CAMBRIDGESHIRE & PETERBOROUGH FOUNDATION TRUST.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust are instructed by Savills (UK) Ltd in Cambridge to make the necessary representations to the draft Fulbourn Village Design Guide.

The content of the Village Design Guide is intended to amplify and build on the requirements of policy HQ1
(Design Principles) within the recently adopted South Cambridgeshire Local Plan 2018.

Once adopted, the Fulbourn Village Design Guide will form a material consideration in determining planning applications for developments within the village. W ith the Trust being a major landowner at the Fulbourn Hospital site, then it is entirely appropriate and relevant for necessary comments to be made to the Design Guide in the event that circumstances where new developments requiring planning permission for new healthcare facilities on the Hospital site are likely to come forward.

The land in question lies to the west of Capital Park which has developed as a major employment area and which includes the original Fulbourn hospital building. Healthcare facilities are now located to the west comprising a series of generally low-rise buildings set back from the main road. The entire site lies on land designated as Green Belt.

On page 8 of the Village Design Guide, reference is made to the significance of the important gap that currently exists between the edge of Cambridge and Fulbourn village . In this context specific reference is made to both the Fulbourn hospital site and Ida Darwin site both of which are the subject of specific policies within the adopted Local Plan (2018). The Trust is aware that separate representations have been made to the Council on behalf of Homes England, who are the current landowners of the Ida Darwin site and where the Council have resolved to grant planning permission for new residential development which will obviously affect the character of that site.

In respect of Fulbourn Hospital site (i.e. where the current mental health facilities are located) at page 8 of the
document it states

"although physically developed, the Fulbourn hospital and Ida Darwin sites have kept low heights and scant night lighting - something that is already being diminished with more recent development on the Fulbourn hospital site and is essential to re-establish and preserve for the future."

It is important that the Design Guide acknowledges that the Fulbourn Hospital site is an important provider of mental health services for the National Health Service as an important health facility in Cambridgeshire and whilst the impacts of new development must be carefully assessed, it is also equally important to acknowledge that new healthcare facilities associated with Fulbourn Hospital may well need to come forward in the future.
In this context , it is important to acknowledge that it was up until relevantly recently (LPA ref: S/2412/07/CAC) in planning terms that Kent House existed on the Fulbourn Hospital site. Kent House was a significantly sized building with the complex of the Fulbourn Hospital site.

In the circumstances where the Village Design Guide must be consistent with adopted planning policy, the Guide must acknowledge that Policy H/3 of the adopted Plan states(Fulbourn and Ida Darwin Hospitals) states:
''The redevelopment of the existing built footprint of the Ida Darwin Hospital into a different configuration ,
comprising residential
redevelopment on the eastern part of the Ida Darwin site and the transfer of part of the building footprint to the
Fulboum Hospital site for new mental health facilities will be permitted ...... "

The Policy permits the provision of new mental health facilities on the Fulbourn Hospital site and consequently a balance will need to be made at the appropriate time to ensure that the development that does come forward is located in an appropriate area having regard to the important operational needs of those services in the context of healthcare and of course the visual impact of development having regard to the character of the area.

At section 12 of the Village Design Guide, reference is made to "development that is inappropriate for Fulboum". Whilst we fully understand the intentions behind this part of the guide but it is important that buildings of a specific style and character and which .are needed for healthcare reasons may well come forward on the Fulbourn Hospital site which because of their particular operational need may well not fall within the traditional building types as it relates to the more residential areas of Fulbourn. Consequent ly a balance needs to be made for new proposals that come forward at Fulbourn hospital having regard to their siting scale mass and architectural detail.