addition, green infrastructure of value for biodiversity will penetrate the built environment too, creating a series of green networks that will allow wildlife to occupy the urban areas of Cambridge as well as the large areas of greenspace.

If development is confined to the airfield, Marshall will seek to achieve BNG of 20% or more within the area of the airfield itself albeit the initial view is that even with large scale green infrastructure provision there is likely to be a need for some off-site provision. For this Marshall would seek to engage with the GCSP to utilise any BNG off-set mechanism that has been developed (and as stated previously Marshall would like to engage with GCSP as soon as is possible to help support the development of such a scheme).

If the extent of the development area was to be extended to cover land to the east of Airport Way, Marshall would propose to continue the green corridor through the development. This would have the benefit of creating an accessible green link that extends from the centre of Cambridge to the countryside that lies to the east. In fact, and as shown in the Cambridge East submission Marshall made in December 2020 to support the evidence base for the Local Plan, if access could be achieved across only a small area of land just to the south and north of the A14, this connection could extend all the way into the area of the Wicken Fen Vision, creating a hugely significant new green network and active travel route. This could potentially link to green infrastructure being proposed as part of Anglian Water’s DCO for the Cambridge Waste Water Treatment Works.

Development in this area would also support the potential re-wetting of Teversham Fen which occurs in land east of Airport Way. This would have a multitude of benefits for wildlife including through the reinstatement of an important biodiversity habitat in its right, and by potentially taking visitor pressure from nearby and more sensitive fenland. Although Marshall has not yet investigated the feasibility of this in detail, it is thought most likely achievable if development was to occur to the east of Airport Way so that surface water run off could be utilised.

In summary, Marshall therefore support the ambition of BNG of 20% or more and will be seeking to achieve this at Cambridge East. The focus will be on provision on-site, but we acknowledge that it is likely that off-site provision will also be required. To achieve this Marshall would like to engage with GCSP at the earliest possible point. In addition Marshall feel that the greatest BNG opportunity would come with extending development and BNG provision to land east of Airport Way, thereby allowing a more extensive Green Infrastructure network to be created.