Have your say on proposals for new town north of Waterbeach

A six-week public consultation on plans for 6,500 homes and facilities at a proposed new town north of Waterbeach has been launched today (Monday 27 February).

The consultation on the outline application has begun after plans for the homes and facilities were submitted by Urban & Civic – the developer of the former Ministry of Defence (MoD) land.

The outline planning application proposes 6,500 homes for the 293 hectare site. It also includes:

up to 16,500 square metres of retail

up to 15,000 square metres for offices, research and development space and light industrial

three primary schools, including pre-school

secondary school

multi-purpose community centres, health care, nurseries, library space, places of worship and museum

hotel

health and fitness areas and gym

Open space – including a skate park, multi-use games area, woodlands, allotments and community orchard

Park and Ride facilities

Drainage works

The planning application covers part of the land that is proposed to be allocated as the site for a new town in the South Cambridgeshire Local Plan. This is currently being examined by the Planning Inspectorate.

Leading councillors have also committed to doing further work with local communities on a supplementary planning document. This will give more detail on how the new town should be planned and delivered and will be used to assess the planning application against. The Council does not expect to make a decision on the planning application until the outcome of the Local plan examination is known and the additional document has been drafted.

Cllr Tim Wotherspoon, South Cambridgeshire District Council’s cabinet member for strategic planning, said: “We support the principle of development of this large area of publicly-owned previously-developed land. A new town north of Waterbeach is included in the Local Plan still going through examination. Opportunities for broadening the range of new housing are welcomed, as well as innovative approaches to construction. The application, however, raises many questions relating to comprehensive delivery of a whole new settlement, in particular integration with the land held by the other promoters. We also need to be clear how transport improvements, especially the A10, will go hand-in-hand with occupation of more houses. These issues are fundamental to understand fully before any decision is made.”

Visit www.scambs.gov.uk/waterbeach to view the planning application and have your say.

The consultation closes at 5pm on Monday 10 April.

Consultation events are also taking place at St John’s Church Hall, Station Road, Waterbeach, CB25 9HL, on:

Saturday 18 March, 10am – 2pm

Thursday 23 March, 3pm – 8pm

Wednesday 29 March, 3pm - 8pm