South Cambs consulting on more houses on Arbury Park

Today I received a letter about the consultation Tory run South Cambridgeshire district council are running about trying to squeeze even more housing into the Arbury Park site. This seems bizarre at a time when work on many developments has all but stalled, but does need to be fought.

The two patches (in what the District now calls Orchard Park) are Preferred Sites 1 and 2 on the list. They provide some more information on their website. The document this is based on is hidden away, but linked from here.

The proposals to force more housing into the site at the expense of community facilities is not good sense and will not lead to a sustainable development that people wish to live in. Please get involved by either responding online to the consultation, or writing to Local Development Framework Consultation, South Cambridgeshire District Council, South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridgeshire, CB23 6EA.

We will of course be doing the same. See our earlier post for some of the arguments against this development.

Even More Houses on Arbury Park

Buried away in the opaquely titled Housing Shortfall Report of South Cambridgeshire District Council is a plan to add even more housing to the Arbury Park development.

There are many reasons why this is a bad plan.

The sites are right next to the A14 and neglect the well known impact of the road on the residents. Noise pollution is known to cause blood pressure problems, and this is in addition to air quality issues. The solution is to keep the current noise barriers which reflect the problem onto the residents of Impington and make an unwelcoming, ugly and forbidding entry to the city.
The buildings already planned for the site will already stretch King's Hedges Road and Northfield Avenue to breaking point.

The lost of community resources and employment space will make Arbury Park a much less pleasant place to live and less sustainable. Indeed they acknowledge that there is no space for reasonable open space and propose taking development money to be spent elsewhere in the district: on the other side of the A14.

Arbury Park residents are already dismayed at the lack of community facilities for this new development which has also left them with unfinished pavements, no street signs and lighting and parcels of land being developed separately without a cohesive Master Plan.

Everyone believes this area will become the responsibility of Cambridge City Council following a future boundary review between South Cambs and Cambridge City, and given other sites they identify are mostly in North West Cambridge except for two smaller sites, it would appear that the attitude of South Cambs is to put all the housing on this side of the A14 and then hope the City picks up the pieces.

Recently Cambridge City Council congratulated South Cambs DC on doing a review of Arbury Park and the lessons to be learned from mistakes on the development, including the lack of a quality urban design. Too soon it seems.

I will be opposing this proposal, as will the rest of the City Liberal Democrats!

Northfield Avenue -- Cycle path proposals

I have just returned from the County-City Area Joint Committee for transport issues.

Thanks to a huge response from local residents, including a petition by the parents at King's Hedges Primary, the proposals to turn the footpath on Northfield Avenue into a shared use path has been rejected. I spoke against the path at the meeting, but the officers at the County Council had already listened to the massive feedback they had and withdrew the proposal!

The extra crossing on King's hedges Road is going ahead, which required the narrowing of the Northfield junction. This should improve safety on both roads by slowing traffic.

There is also the possibility that a 20mph limit will be introduced on Northfield Avenue, the road has enough traffic calming measures on it already to meet the county's rules. This would make Northfield Avenue a safer place to walk and cycle, which will be important when Arbury Park residents begin to use it to get to work and school.

Watch this space for news!

South Cambs threatens IVC community funding

Whilst this is out of our patch being in Impington and not in the City this is a cause we should support.

South Cambs 'reviewing' the funding of dual use grants for facilities at Impington Village College. This is money that improves the sports facilities for children at the school and pays for them to be available for local people. More details available on Histon and Impington village website.

This directly effects those in the ward who go to the school or use the facilities.

The other issue is the effect cutting this money will have on demand for other services. For Histon and Impington residents, including those in Arbury Park, that means those provided by the City.

I hope you can join me signing this petition.