Draft North East Cambridge Area Action Plan

After studying the North East Cambridge Area Action Plan and attending/ engaging with the webinars, Histon and Impington Parish Council do not support the current NECAAP. Our key reasons for not supporting the action plan are listed below: • You state building on 182 hectares of brownfield land. Releasing some of this land will involve the loss of greenbelt land due to the relocation of the current sewage works. Histon and Impington Parish Council do not support the loss of greenbelt land. • The maximum storeys of the proposed buildings are incompatible with a historic city of the likes of Cambridge. • The majority of residents in tall buildings will rely on good mobility due to the introduction of single person lifts which will also impact deliveries of furniture and white goods. • The noise of high-density dwelling needs government to agree to change building regulations and design criteria. • Deliveries of furniture and white goods to the proposed homes have not been considered. Such deliveries will often require large goods vehicles which will have serious access problems. • The dwellings and jobs are likely to result in the majority of workers commuting in to the area negating the concept of sustainable, walking cycling area • Ideas of daily waste collections at surrounding development have been refused by SCDC in the past. This would make daily collections unlikely hence larger waste storage would be required. • The Milton Road roundabout will be a core transport link and is already at capacity before the A10 upgrade and new Cambridge Police station has been built. • There is a big concern regarding the 40% affordable housing not being enforced. • The whole area with its high density will be unlike other parts of Cambridge, making it difficult to integrate it with the rest of the city. • It is unclear what the green roofs will be used for: sports area, amenity space for flat dwellers, local growing areas to replace allotments. Which one? • Many residents will be afraid of using a dark enclosed tunnel to the nearby Milton Country Park due to heightened risk of perceived crime (for example) meaning a shortage of green space with a safe walking route. • Support from consultees on the principles are essential to ensure these principles are adhered to. • There is only one Nursery school. Young families will be attracted to this area hence this would appear inadequate. • The nearby Cambridge Science Park quote that employers are competing for top talent hence the majority of employees will be commuting in from outside the area hence likely to drive. It is expected new employers will search for the best talent wherever they reside making the walking to work principle unachievable. Added to our concerns above, we are deeply troubled by the overall concept. With the proposed balance of new jobs (20,000) and new dwellings (8,000) and the similar imbalance on the Cambridge North Railway Station development, we estimate, on even the most generous assumptions, on the numbers living in NECAAP and commuting to London, spouses working outside the area and number of economically active persons per dwelling much higher than the national average, that at least 15,000 people will need to travel into the area for work. The strictures on no investment in access road infrastructure and the over optimistic estimates of facility for modal shifts form what will be a considerable catchment area, leading us to the conclusion that this is impractical and unrealistic. We have heard the passionate support of the concepts from the planners involved. Our fear is that this will become the new "Harlow"; planners being praised and lauded for designs on paper but lambasted in future for the designs in concrete. We consider many of the details (e.g. on deliveries to dwellings, use of stairs, assumptions on travel to work modes) all together are a recipe for disaster. Yours faithfully Histon and Impington Parish Council.