Up to 18,000 People in a New Community at the End of Milton Road, on Our Doorstep?
Posted on Monday 11 March 2019
There is a plan to relocate the sewage works at Milton and redevelop the whole area south of the A14.This had been called the Northern Fringe Project but it is now the North East Cambridge Area Action Plan. The idea is to have a dense urban development. This would use a new approach to have residences, workplaces and facilities mixed at a small scale of granularity all within walking/cycling distance. The authorities have produced an 8-page summary to explain the development which can be viewed here:
https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/media/7029/print-a5-nec-southcambs-booklet.pdf
There are just two more opportunities to see the exhibition and talk to one of the planning officers, on
Tuesday 12th March at the Brown’s Field Youth and Community Centre CB4 1RU, 4pm-7pm and Thursday 14th
March at Nun’s Way Pavilion CB4 2NR, 2pm-8pm:
Have your say at: www.cambridge.gov.uk/necaap Please note that opportunities to comment ends 5pm 25th March 2019
We urge you to send in your comments to the Council as it is a very significant development. There are a lot of complex issues, but here are some key ones to consider. As one of our local residents has put it:
The Proposed Development will be Very Big - The population will be similar to that of Ely so it is a lot bigger than, say, Orchard Park. It is also planned to include high rise development and no limit has yet been put on how high this will be.
Traffic Congestion - The top of Milton Road sometimes hits gridlock as it is, so the extra traffic does not bear thinking about. The planners have many worthy ideas to minimise car use on the development, but these are unproven.
No Mention of CAM Metro – One year ago the mayor’s consultants published indicative maps showing their proposed underground metro linking with Cambridge North/Science Park. Where is it in these plans?
Facilities - If insufficient facilities are developed there will be an impact locally. It has already been decided not to build a secondary school and to absorb the new pupils into existing schools.
The Edges of the Development - The development borders on to disadvantaged parts of the city and it is not clear that these areas will be upgraded to deal with the new demands.
Developers and Implementation - Developers in Cambridge have been consistent only in always failing to deliver all of the promised facilities. Where they have been provided it has often been too late and too incoherent. It is difficult to see why things will be any different this time as it will take place under the same legislation and even with some of the same developers. These include Brookgate whose CB1 development has been so controversial. If the developers fail to mitigate potential problems then the issues mentioned above could have considerable impacts. See this link for a new example locally: https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/cambridge-darwingreen-huntingdon-histon-barratt-15861830
