Draft North East Cambridge Area Action Plan

In general, we are supportive of a development on this brownfield site rather than seeing green belt countryside used instead. NEC is also a very accessible site, served by rail, guided busway and cross city cycle routes and so providing development in this location makes sense. The key points on which we object to the Draft AAP are: 1. We believe that relying on landowners and developers to deliver the AAP is far too risky. That risk would be minimised if all the land to be redeveloped were transferred to a single owner, a development corporation in which the local authority is a controlling shareholder. The lessons from CB1 must be learnt: agreements struck today with current landowners may be picked apart by future landowners and developers. The environment for residents in Great Northern Rd in particular is far inferior to that envisaged in the masterplan. Masterplans need to evolve to accommodate changing social, technical and environmental needs. But that risks opening up opportunities for developers to renegotiate planning parameters, constraints and obligations to the detriment of net social benefit. 2. The on-site provision of open space, sporting and recreational amenities is wholly inadequate for the number of homes proposed. The proposed ‘outsourcing’ lacks evidence that it is both viable and sufficiently accessible (e.g. the limited capacity of Milton Country Park and no location yet determined for a public swimming pool). 3. The “trip budget” plan for transferring car trips from the Science Park to the new development is hugely ambitious. However, it is not evidenced with an appropriate model, nor a plausible action plan for reducing car parking provision on existing sites. 4. The strategic case for relocating the Water Treatment Plant to free up land for housing must not automatically override the cost-benefit analysis and Environmental Impact Assessment. 5. The additional demand for treated water created by the new homes and offices in NEC must be matched by a funded and contemporaneously scheduled plan to supply that water sustainably.