Draft North East Cambridge Area Action Plan

Agree

Reference to community food growing needed. Greater Cambridge Sustainable Design/Construction Supplementary Planning Doc (2020 sec 4.4) expects food growing provision in all new residential developments. More space for biodiversity.

Mostly yes

This is not my area of expertise, but as a lay person very concerned about the climate emergency. I was pleased to see such attention to creating the conditions for walking, cycling and public transport and creating a neighbourhood where the need for a car is much reduced.

Mostly yes

Food growing on specific community sites (allotments/community garden), private spaces (inc. balconies) + as opportunity for communal plantings (cf SPD section 4.4) need specific mention. Post Covid there's more interest then ever in food growing + eating local (increasing local resilience and health). Need for public drinking fountains.

Neutral

I've put 'neutral' (this is not my area of expertise). As a lay person, it looks reasonable, given the desperate need Cambridge has for more affordable homes, but I am not a supporter of the wider Cambridge growth agenda, both on climate change grounds and because it will have a negative impact on Cambridge as a place to live.

Mostly yes

Policy 14 mentions a community centre and a community room. An adequate communal kitchen should be specified as part of the community centre - new Clay Farm community centre suffers from having no proper kitchen provision, which has caused problems for Covid emergency food provision. Need for public drinking fountains.

Mostly not

Heights and densities of the buildings are too high, compared to other developments, such as Eddington. This will impact on car usage - as the draft plan says, there are already very high levels of congestion on roads in the area and this will increase that congestion, as well as not leaving enough space for encouraging biodiversity.

Neutral

There should be more public space - I would like to see more open space for growing food, recreation and nature areas. It should be made clear in Policy 14 that the community garden should be for food growing. Good to link to Milton Country Park, but this is already overused at weekends, with overfull car park.

Neutral

It is encouraging to see the attention to biodiversity, but it would be good to see more than the minimum 10% net gain mentioned. There should be specific mention of ways of including measures everywhere possible (for example through pollinator-friendly public planting, making the most of even small opportunities.)

Neutral

This is not my area of expertise, but I applaud the emphasis on increasing walking, cycling, use of public transport. However, I am still concerned that a major new development here will increase traffic on the already congested roads nearby. Even the 0.5 parking space per household will mean a large number of extra cars.

Neutral

Good that climate crisis measures feature prominently in plan. Also needs references throughout to Greater Cambridge Sustainable Design and Construction Supplementary Planning Document (January 2020), which has specific guidance. Minimum construction standards for housing should be higher.