Greater Cambridge Local Plan Issues & Options 2020

links to railway stations, cycle storage, upgrades to railway stations, new railway stations must be included in all planning proposals and must legally be implemented before the new development is built. All development should take place where there is already good public transport seven days a week to jobs and recreation, so no need for car dependency.

All new or expanded developments must take place only where it can be served by existing and proposed railway lines, existing or proposed stations, or light rail lines.

Public Transport Corridors, Densification of existing urban areas, Edge of Cambridge: Outside Green Belt, Dispersal: New Settlements, Dispersal: Villages, Edge of Cambridge: Green Belt

No answer given

Railfuture response to consultation the themes of: • Climate change: the railway is most sustainable way of moving larger numbers of people safely and at speed. Its co2 emissions are low compared to all other modes as are particulate emissions. All new and existing development should be linked to existing and new railway stations development by a network of well designed footways and cycleways. The new document must recognise the importance of railway travel and actively plan the urban landscape to accommodate the tracks and stations. (Residents moving to the railway edge must be be informed that the railway has permitted development rights and movement is 24hour. The greater good is that the railway is the by far the most sustainable mode and will help bring CO2 emission down to zero.) Delivery of goods within the urban realm must be sustainable and through the development of consolidation centres which must be developed at railfreight centres. • Biodiversity and green spaces: railway corridors have to be carefully managed for safety reasons but they do provide wildlife corridors and green spaces that relatively are free from human acitivity enabling the wild and natural freedom to develop and thrive. • Wellbeing and social inclusion: active travel, walking and cycling, to the nearest railway station or bus stop to access the railway station, will promote better health outcomes. A majority of citizens are currently denied many job opportunities as well as access to green spaces whether country parks, National Trust properties such as Wicken Fen, Wimpole Hall, owing to no access to to personal transport. Development of well planned access routes to the railway station will enable much greater social inclusion. • Great places: great places can only developed if freed from having to cope with majority car and other road vehicle movements. The urban realm can only be improved by pedestrian priorities linked to sustainable rail journeys. Options for where we believe this growth might go are: • densification of existing urban areas: this should pursued in a managed way enabling the provision of quality public transport to be up increasingly sustainable. New development especially research facilities should centre around railway stations and associated bus facilities. • edge of Cambridge: outside Green Belt: some new development will be required outside the greenbelt but only if connected to quality footways, cycleways to the a railway station / railway line existing or planned such as the new Cambridge to Bedford railway. This provision must be planned in from ‘day 1’. • dispersal: new settlements: some settlements need development to sustain their function. But all development must be an existing or planned railway station. • public transport corridors (expanding or intensifying existing settlements, or with new settlements) • It is vital that future developments should be public transport friendly, and in particular rail friendly so we should strongly support the idea of settlements along rail public transport corridors, but densification of existing urban areas also plays well towards public transport. • To support this in conjunction with rail supported by other forms of public transport, cycling and walking. We strongly recommend the development of the bike+train concept in conjunction with segregated foot and cycle ways.

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