Events to help have your say on proposals for new town north of Waterbeach

Three public consultation events will be held over the next two weeks to help local people have their say on plans for 6,500 homes and facilities at a proposed new town north of Waterbeach.

The first of the events will take place tomorrow (Saturday 18 March) between 10am and 2pm at St John’s Church hall, Station Road, Waterbeach.

A six week consultation launched on Monday 27 February to gather views on the outline planning application by Urban & Civic – the developer of the former Ministry of Defence (MoD) land.

Two more events are also being held at St John’s Church Hall on:

• Thursday 23 March, 3pm – 8pm
• Wednesday 29 March, 3pm – 8pm

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.

When the consultation launched, leading councillors 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: “These events are set-up to help people have their say and I would urge anyone interested in the future of the area to try and attend. Our officers will be on hand to answer your questions and help point you in the right direction if you need more information.

“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.”

You can also visit www.scambs.gov.uk/waterbeach to view the planning application and have your say.

The consultation closes at 5pm on Monday 10 April.