North East Cambridge and Cambridge Airport are two major brownfield sites that are proposed for new low-carbon neighbourhoods in the First Proposals for the new Greater Cambridge Local Plan. The current adopted local plans for South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge City identifies both sites for longer term development beyond 2031.
Historical Context for North East Cambridge
The Cambridge Northern Fringe East and Cambridge North Railway station is one of the sites on the “Edge of Cambridge”. This area is now known as North East Cambridge.
Majority of the site is within Cambridge City and the rest in South Cambridgeshire District. Policy SS/4 of the South Cambridgeshire Local Plan 2018 confirms the Area Action Plan created jointly by both Councils remains part of the local plan. The Cambridge City local plan 2018 also contains a similar policy.
The development depends on the rebuild or relocation of the Waste Water Recycling Centre (WWRC). Details of this allocation are in pages 57 to 59 in Chapter 3 of the South Cambridegshire Local Plan. To save time, see below for further snapshots of part of the policy content
Current Context for North East Cambridge (NEC)
The First Proposals now identifies North East Cambridge in the proposed new Local Plan. This follows the successful HIF Bid by Anglian Water and Cambridge City for £200m to move the WWRC to another location.
Policy S/NEC: North East Cambridge that refers to this site is on pages 54 to 57 of the First Proposals Committee Stage document. I direct the reader to page 56 which I reproduce here to help save time.
This is a good opportunity to build an exemplar low carbon living community within a Brownfield site within a short distance of Cambridge City. The 2018 Local Plans identified 8350 homes and 15000 new jobs for this site. This Local plan is proposing around 4000 of those to be built during the plan period to 2041 and the rest beyond that.
Conclusion
This site is on the Edge of Cambridge and is on the safeguarding list from the current adopted Local Plans of 2018. The site fits in well with the strategy to reduce carbon footprint of future developments in the Greater Cambridge Area.
All the documents for the First Proposal are in the document library on the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning website. Please refer to them as the source, rather than rely totally on commentary from third parties.