Greater Cambridge Local Plan Issues & Options 2020

Incorporating and planning development around sustainable transport links and encouraging walking and cycling, including through ensuring residents can access key services and facilities by walking, cycling or public transport will facilitate a shift away from car use. Only development of the scale of the proposal at Six Mile Bottom will allow for meaningful Masterplanning with a full range of stakeholders and infrastructure provision which will allow for the planned integration of infrastructure with job and homes. Unique to the proposal is that the railway line linking Cambridge with Newmarket runs through the Site. The railway station at Six Mile Bottom closed in 1967 and the nearest station is Dullingham, three miles to the north east. The proposal includes a new station serving the new community at Six Mile Bottom which will provide sustainable east-west rail transport connection reducing car dependency. The proposal would also offer the potential for the extension of a CAM Metro connection. The opportunity for improvements to the railway line to support the Governments endorsed growth in the region is recognised in the Cambridgeshire Corridor Study (Network Rail, Railway investment choices). The proposal will build upon regional rail priorities and objectives. The Six Mile Bottom Estate is near the A11, providing access south towards the M11, Stansted and London, and the A14, providing access north towards Norwich, east towards Ipswich. Development of the scale proposed would enable Junction improvements to connect the A11 and A14 routes more effectively to the Site. While a range of infrastructure proposals relating to rail and road improvements are identified, the opportunity to internalise jobs and homes, and ensuring residents can access key services and facilities by walking, cycling or public transport will facilitate a shift away from car use is central to the proposal at Six Mile Bottom.

New planned settlements are key to meeting the housing need across the planning period and should be encouraged where a sustainable settlement is proposed. This can principally be achieved through locating new development in locations which have good access to sustainable modes of transport. New development should be located to take advantage of existing or planned transport infrastructure and should be designed in a manner which encourages the take up of active modes of travel. After three decades of focusing new development in and around existing settlements, it is now recognised by the Government that a different approach is needed to meet future development requirements. The redevelopment of brownfield land has been hugely successful and, while large areas of brownfield are still available, their distribution across England is uneven. Some large conurbations still have sufficient brownfield land to meet their needs; but areas under particular development pressures and rural areas that had little brownfield land supply to start with, must now look to greenfield sites. The question therefore is what greenfield sites might be most suitable for development. Many existing settlements are not suitable for further extension. Urban extensions upon urban extensions can lead to issues if they are not properly integrated. In particular, the distribution of services can become ad-hoc. In certain areas, therefore, where demand for development space is high and is expected to continue to be high for the foreseeable future, a new settlement might be appropriate. New settlements have the benefit of starting from scratch. They allow the core areas to be suitably sized to meet the future anticipated needs and ensure that transport infrastructure is sufficient. The Government has recognised that new settlements are likely to be an essential tool in meeting future housing and employment needs. To date, the Government has identified 14 locally-led new settlements across the Country. Many others are being pursued through private funding in close collaboration with local authorities. The published Government White Paper ‘Fixing Our Broken Housing Market’ (February 2017) reaffirms the Government’s intention to continue to promote new settlements. Paragraph A.57 of the White Paper seeks to support the delivery of existing and future garden communities and the Government’s commitment to: ● Ensure that decisions on infrastructure investment take better account of the opportunities t0 support new and existing communities; ● Legislate to enable the creation of locally accountable New Town Development Corporations, enabling local areas to use them as the delivery vehicle if they wish to. This can strengthen local representation and accountability, and increase opportunities for communities to benefit from land value capture; and ● Following the previous consultation on changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, amend policy to encourage a more proactive approach by authorities to bringing forward new settlements in their plans, as one means by which housing requirements can be addressed.” For the reasons given in Question 2 and as outlined in the accompanying Concept Vision, a planled new community at Six Mile Bottom will allow East Cambridgeshire and the combined Greater Cambridge Authorities to achieve a sustainable form of development by planning for jobs, homes and supporting infrastructure (transport, utilities, services and facilities) in the right places, alongside protecting and enhancing the environment. The scheme can deliver circa 8,500 new homes, jobs, essential central services such as secondary and primary schools, community hubs and medical facilities as well as local retail space and will provide the important elements to allow a new community to thrive.

No choices made

We consider that no single solution will deliver a sound Local Plan; rather, a combination of approaches to the distribution of spatial growth will be necessary to establish the appropriate locations of new housing and employment development in the district. A hybrid approach will be required but should be underpinned by a focus on accessibility to public transport, employment and other daily needs. The most effective approach to delivering the levels of development required is to ensure a wide variety of sites are allocated both in terms of size and location. This will ensure the consistent delivery across the plan period by not concentrating all development in a specific area or resulting in an over reliance on large strategic sites. The level of development and job creation needed will require the creation of new communities, the most appropriate way of achieving this through a new community at Six Mile Bottom. In terms of plan making, Para. 74 of the NPPF (2019) states “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”.

No choices made

Response to Question 7 The four big themes are all considered to be important aspects to achieving positive development. All four themes should be used to inform the spatial strategy within the Local Plan in terms of distributing growth and determining planning applications to deliver growth. It is therefore not considered necessary, or appropriate, to rank the options in order of preference. the purpose of the planning system is to achieve sustainable development, whereby economic, social and environmental needs are all met.