Dennyst.Francis
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DennySt.Francis Preface A vision is, by its very nature, ambitious. It should set goals high to encourage creative thinking and to avoid the creation of an ‘anywhere place’. Great Visions need robust delivery plans, and therefore attention to infrastructure planning and financial viability are critical ingredients for success. This brochure describes the vision for Waterbeach New Town, one which is both aspirational and deliverable. Our Vision for Waterbeach New Town is to create a largely self-sustaining new community. The scale of the proposed development - a population of perhaps 25,000 people - has the potential to deliver truly sustainable development, opening up opportunities to provide the full array of services and amenities that underpin all successful towns. This will represent a richer alternative to the more remote service provision of smaller extension projects. Where travel is required, the New Town is ideally located to ensure choice of outstanding sustainable travel modes both locally and further afield. It is critical that the aspirations housed within the vision also focus on delivery, and that proposals remain technically and financially viable both now and in the future. With this in mind, the vision supports the commercial objectives of value creation through promoting a great place where people will aspire to live and work – a place that will therefore attract long-term investment and foster the emergence of an enterprising community. This requires a commitment to doing more than simply meeting housing targets. RLW are driven by long-term investment goals that are married to an overall design objective of beautiful place-making. This is very different to the traditional house-builder’s approach of build-sell-get out quick. Waterbeach New Town will have a clear identity and a strong sense of community that will enhance long-term value. The vision proposed reflects this aim, engaging closely with the site’s existing character and overall landscape setting. The vision provides a framework for change which has the potential to guide each phase of development and create a unique identity. This allows Waterbeach New Town to respond to changing lifestyles and remain flexible to evolving community aspirations. July 2017. Waterbeach New Town: future Community 1. 2. 3. Helping Cambridge and Helping to deliver a Creating a new community its sub-region retain well-connected city with a clear identity that its pre-eminence as a and sub-region through takes its references from world-leading centre for the provision of new history, past and present. knowledge, learning and sustainable transport research. infrastructure in a timely fashion based upon high quality cycle and rail corridors and supported by bus priority and frequency enhancements. Waterbeach New Town can support Waterbeach New Town will provide high From the distant past Waterbeach New this objective through the creation of a quality transport infrastructure and multi- Town reflects the historic settlement beautiful and diverse range of new living modal public transport systems. It will patterns on the Fen Edge. From more and working environments that are of also deliver new green infrastructure that recently, it reflects its military history and the highest quality, energy and resource supports cycle and pedestrian networks Waterbeach’s role in the 20th century. efficient, equipped for the digital future, across Cambridge and its sub-region, The masterplan will also respond to the and adaptable to climate change. It will connects and extends natural areas and site’s natural assets wherever possible, operate within the regional scale of areas of ecological importance, improves embedding waterbodies, mature trees and Greater Cambridge’s thriving economy recreational opportunities and encourages ditches into the structure of the new town. and will support a sustainable community healthy living. Homes will be provided for all ages and that is connected to employment areas in needs providing opportunities for existing central and north eastern Cambridge. and new families to stay close together whether they are moving out of home for the first time, upsizing, downsizing or retiring. 2 Waterbeach New Town: future Community Close to water Close to nature Close to history Close to Cambridge 3 4 context location plan including Cambridge green belt Introduction Background accommodating growth in the CSR is long established, from previous developments such as Bar Hill, Cambourne and currently Cambridgeshire is a predominantly rural county, with development Northstowe. focused on the City and in market towns and villages beyond. The pattern of development has been determined through planning policy stemming from the 1960’s when a Green Belt was The development concept for Waterbeach established around Cambridge, displacing development to rural New Town is borne out of that tradition locations. This was recognised to be an unsustainable pattern of growth. Although it protected the historic character of the City, it but differs in two key respects. Firstly, encouraged patterns of long-distance commuting to jobs in and it relies on a fundamentally different adjoining Cambridge from market towns and rural settlements in the Cambridge Sub-Region (CSR) and beyond. approach to delivery which will ensure that the delays which have hampered Since 2000 planning strategy for the sub-region had adopted a sequential approach to the location of housing and related other major developments are not developments which prioritises the built-up area of Cambridge, repeated in this case. Secondly, a multi- followed by sites on the periphery of Cambridge on land released from the Green Belt, and then a new settlement at Northstowe. modal transport strategy – harnessing the availability of rail as well as high Current government policy as set out in the National Planning Policy quality cycle opportunities - will result in Framework (the Framework) establishes a presumption in favour of sustainable development. Sustainability is a broad concept significantly enhanced transport linkages encompassing economic, social and environmental considerations. to key destinations in the city, including Applied to the particular physical characteristics of Cambridge and its nationally important growth potential, this policy adds importantly the employment opportunities greater emphasis to the established strategy of Cambridge-focused of the Northern Fringe. Waterbeach New housing growth. Town therefore provides an opportunity to The Framework is equally clear that Green Belt boundaries, once create a truly sustainable new community, defined, should only be altered in exceptional circumstances. A series of Green Belt releases have already been implemented which encompasses the economic, social through the current South Cambridgeshire Core Strategy and the and environmental aspects of sustainable Cambridge City Local Plan. There must therefore be a presumption development. against any further releases through the next plan period if the required permanence of the Green Belt is to be protected. The concept of using planned new settlements as a means of 5 Introduction Planning Context and Strategy can sometimes best be achieved through planning for larger scale development, such as new settlements or extensions to existing The proposal is formulated in the context of current planning villages and towns. It adds that, working with local communities, policy at national and local levels. National policy is provided by local authorities should consider whether such opportunities the National Planning Policy Framework (‘the Framework’) issued provide the best way of achieving sustainable development. in March 2012. As a proposal to deliver development over the next twenty years, the most relevant local policy is provided by the In pursuing its objective to secure strong and sustainable economic emerging South Cambridgeshire Local Plan. growth, the government has indicated that it attaches great importance to the use of surplus public sector land to encourage National Policy the provision of new homes and jobs. The Framework identifies that the purpose of the planning system Local Policy is to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development, which encompasses three distinct dimensions: economic, social The South Cambridgeshire Local Plan (as submitted) sets out and environmental and should be seen as a golden thread running a vision which will be secured through the achievement of the through both plan making and decision taking. The ideologies of following six key objectives; sustainable development are threefold; An economic role - contributing to building a strong, responsive • To support economic growth by supporting South and competitive economy, by ensuring that sufficient land of Cambridgeshire’s position as a world leader in research and the right type is available in the right places and at the right technology based industries, research, and education; and time to support growth and innovation; and by identifying and supporting the rural economy. coordinating development requirements, including the provision • To protect the character of South Cambridgeshire, including of infrastructure; its built and natural heritage, as well as protecting the A social role - supporting strong, vibrant and healthy communities, Cambridgeshire Green Belt. New development should enhance by providing the supply of housing required to meet the needs of the area, and protect and enhance biodiversity. present