South Cambridgeshire District Council yesterday announced plans for more new homes in villages. This comes two weeks after its announcement that it is to build new settlements at Bourn Airfield, Waterbeach and West Cambourne.
According to the news release, supporting new jobs and sustaining quality of life in villages are at the centre of the latest development proposals announced by South Cambridgeshire District Council.
New business premises and homes are proposed on eight sites in six of the district’s larger villages, including a parish council proposal to create employment opportunities and build homes at a vibrant ‘gateway’ into Histon and Impington. The plans are in addition to larger development proposals revealed last month which include a new town at Waterbeach, a new village at Bourn airfield and development around the new secondary school at Cambourne.
Today’s proposals recommend a range of business premises and 880 new homes be built over the next 20 years in:
- Histon and Impington: business premises and 20 homes at the brown field busway stop and 25 homes in Impington Lane
- Willingham: 50 homes on land east of Rockmill End
- Melbourn : 65 homes on land to rear of Victoria Way and land south of Whitton Close
- Gamlingay: jobs and 90 homes on a brown field site at Green End Industrial Estate
- Comberton: 90 homes opposite Comberton Village College which will deliver local benefits of a much needed football pitch for Toft village and a car park for Comberton Village College
- Sawston: 540 homes in total – 200 homes by redeveloping part of the Dales Manor Business Park, 80 homes between Dales Manor Business Park and Babraham Road, and 260 homes south of Babraham Road to the east of the village.
Forty per cent of the new homes would be affordable homes provided by housing associations and available to people living in South Cambridgeshire.
Hundreds of potential sites were assessed by the Council, with 60 selected for extensive public consultation last year. These final eight sites are considered the most suitable to provide well‑connected jobs and much-needed housing to support the local economy, using brown field sites where possible, in villages best able to support new employment and homes.
Over 200 sites have also been put forward by Parish Councils as ‘local green space’, which would give areas like playing fields and village greens that are important to local communities a status similar to green belt land.
Most of the proposals put forward for development on green belt land have been ruled out, including a possible new stadium for Cambridge City Football Club at Sawston and parish council proposals at Cottenham, Little Gransden, Toft and Whaddon where the consultation raised a significantly higher proportion of objections and did not provide sufficient evidence of local support.
The eight village sites and local green space sites are in addition to previous announcements of the proposed large developments at Waterbeach, Bourn Airfield and Cambourne. All of the proposals will be discussed at the Council’s Planning Policy and Localism portfolio holder’s meeting on Tuesday 11 June, before being debated at the Council’s Cabinet meeting on 27 June.
The entire draft Local Plan is due to go to a final public consultation between Friday 19 July and Monday 30 September, alongside Cambridgeshire County Council’s plans for transport in and around the district to ensure development is linked up with a well-planned transport strategy, including walking, cycling and public transport options.
Cllr Pippa Corney, South Cambridgeshire District Council’s cabinet member for planning policy and localism, said: “We’ve listened to our residents throughout extensive consultation on the draft plan and are pleased that Parish Council development ideas are also part of these final proposals. Reflecting local feeling, the majority of new development will be based around Cambridge and in new towns or villages with only a small percentage in existing communities, creating employment opportunities and much needed new homes. South Cambridgeshire is consistently voted as one of the top places to live and work in the country due our high employment rates, good education and rural lifestyle which this plan will enhance and protect.”