AOD Above Ordnance Datum

API Application Programme Interface

CAM Cambridge Autonomous Metro

CIBSE Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers

EV Electric Vehicles

GP General Practitioner (i.e. Local Doctors Surgery)

MHCLG Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

NGOs Non-governmental organisations

NHS National Health Service

R&D Research and Development

RICS Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

SA/SEA Sustainability Appraisal/Strategic Environmental Assessment

SPD Supplementary Planning Document

Aggregates: Aggregates take a number of different forms. Primary Aggregates include naturally occurring sand, gravel and crushed rock typically used for a variety of construction and manufacturing purposes. Recycled Aggregates are typically produced from construction and demolition wastes. Secondary Aggregates are aggregates typically derived from a range of industrial and mineral wastes such as power station ash, glass, and mineral site spoils.

Area action plan (AAP): A local plan document setting out policy and proposals for a specific area.

Affordable housing: housing for sale or rent, for those whose needs are not met by the market (including housing that provides a subsidised route to home ownership and/or is for essential local workers); and which complies with one or more of the following definitions:

• Affordable housing for rent: meets all of the following conditions: (a) the rent is set in accordance with the Government's rent policy for Social Rent or Affordable Rent, or is at least 20% below local market rents (including service charges where applicable); (b) the landlord is a registered provider, except where it is included as part of a Build to Rent scheme (in which case the landlord need not be a registered provider); and (c) it includes provisions to remain at an affordable price for future eligible households, or for the subsidy to be recycled for alternative affordable housing provision. For Build to Rent schemes affordable housing for rent is expected to be the normal form of affordable housing provision (and, in this context, is known as Affordable Private Rent).
• Starter homes: is as specified in Sections 2 and 3 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 and any secondary legislation made under these sections. The definition of a starter home should reflect the meaning set out in statute and any such secondary legislation at the time of plan-preparation or decision making. Where secondary legislation has the effect of limiting a household's eligibility to purchase a starter home to those with a particular maximum level of household income, those restrictions should be used.
• Discounted market sales housing: is that sold at a discount of at least 20% below local market value. Eligibility is determined with regard to local incomes and local house prices. Provisions should be in place to ensure housing remains at a discount for future eligible households.
• Other affordable routes to home ownership: is housing provided for sale that provides a route to ownership for those who could not achieve home ownership through the market. It includes shared ownership, relevant equity loans, other low-cost homes for sale (at a price equivalent to at least 20% below local market value) and rent to buy (which includes a period of intermediate rent). Where public grant funding is provided, there should be provisions for the homes to remain at an affordable price for future eligible households, or for any receipts to be recycled for alternative affordable housing provision, or refunded to Government or the relevant authority specified in the funding agreement. Source: NPPF (February 2019)

Agent of Change Principle: The principle places the responsibility of mitigating the impact of nuisances (including noise) from existing nuisance generating uses on proposed new development close by, thereby ensuring that residents and users of the new development are protected from nuisances, and existing uses are protected from nuisance complaints. Similarly, any new nuisance-generating development will need to put in place measures to mitigate noise impacts on existing development close by.

Amenity: Element of a location or neighbourhood that helps to make it attractive or enjoyable for residents and visitors.

Apart-hotel: Self-contained hotel accommodation (C1 Use Class) that provides short-term occupancy purchased at a nightly rate with no deposit against damages. This will usually include concierge and room service, and include formal procedures for checking in and out.

Battery storage: An energy storage system that captures energy produced to be used at another time. They are suitable for a range of applications, including vehicles and buildings.

Biodiversity Checklist: A 'step by step' tool which can be used by applicants to help identify if a development proposal is likely to adversely affect any biodiversity and natural heritage interests and whether further ecological assessments/surveys may be required.

Biodiversity Net Gain: Is a requirement of the NPPF and Environment Bill 2020 that seeks to ensure new development minimises losses of biodiversity, helps to restore ecological networks, and provides an overall increase in natural habitat and ecological features.

Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM): BREEAM is a set of standards for measuring the environmental performance of a range of new and existing building types. It covers energy and water performance, construction materials, waste, ecology, pollution and health. Under this scheme, buildings that meet the standards are rated either 'pass', 'good', 'very good', 'excellent' or 'outstanding'.

BREEAM Communities International Technical Standard: A simple and flexible route to improving, measuring and certifying the sustainability of large-scale development plans, and the masterplanning of new communities or regeneration projects.

Brownfield land: See 'Previously Developed Land'.

Build to Rent (BTR): Purpose built housing that is typically 100% rented out. It can form part of a wider multi-tenure development comprising either flats or houses, but should be on the same site and/or contiguous with the main development. Schemes will usually offer longer tenancy agreements of three years or more, and will typically be professionally managed stock in single ownership and management control.

Building density: Building density is the "floor area ratio" – the ratio of built floor area to land area. This is the most widely used measure for limiting the bulk of development on any given plot of land.

Cambridge Cluster: Refers to the 1,400+ technology, biotechnology, services providers and 22 North East Cambridge Area Action Plan - Issues and Options 2019 Term Definition support companies and organisations comprising more than 40,000 people employed by these in the Cambridge region.

Cambridge Sub Regional Model (CSRM2): Used to forecast the demand for travel between origin and destination 'zones' by different modes of transport. The CSRM outputs are fed into a road traffic model, which is used to forecast the routes that traffic will take between each pair of origin and destination zones.

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority: Made up of representatives from eight organisations. These are Cambridge City Council, Cambridgeshire County Council, East Cambridgeshire District Council, Fenland District Council, Huntingdonshire District Council, Peterborough City Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council and The Business Board. The Combined Authority is held to account by several committees made up of representatives from partner local authorities. The Authority is led by Mayor, James Palmer, who was elected on 5th May 2017. www.cambridgeshirepeterborough-ca.gov.uk

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Minerals and Waste Plan: Comprises a suite of documents including the Core Strategy and Site-Specific Proposals Plan adopted by Cambridgeshire County and Peterborough City Councils. There is also an adopted Proposals Map, which shows allocated sites and areas of search for future minerals and waste facilities, and safeguarding areas for existing and future facilities.

Car Barn: A multi-storey car park which is positioned on the edge of a district/ neighbourhood in order to reduce the number of vehicles using residential streets. Can be designed so that they complement their local environment.

Car Club: Car club is a membership scheme that offers people use of a car on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Circular economy: An economic model in which resources are kept in use at the highest level possible for as long as possible in order to maximise value and reduce waste, moving away from the traditional linear economic model of 'make, use, dispose'.

City Wildlife Site (CWS): A non-statutory designation for sites of nature conservation interest within an urban environment.

Climate change adaptation: Adjustments made to natural or human systems in response to the actual or anticipated impacts of climate change, to mitigate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities.

Climate change mitigation: Action to reduce the impact of human activity on the climate system, primarily through reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Cluster: Concentrations of companies in related activities, recognisable suppliers, service providers and institutions, which are cooperating, competing and collaborating to build competitive advantage, often across traditional sector boundaries. Such concentrations often depend on access to specialist skills and infrastructure within a specific area.

Construction Environmental Management Plan: Outlines how a construction project will avoid, minimise or mitigate effects on the environment and surrounding area. CEMP will often detail the implementation of measures in accordance with environmental commitments outlined in; an Environmental Statement, Policy requirements, requirements of planning conditions, planning obligations, or other legislative requirements.

Decentralised Energy: Local renewable and local low-carbon energy sources.

Design and access statement: A statement that accompanies a planning application to explain the design principles and concepts that have informed the development and how access issues have been dealt with. The access element of the statement should demonstrate how the principles of inclusive design, including the specific needs of disabled people, have been integrated into the proposed development and how inclusion will be maintained and managed.

Design Code: A set of illustrated design requirements that provide specific, detailed parameters for the physical development of a site or area. The graphic and written components of the code should build upon a design vision, such as a masterplan or other design and development framework for a site or area.

Development: This refers to development in its widest sense, including buildings, and in streets, spaces and places. It also refers to both redevelopment, including refurbishment, as well as new development.

Digital infrastructure: Infrastructure, such as small cell antenna and ducts for cables, that supports fixed and mobile connectivity and therefore underpins smart technologies.

District centre: A group of shops, separate from the town centre, usually containing at least one food supermarket or superstore, and non-retail services such as banks, building societies and restaurants; boundaries are defined on the Cambridge policies map.

District heat networks: District heating is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralised location for residential and commercial heating requirements. The heat is often obtained from a co-generation plant burning fossil fuels but increasingly biomass, although heat-only boiler stations, geothermal heating and central solar heating are also used, as well as nuclear power.

Energy masterplanning: Spatial and strategic planning that identifies and develops opportunities for decentralised energy and the associated technical, financial and legal considerations that provide the basis for project delivery.

Futureproofing: Ensuring that designs are adaptable and take account of expected future changes.

Greater Cambridge: The combined areas of Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire.

Greater Cambridge Local Plan: Refers to the join Local Plan being prepared for the Greater Cambridge area by Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council.

Greater Cambridge Partnership: Local delivery body for a City Deal with central Government, bringing powers and investment, worth up to £1 billion over 15 years. www.greatercambridge.org.uk

Green Belt: A statutory designation made for the purposes of: checking the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas; preventing neighbouring towns from merging into each other; assisting in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment; preserving the setting and special character of historic towns and assisting in urban regeneration by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land. Specific Green Belt purposes have been set out for Cambridge.

Green infrastructure: A network of multi-functional green space, urban and rural, which is capable of delivering a wide range of environmental and quality of life benefits for local communities.

Health impact assessment (HIA): A health impact assessment is a tool to appraise both positive (e.g. creation of new jobs) and negative (e.g. generation of pollution) impacts on the different affected subgroups of the population that might result from the development. Public participation is considered a major component of the process. It usually assesses a policy or proposal that does not have health improvement as a primary objective. The implementation of the development may result in intended objectives being met but may also result in consequences that are unintended and unanticipated. These unintended effects may be good or bad for people's health. An HIA is usually forward-looking (prospective) and done at a time when it is possible to change the proposed development if necessary, e.g. at the masterplanning stage.

Healthy New Towns: Healthy towns are those in which people can live and work in a safe, healthy, supportive and inclusive neighbourhood. A healthy town will ensure that people are able to enjoy the options of easy access by public transport and active travel modes (walking and cycling), to services and facilities that are relevant to them. It will also allow people to safely and easily move around their neighbourhood through high quality people focused spaces, while enjoying barrier free access to surrounding areas and to the city centre. They should have safe and easy access to a network of open spaces which meet their recreational needs to enhance health and wellbeing, as well as welcoming easily accessible communal spaces which provide opportunities for social interaction.

Hi-tech or high technology industry: Activities including production in fields which include biotechnology, chemicals, consultancy research and development, computer components and hardware, computer software, electronic systems and products, information technology, instrumentation, new materials technology, telecommunications, other forms of new manufacturing process or fields of research and other development which may be regarded as high technology uses.

Higher density: Means new residential and commercial development at a density that is higher than what is typically found in the surrounding context. It does not mean high density nor does it translate to high-rise development.

Historic environment: All aspects of the environment resulting from the interaction between people and places through tine, including all surviving physical remains of past human activity, whether visible, buried or submerged, and landscaped and planted or managed flora. (Source: NPPF)

Houses in multiple occupation (HMO): An HMO, depending on the number of occupants, is classed as either:

• small HMO – this is a shared dwelling house which is occupied by between three and six unrelated individuals who share basic amenities such as a kitchen or bathroom. This falls into use class C4 under the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 2010; or
• larger HMO – This is when there are more than six unrelated individuals sharing basic amenities such as a kitchen or bathroom. This falls into the sui generis class under the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 2010.

Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF): A government capital grant programme to deliver new physical infrastructure to support new and existing communities and make more land available for housing in high demand areas, resulting in new additional homes that otherwise would not have been built.

Inclusive design: Inclusive design results in an environment which everyone can use, to access and benefit from the full range of opportunities available; confidently, independently, with choice and dignity, which avoids separation or segregation and is made up of places and spaces that acknowledge diversity and difference, meeting the needs of everyone in society.

Infrastructure: Includes transport, energy, water, waste, digital/smart, social and green infrastructure.

Infra-technology: The integration of digital technology and infrastructure.

Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA): process of assessing the landscape and visual effects of developments and their significance. Assessment should adhere to the Landscape Institute published 3rd edition of Guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (GLVIA3).

Local centre: A cluster of shops and other community facilities that satisfy local needs and are accessible on foot. Usually comprising a newsagent, a general grocery store, a sub-post office and occasionally other facilities such as a pharmacy, a public house and a hairdresser. Boundaries indicated on the policies map.

Local plan: A plan for the future development of a local area, drawn up by the local planning authority in consultation with the community. In law this is described as the development plan documents adopted under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. A local plan can consist of either strategic or non-strategic policies, or a combination of the two.

Local Planning Authority (LPA): The public authority whose duty it is to carry out specific planning functions for a particular area. All references to local planning authority include the district council, London borough council, county council, Broads Authority, National Park Authority, the Mayor of London and a development corporation, to the extent appropriate to their responsibilities.

Local Nature Reserve (LNR): Reserves with wildlife or geological features that are of special interest locally.

Major development: For housing, development where 10 or more homes will be provided, or the site has an area of 0.5 hectares or more. For non-residential development it means additional floorspace of 1,000m2 or more, or a site of 1 hectare or more, or as otherwise provided in the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015.

Massing: Massing is a term in architecture which refers to the perception of the general shape and form as well as size of a building.

Masterplan: A masterplan describes how proposals for a site will be implemented. The level of detail required in a masterplan will vary according to the scale at which the masterplan is produced.

Micro-mobility: Refers to a range of small, lightweight devices operating at speeds typically below 25 km/h (15mph) and is ideal for trips up to 10km. Micromobility devices include bicycles, electric bikes, electric scooters, electric skateboards, shared bicycles, and electric pedal assisted (pedelec) bicycles.

Mixed use developments: Development comprising two or more uses as part of the same scheme (e.g. shops on the ground floor and residential flats above). This could apply at a variety of scales from individual buildings, to a street, to a new neighbourhood or urban extension.

National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF): This document sets out national planning policies for England and the Government's requirements for the Planning System. The policies in the NPPF must be taken into account when preparing Local Plans. www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-planning-policy-framework--2

National Planning Practice Guidance (NPPG): The Government's Planning practice guidance to support the NPPF. www.gov.uk/government/collections/planning-practice-guidance

Older People: People over or approaching retirement age, including the active, newly-retired through to the very frail elderly; and whose housing needs can encompass accessible, adaptable general needs housing through to the full range of retirement and specialised housing for those with support or care needs.

Open space: Areas of land not built on and water bodies such as rivers and lakes, regardless of ownership and access. These areas include parks and gardens; natural and semi-natural green spaces; green corridors; outdoor sports facilities; amenity green space; teenagers' and children's play areas; allotments and community gardens; cemeteries and churchyards; accessible countryside in urban fringe areas and civic spaces.

Optimal Development: The optimal development potential of a site concerns the balance of land uses, the quantum of development, and the achievement of satisfactory environmental and social conditions.

Outline Planning Permission / Approval: Planning applications that seek to establish the development principles of a site, such as the type, scale and nature of land uses considered acceptable, before a fully detailed planning application is put forward.

Passivhaus: Passivhaus buildings provide a high level of occupant comfort while using very little energy for heating and cooling. They are designed and constructed according to principles developed by the Passivhaus Institute in Germany.

Permeability: Permeability or connectivity describes the extent to which urban forms permit (or restrict) movement of people or vehicles in different directions. Permeability is generally considered a positive attribute of an urban design, as it permits ease of movement and avoids severing neighbourhoods. Urban forms which lack permeability, e.g. those severed by arterial roads, or with many long cul-de-sacs, are considered to discourage movement on foot and encourage longer journeys by car.

Planning Condition: A condition imposed on a grant of planning permission (in accordance with the Town and Country Planning Act 1990) or a condition included in a Local Development Order or Neighbourhood Development Order.

Planning Obligation: A legally enforceable obligation entered into under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to mitigate the impacts of a development proposal.

Previously developed land: Land which is, or was, occupied by a permanent structure, including the curtilage of the developed land (although it should not be assumed that the whole of the curtilage should be developed) and any associated fixed surface infrastructure. This excludes: land that is, or was, last occupied by agricultural or forestry buildings; land that has been developed for minerals extraction or waste disposal by landfill, where provision for restoration has been made through development management procedures; land in built-up areas such as residential gardens, parks, recreation grounds and allotments; and land that was previously developed but where the remains of the permanent structure or fixed surface structure have blended into the landscape.

Public open spaces: Any land laid out as a public garden or used for the purposes of public recreation. This means space which has unimpeded public access, and which is of a suitable size and nature for sport, active or passive recreation or children and teenagers' play. Private or shared amenity areas, for example in a development of flats, or buffer landscaped areas are not included as public open space. This definition relates to both open space provided within a development, and when considering the provision of existing open space.

Public realm: Public realm relates to all those parts of the built environment where the public has free access. It encompasses: all streets, squares, and other rights of way, whether predominantly in residential, commercial or community/civic uses; the open spaces and parks; and the 'public/private' spaces where public access is unrestricted (at least during daylight hours). It includes the interfaces with key internal and private spaces to which the public normally has free access. (Source: ODPM in Living Places: Caring for Quality (January 2004))

Railhead: A point on a railway from which roads and other transport routes begin. Railheads can act as reception points for aggregates moved in bulk by rail for onward distribution, normally by road. Railheads normally comprise a railway siding, off-loading and storage facilities, and sometimes including mineral processing and other plant.

Renewable and low carbon energy: Includes energy for heating and cooling as well as generating electricity. Renewable energy covers those energy flows that occur naturally and repeatedly in the environment – from the wind, the fall of water, the movement of the oceans, from the sun and also from biomass and deep geothermal heat. Low carbon technologies are those that can help reduce emissions (compared to conventional use of fossil fuels).

Research and Development (R&D): Sector within industry specialising in researching new ideas and developing these products towards being made.

Reserved Matters Planning Permission / Approval: Applies to Outline Planning Permissions that have been granted, where the applicant is required to submit and get approval from the LPA on specific details ("reserved matters") of the proposed development before work can start.

Section 106 (S106): A binding legal agreement requiring a developer or landowner to provide or contribute towards facilities, infrastructure or other measures, in order for planning permission to be granted. Planning obligations are normally secured under Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

Skyline: An outline of land and buildings defined against the sky: the skyline of the city.

Smart technology: The Smart Cambridge project defines what makes a smart city on their website: Digital technology underpins almost every aspect of modern living across work, travel, leisure and health. Smart cities technology builds on this, using digital connectivity and data in innovative ways to address city challenges in four key areas:

• Transport: making travel easier, reducing congestion, and exploring intelligent mobility
• Environment: managing our water, energy, air quality and waste
• Healthcare: catering for an ageing population and providing public health
• Smart living: improving the quality of life for communities in and around the city.

Smart energy grid: A smart grid is a modernised electricity grid that uses information and communications technology to monitor and actively control generation and demand in near real-time, which provides a more reliable and cost-effective system for transporting electricity from generators to homes, business and industry.

Sustainability Appraisal (SA): Prepared alongside the draft plan to appraise the social, environmental and economic effects of a plan and alternative approaches to help ensure that decisions made will contribute to achieving sustainable development.

Sustainable Development: Resolution 42/187 of the United Nations General Assembly defined sustainable development as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The UK Sustainable Development Strategy Securing the Future set out five 'guiding principles' of sustainable development: living within the planet's environmental limits; ensuring a strong, healthy and just society; achieving a sustainable economy; promoting good governance; and using sound science responsibly.

Sustainable drainage systems (SuDs): Development normally reduces the amount of water that can infiltrate into the ground and increases surface water run-off due to the amount of hard surfacing used. Sustainable drainage systems control surface water run-off by mimicking natural drainage processes through the use of surface water storage areas, flow limiting devices and the use of infiltration areas or soakaways.

Sustainable modes of transport:Any efficient, safe and accessible means of transport with overall low impact on the environment, including walking and cycling, low and ultra-low emission vehicles, car sharing and public transport.

Townscape: Townscape is the landscape within the built-up area, including the buildings, the relationship between them, the different types of urban open spaces, including green spaces and the relationship between buildings and open spaces.

Transport assessment: A comprehensive and systematic process that sets out transport issues relating to a proposed development. It identifies measures required to improve accessibility and safety for all modes of travel, particularly for alternatives to the car such as walking, cycling and public transport, and measures that will be needed to deal with the anticipated transport impacts of the development.

Travel plan: A long-term management strategy for an organisation or site that seeks to deliver sustainable transport objectives and is regularly reviewed.

Use classes order: The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 (as amended) puts uses of land and buildings into various categories known as use classes. More detail on what types of uses fall within each use class is set out below. Planning permission is not needed when both the present and proposed uses fall within the same class. For example, a greengrocer's shop could be changed to a shoe shop without permission as these uses both fall within use class A1. However, any physical changes associated with a development may still require planning permission. The General Permitted Development Order also allows some changes from one use class to another without the need for planning permission. For example, a restaurant (class A3) could be changed to a shop (A1) or an estate agent (A2) as the use classes order allows this type of change to occur without requiring planning permission.

Walkable (neighbourhood): Areas typically based on 400m (five-minute walking time) catchments. The Urban Design Compendium (2000) Paragraph 3.1.2 describes the principles of 'The Walkable Neighbourhood', describing what facilities should be within a five- and ten-minute walk from home.

WELL Building Standard: WELL is a performance-based system for measuring, certifying, and monitoring features of the built environment that impact human health and well-being, through air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind.

Zero carbon development: Zero carbon development is development that results in no net emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.