Plans for hotel alongside Cambridge North Station approved

Proposals for a hotel, to continue the regeneration of the area around the new Cambridge North Station, have been approved.

Councillors on the Joint Development Control Committee, made up of representatives from South Cambridgeshire, Cambridge City and Cambridgeshire County Councils, approved the plans at a meeting today (Wednesday 15 November).

The four-star hotel will include 217 bedrooms, a lobby bar and restaurant, gym, swimming pool and conference centre. There will be space allocated on the ground floor for shops. A 20-space car park is included in the plans, along with 108 nearby cycle parking spaces. There will be two wings to the hotel; a five-storey southern wing and seven-storey northern wing.

As well as being alongside a main-line railway station, the new hotel will benefit from an immediate link to the Guided Busway, bus stops and cycle routes connecting to other parts of South Cambridgeshire and beyond.

Plans for a neighbouring seven-storey office block were also discussed by the Committee. However, this application was refused because of concerns members had about the planned cycle routes next to the building.

Cllr David Bard, Chair of the Joint Development Control Committee and South Cambridgeshire District Councillor, said: “A new hotel plus the accompanying shops, restaurants and cafes it’ll bring, will continue to breathe new life into the area around Cambridge North Station.

“We know there have been calls for more services around the station since it opened, and this means we’re now a big step towards them being built and opened.

“Visitors to the hotel will benefit from great public transport links; they will be right at the end of the Guided Busway, close to several regular bus stops and of course right next door to a train station.

“Officers have worked really hard, along with developers Brookgate, to make the area around the station the best that it can be for all of the people who will use it, including pedestrians and cyclists coming to and from the area or just passing through.

“With that in mind, we are happy to continue working with them to assist in altering the plans for the office block, which in the Committee’s view are not quite right at the moment.”