Comment
Greater Cambridge Local Plan Preferred Options
Representation ID: 56681
Received: 28/11/2021
Respondent: Dr Nick Campbell
S/RSC/HW Land between Hinton Way and Mingle Lane, Great Shelford
S/RSC/HW provides less than 1.5% of the total new housing allocations and permanently destroys high-grade pasture land Green Belt. Housing on the Biomedical Campus (S/CBC) would be more appropriate and have less impact. Development would merge Stapleford with Great Shelford.
"Exceptional circumstances" have not been clearly demonstrated. The proposed justification makes an assumption that Cambridge South Station will be developed - without that, the situation is as in 2018, when development on S/RSC/HW was rejected. Local infrastructure in already at breaking point. And then there's the issue of water supplies and drainage.
S/RSC/HW provides only 100 houses of the 6850 new housing allocations. This is less than 1.5% of the new allocations, yet permanently destroys high quality Green Belt pasture land. This additional allocation of homes will have a negligible impact in fulfilling housing needs generated by expansion of the nearby Biomedical Campus S/CBC. Development of housing for key workers on the Biomedical Campus site could provide more, better-situated housing than S/RSC/HW.
What are the legal justifications for the “exceptional circumstances” required for release of land from the Green Belt in the Southern Cluster? S/RSC/HW assumes Cambridge South railway station will be opened, but this is not established as fact.
Building on this section of Green Belt would cause a merging of the villages of Great Shelford and Stapleford and does not protect the individual character of the two villages.
The development also puts further demands on already over-stretched local facilities (schools, GP practices etc.) and local infrastructure (water supplies and drainage). The proposals do not address these issues, so are not sustainable.