Land North of Cherry Hinton SPD

Object

Representation ID: 31795

Received: 02/10/2017

Respondent: Natural Cambridgeshire

The AAP, LNCH is a small part of a much larger development, with the intention that there would be collective benefits arising from large scale development in this location, e.g. a new country park and wetland habitat within the Greenbelt, community and transport improvements. The LNCH is an independent development, with no idea if, or when, the larger scheme on the airport comes to fruition. The SPD does not place enough emphasis on this bigger picture and should make clearer that the LNCH should be developed with consideration for future development on the safeguarded land, in terms of appropriate mitigation, transportation, views, open spaces, local centres, etc.

Support

Representation ID: 31796

Received: 02/10/2017

Respondent: Natural Cambridgeshire

We welcome the inclusion of green infrastructure within the SPD and in particular an uninterrupted linear park (wildlife corridor) that potentially links with wildlife sites to the south of Coldham's Lane with the Greenbelt/Green Corridor to the north.

Object

Representation ID: 31797

Received: 02/10/2017

Respondent: Natural Cambridgeshire

We are concerned that the adjacent spine road could subsequently provide an entrance route to future development on safeguarded land to the west - this would require a road that would then cut across the linear park, devaluing wildlife connectivity.

Object

Representation ID: 31798

Received: 02/10/2017

Respondent: Natural Cambridgeshire

We are also concerned that the houses adjacent to the linear park will be four storeys and to the south - potentially casting shade on the linear park. Consideration of shade/building height/aspect is required.

Object

Representation ID: 31799

Received: 02/10/2017

Respondent: Natural Cambridgeshire

We welcome the need to preserve the adjacent wildlife sites and on-site habitats and in particular to treat the wildlife site on the eastern boundary with sensitivity and to create additional grassland habitat in that location. The wildlife site is noted for perennial flax and crested cow-wheat, which will have specific habitat requirements. The SPD should make clear that any habitat or open space enhancements in this location should not unintentionally have an impact on these plant species and that ideally, they should enable them to spread. An ongoing management contribution to achieve this would be required.

Object

Representation ID: 31800

Received: 02/10/2017

Respondent: Natural Cambridgeshire

The school playing fields extend out with the development site and into the Greenbelt. Whilst playing fields are an excepted use of Greenbelt, some school playing fields are increasingly urban in character, utilising artificial surfaces, ball courts, flood-lighting, fencing, etc. The purpose of the Greenbelt in the location proposed for the school fields is to prevent the merging with Teversham and also as a green corridor linking Cambridge with the rural countryside to the east.
We are concerned that the playing fields could significantly erode both of these functions. No indication in the SPD regarding landscaping on the north-eastern and eastern edges of the playing fields. Assuming the wildlife site are on this boundary, then some of the land allocated for school playing towards its eastern boundary should be reserved for landscaping/buffering and should be clearly indicated in the SPD. Ideally, the playing fields in this location should be allocated as a nature area for the school to use for educational purposes.

Object

Representation ID: 31801

Received: 02/10/2017

Respondent: Natural Cambridgeshire

There will be a loss of farmland wildlife as a result of this development which needs to be mitigated off-site. This is only mentioned in the table on p75. We feel that this should be made more explicit and included in the two sections that deal with ecology in the main document.

Object

Representation ID: 31802

Received: 02/10/2017

Respondent: Natural Cambridgeshire

While the open spaces proposed for the development site are local in nature, they will not meet resident's needs for accessing larger open spaces or achieve significant biodiversity gains.
The larger open spaces that residents will access include Wandlebury Country Park and National Trust estates such as Anglesey Abbey and Wicken Fen. This will place increased visitor pressure on these sites, some of which are already struggling with capacity at peak times and which can impact on the biodiversity of those sites. This is not factored into the SPD or the suggested mitigation. We note the AAP concept plan on page 10 shows a new country park - which highlights the need for this kind of space. We are concerned that piecemeal developments such as LNCH and Wing will fail to contribute financially towards the creation of new large public spaces or towards offsetting the impacts on existing sites. We would like to see this addressed directly in the SPD.