Greater Cambridge Local Plan Issues & Options 2020

Nothing to add.

The College supports the delivery of a high standard of housing and the new Local Plan bringing forward policy and guidance in line with national policy to ensure developments meet energy efficiency, accessibility and adaptability standards, whilst at the same time ensuring this does not overburden the viability of schemes, thus impacting on deliverability.

The College assumes the new Local Plan will be accompanied by a clear Infrastructure Delivery Plan setting its priorities, timescales, costs and responsibilities. The College in its role as landowner and promoter of development, would respond positively to reasonable on and off-site infrastructure requirements related to development and look to include innovative solutions which reduce the need for unnecessary travel, e.g. optimising self-containment within development and enhancing public transport infrastructure. With regard to on-site services and facilities the College, as a long-standing steward of land and property in Cambridge, is a strong believer in ensuring “good development” takes place. The College recognises this means early provision of not only physical infrastructure and utilities, but also social, community, green and blue infrastructure to meet the needs of existing and proposed communities.

New development should ideally be focused around public transport corridors and where development can enhance and benefit from such infrastructure. Development should be designed to maximise the opportunities to use and improve links to public transport and to include walking and cycling routes between housing, jobs, existing centres of attraction and services. Overall, major new developments should look to optimise the level of self-containment on site to reduce unnecessary travel. The College’s “Call for Sites” Duxford submission includes proposals to build on the existing public transport corridor, including links from Whittlesford Parkway, to reduce unnecessary road trips. That said, the College recognises that a substantial number of trips in the short to medium term will still be taken by vehicles using existing highways. The College notes that access studies are underway to assess improvements to congested parts of the road network in the vicinity of its Duxford “Call for Sites” proposal. In this regard, the College will look to play its part, alongside others who are promoting major new developments in and around the area, in facilitating required improvements to highways in relation to its proposal and for the benefits of the wider community.

The College will be guided by the Joint Council’s Infrastructure Plan for the new Local Plan and requirements therein. It will also expect the new Local Plan to be guided by the principles of sustainable development.

Highly flexible

The College considers the degree of flexibility will relate to the nature and circumstances of the individual villages concerned. The College’s Duxford “Call for Sites” proposals are based on a clear vision for the sustainable and strategic expansion of Duxford village. The proposals would provide many new jobs (circa 1800-2400) and new homes (circa 800) in a sustainable mixed-use development and, given the College has long been the single owner of the land concerned, it would be able to ensure high quality and expedient delivery. Figure 25 of the “Issues and Options” shows that Cambridgeshire villages are largely within or adjacent to the Green Belt and therefore often constrained. By contrast, the College’s Duxford proposals occupy an almost unique position. The expanded village area lies outside the Green Belt, alongside a public transport rail corridor, adjacent to the existing Duxford village, with its social and community infrastructure, the world renowned IWM Duxford the other side of the M11 and surrounded by a number of existing employment centres. Duxford village is itself now showing slower population growth and with it, the potential for an eroding service base unless positive action is taken. The College’s proposals to expand the village would therefore not only deliver new jobs and homes, but also safeguard the existing village’s sustainable future with needed additional services and infrastructure. At the same time, it would introduce a major new high-tech aviation related cluster (circa 110,000 sq. m) with synergy to existing local employment, IWM and other aviation related businesses in the Cambridge area. It would create a truly mixed use and substantiable development optimising the level of self-containment as well as achieving many other Local Plan goals such as a net increase in biodiversity through a new Country Park and associated new hedge and tree cover. In this context, the College considers the “Call for Sites” proposals accord fully with NPPF 72 which states that ….”The supply of large numbers of new homes can often be best achieved through planning for larger scale development, such as new settlements or significant extensions to existing villages and towns, provided they are well located and designed, and supported by the necessary infrastructure and facilities. Working with the support of their communities, and with other authorities if appropriate, strategic policy-making authorities should identify suitable locations for such development where this can help to meet identified needs in a sustainable way”. (our bold italics) Lastly, the land has been in ownership of the College for hundreds of years and through its ownership, the College promotes, as well as a history of, good stewardship to ensure the quality and certainty of delivery.

Somewhat flexible

The College’s general response is “Somewhat flexible” depending upon the circumstances of the individual village. However, as set to at Q 40, the College considers there is a unique strategic development opportunity to significantly expand the village at Duxford. Duxford is currently designated a “grouped village” in the Local Plan 2018 (Policy S/10) and thus considered suitable only for limited infill development. Accordingly, to realise this strategic opportunity will require a realignment of Duxford’s place in the settlement hierarchy, recognising its potential for major sustainable mixed-use growth. The historic village given its heritage, conservation status and collection of listed buildings would remain untouched, with new development fronting later 1970/1980 developments.

This would be a sustainable proposition but given the heritage and historic nature of much of the city centre and infrastructure constraints at some of the fringe sites, the College considers that densification alone will be unable to deliver the quantum of development that is needed for new homes and jobs over the plan period.

Our comment is similar to Q43, i.e. potentially sustainable but unlikely to deliver the quantum of opportunities on its own. Should Cambridge Airport relocate and its land be released, this would offer up a significant development opportunity. However, if relocation were to happen, implementation it is likely to take a very long time before new homes and jobs could be delivered on the site. Even if this were to happen at some point, it is the College’s view there would still be a need for substantial other land releases in order to meet the combined authorities’ growing economic and housing needs up to 2040 and beyond. Whilst Duxford is not on the edge of Cambridge city centre ( outside the Green Belt) the proposed Duxford development area sits immediately adjacent to the existing village and is also outside the Green Belt. Therefore, many of the benefits of developing around the edge of Cambridge city centre would similarly apply to the expansion of Duxford village in terms of: • Making best use of and enhancing existing services and infrastructure • Access to public transport • College’s Land immediately available for development without the need for relocations • Existing like-minded businesses and skill bases in the area • Net additionality to biodiversity • Ability to positively impact on climate change mitigation • Ability to deliver a substantial number of new homes, jobs and positive economic impacts for the local and national economies.

See College’s answer to Q 39.