Key Issues: Consideration of Alternative Sites
8.1 Summary
SCDC has not given sufficient weight to National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) requirements for sustainability, and Bourn Airfield is less sustainable than alternative sites. SCDC has failed to identify or select more sustainable alternative sites that strategically integrate with the areas of major employment growth (for example, the major southern biotech cluster), such as the proposed new settlement at Waterbeach, which will offer HQPT to the Science Park and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. The current Local Plan has an unnecessarily large supply of housing. Rather than realising three new settlements simultaneously (Northstowe, Waterbeach and Bourn Airfield), SCDC would be better to concentrate on two: Northstowe and Waterbeach.
8.2 The importance of planning for sustainable development
8.2.1 A local government plan of this importance should be based on a coherent sustainable strategic vision. The NPPF states "At the heart of the NPPF is presumption in favour of sustainable development, which should be seen as a golden thread running through both plan-making and decision-taking" (§14). Building new settlements remote from employment sites has consequent impacts on pollution, carbon footprint, transport efficiency and quality of life. In this regard the Bourn Airfield site fails as a
sustainable location for a major new settlement.
8.2.2 Employment in South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge is focused on Cambridge City and science sites to the north and south of the city. Future employment growth will be focussed there, particularly in locations to the south of the city. These include the
rapidly expanding Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the Genome Campus, Chesterford Research Park, Babraham Research Campus, and many more SMEs.
8.2.3 Sustainability dictates that strategic new settlements should be located close to significant existing or expanding employment opportunities, or in locations with good transport links to the employment sites. The Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire Sustainable Development Strategy report, published in November 2012 concluded as follows: "This document has provided a broad overview of the sustainability of different spatial options. Its findings are that the most sustainable focus for
development is within and on the edge of Cambridge". The Sustainable Development Sequence Matrix diagram from the report clearly further illustrates and reinforces this point:
Figure 10 - Sustainable Development Sequence Matrix
8.2.4 Ideally growth should be focussed to the southern edge of Cambridge City. The lack of any significant housing development in support of the southern employment expansion is a strategic failure of the proposed Local Plan. As detailed earlier, SCDC
has been passive in its identification of sites.
8.2.5 Viable and sustainable development sites on the southern edge of Cambridge have recently been proposed. These sites are well placed, in terms of their proximity to the southern employment sites and to the improved transport infrastructure in that area, to offer far more sustainable locations for development.
8.3 New developments and oversupply
8.3.1 SCDC has chosen the less sustainable alternative of new settlements. The Local Plan puts forward two main sites for new settlements: Waterbeach, or Bourn Airfield and West Cambourne. Although the additional housing need to 2031 is calculated to be
5,000 dwellings, those three sites are estimated to provide 13,700 dwellings. This far exceeds what is required, and SCDC has unnecessarily exceeded its remit.
8.3.2 The Local Plan proceeds as though it knows what the needs of South Cambridgeshire will be post-2031. There is no evidence to sustain these assumptions. Changing population growth, demography and economic activity may require quite different
settlements beyond 2031. There is a danger, then, that settlements at Waterbeach and Bourn Airfield will be only partially delivered, and be meeting past needs, rather than future needs. SCDC should concentrate on delivering what is needed now in
viable settlements, not building up a supply of housing to last until 2050.
8.3.3 In the survey of opinion during Issues and Options the public was asked whether it wanted growth based on the edge of Cambridge City, at new settlements, at existing villages, or a mixed strategy. New settlements were preferred by most respondents, but they also received the largest amount of opposition. The principal reason is the difficulty in delivering new settlements, visibly demonstrated locally in the problems with Northstowe. In 2011–2031 SCDC proposes to have three new settlements being developed. In light of the experience at Northstowe, it would be better to concentrate on the delivery of just one additional new settlement.
8.3.4 The proposed site at Waterbeach has considerable advantages over Bourn Airfield. The site does not suffer from the physical constraints that Bourn Airfield does. Most importantly, the settlement will have a HQPT link that connects to the Cambridge
Science Park and the rail station in Cambridge, where there is regular public transport to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
8.4 Conclusion
The proposed development at Bourn Airfield should be withdrawn from the local plan. Alternatives include the new settlement at Waterbeach, which offers a more sustainable development with HQPT links to the major employment centres, or several sites around the southern edge of Cambridge City itself, whose location is more closely aligned with that of the new employment growth in the county.
SCDC has not given sufficient weight to National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) requirements for sustainability, and Bourn Airfield is less sustainable than alternative sites. SCDC has failed to identify or select more sustainable alternative sites that strategically integrate with the areas of major employment growth (for example, the major southern biotech cluster), such as the proposed new settlement at Waterbeach, which will offer HQPT to the Science Park and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. The current Local Plan has an unnecessarily large supply of housing. Rather than realising three new settlements simultaneously (Northstowe, Waterbeach and Bourn Airfield), SCDC would be better to concentrate on two: Northstowe and Waterbeach.
8.2 The importance of planning for sustainable development
8.2.1 A local government plan of this importance should be based on a coherent sustainable strategic vision. The NPPF states "At the heart of the NPPF is presumption in favour of sustainable development, which should be seen as a golden thread running through both plan-making and decision-taking" (§14). Building new settlements remote from employment sites has consequent impacts on pollution, carbon footprint, transport efficiency and quality of life. In this regard the Bourn Airfield site fails as a
sustainable location for a major new settlement.
8.2.2 Employment in South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge is focused on Cambridge City and science sites to the north and south of the city. Future employment growth will be focussed there, particularly in locations to the south of the city. These include the
rapidly expanding Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the Genome Campus, Chesterford Research Park, Babraham Research Campus, and many more SMEs.
8.2.3 Sustainability dictates that strategic new settlements should be located close to significant existing or expanding employment opportunities, or in locations with good transport links to the employment sites. The Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire Sustainable Development Strategy report, published in November 2012 concluded as follows: "This document has provided a broad overview of the sustainability of different spatial options. Its findings are that the most sustainable focus for
development is within and on the edge of Cambridge". The Sustainable Development Sequence Matrix diagram from the report clearly further illustrates and reinforces this point:
Figure 10 - Sustainable Development Sequence Matrix
8.2.4 Ideally growth should be focussed to the southern edge of Cambridge City. The lack of any significant housing development in support of the southern employment expansion is a strategic failure of the proposed Local Plan. As detailed earlier, SCDC
has been passive in its identification of sites.
8.2.5 Viable and sustainable development sites on the southern edge of Cambridge have recently been proposed. These sites are well placed, in terms of their proximity to the southern employment sites and to the improved transport infrastructure in that area, to offer far more sustainable locations for development.
8.3 New developments and oversupply
8.3.1 SCDC has chosen the less sustainable alternative of new settlements. The Local Plan puts forward two main sites for new settlements: Waterbeach, or Bourn Airfield and West Cambourne. Although the additional housing need to 2031 is calculated to be
5,000 dwellings, those three sites are estimated to provide 13,700 dwellings. This far exceeds what is required, and SCDC has unnecessarily exceeded its remit.
8.3.2 The Local Plan proceeds as though it knows what the needs of South Cambridgeshire will be post-2031. There is no evidence to sustain these assumptions. Changing population growth, demography and economic activity may require quite different
settlements beyond 2031. There is a danger, then, that settlements at Waterbeach and Bourn Airfield will be only partially delivered, and be meeting past needs, rather than future needs. SCDC should concentrate on delivering what is needed now in
viable settlements, not building up a supply of housing to last until 2050.
8.3.3 In the survey of opinion during Issues and Options the public was asked whether it wanted growth based on the edge of Cambridge City, at new settlements, at existing villages, or a mixed strategy. New settlements were preferred by most respondents, but they also received the largest amount of opposition. The principal reason is the difficulty in delivering new settlements, visibly demonstrated locally in the problems with Northstowe. In 2011–2031 SCDC proposes to have three new settlements being developed. In light of the experience at Northstowe, it would be better to concentrate on the delivery of just one additional new settlement.
8.3.4 The proposed site at Waterbeach has considerable advantages over Bourn Airfield. The site does not suffer from the physical constraints that Bourn Airfield does. Most importantly, the settlement will have a HQPT link that connects to the Cambridge
Science Park and the rail station in Cambridge, where there is regular public transport to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
8.4 Conclusion
The proposed development at Bourn Airfield should be withdrawn from the local plan. Alternatives include the new settlement at Waterbeach, which offers a more sustainable development with HQPT links to the major employment centres, or several sites around the southern edge of Cambridge City itself, whose location is more closely aligned with that of the new employment growth in the county.