See the blogpost by the Better Beehive Campaign here. Furthermore, the Combined Authority really need to approach ministers for additional powers and funding to get the Cambridge-Newmarket line upgraded for new railway stations at Coldham’s Lane Bridge, Cherry Hinton Lakes, and Fulbourn.
I have written numerous articles since I first became aware of redevelopment proposals over two years ago.
- Redeveloping the Beehive Centre – 15 June 2022
- …and again a day later on 16 June 2022
- Make space for girls charity – getting the developers to meet with them, 21 June 2022
- First plans lacking usable green space – 31 December 2022
- Why the Beehive redevelopment plans need a railway station – 15 July 2023
- Scrutinising the application – 24 August 2023
- The most recent changes – 30 July 2024
Improving the urban design
The initial designs proved to be very controversial – back in February 2024 the independent urban design group that advises the Greater Cambridge Planning Service tore the original designs to bits and recommended refusal of the application. Which very rarely happens. So one group of documents some of you will want to focus on is the new design code.
Above – Beehive Centre Design Code August 2024 Part 1 p6 Executive Summary
It briefly mentions the National Design Guide published by ministers here. It’s all very well the documents talking about good design, but when you see minimalist wonky-spreadsheet architecture illustrated as an example to replicate, it’s simply asking for trouble.
Above-right. Please don’t build this.
It’s not all bad though. Some things are worth considering with retrofitting other parts of Cambridge – especially with extending cycle networks that cross footpaths.
The rectangle highlighted in orange below is the plan for a larger open green space – but please don’t illustrate it with grey spreadsheet buildings. Your one doesn’t have the benefit of Waterhouse’s clock tower of St Pancras in the background.
Above – Beehive Centre Design Code August 2024 Part 1 p35
There are a huge number of documents to read through
To save you the time, the ones to focus on are the Design and Access Statements (Parts 1-8) and the Design Code (Parts 1-4)
Above – to access the documents (via the GCSP Portal here -> Simple Search -> Planning -> typing in 23/03204/OUT into the search box), click on the icons in the right hand column illustrated above. And then spend the rest of the day reading!
I want to see the transport assessments properly evaluated post-construction
Only the assumptions that are made by the consultants in their report are pretty bold. Especially on rail.
Above – from the Transport Assessment which is also so huge that it comes in ***eight parts***
This is also why I have said the development (given its scale and proximity to the railway) needs its own station
I wrote about it here back in July 2023
Build a station around the bridge over the railway line with four exits and you serve four different communities with each one.
Mayor Nik Johnson needs to collar the Rail Minister Peter Hendy to tell Network Rail to get a move on
It’s within Network Rail’s gift to proceed with the upgrade of this junction and of the Cambridge-Newmarket Line. Given the bold statements Lord Hendy’s ministerial colleague Matthew Pennycook, the Housing and Planning Minister has been saying about Cambridge of late, this rail junction is both a pinch point and an opportunity. This is because by the time a meeting with ministers has been arranged, a planning decision has been made by Cambridge City Council’s planning committee may already have been made. Combined with the decision to approve the other Coldham’s Lane sci-tech development by the lakes and the landfill recently, that is ***a lot of extra journeys into Cambridge*** that have not yet been planned for. Which is why I said back in May 2023 that the sci-tech developers should contribute towards the upgrade of that line.
Two possible ‘New town’ sites for ministers to play with?
Back in March 2024 at peak Michael Gove’s Case for Cambridge, I identified some possible sites for new towns along the existing Cambridge-Newmarket line and beyond. One was at Dullingham station west of Newmarket which when you look how large a 1km radius is, barely reaches the existing village
Above – a 1km radius around Six Mile Bottom where ministers could commission a new town, a park and light-rail, or both. (Note they’ll have to give the news to the land speculator that they will hit them with a land value uplift levy on their options!)
Finally, note none of the proposals have dealt with the water crisis (something that was at the heart of the latest Planning Inspectorate/ministerial overturning of refusal for a large application (Darwin Green’s later phase announced here) for the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service – one completely out of their control because everything rested on the face-off between the Environment Agency (reporting to Defra Ministers) vs the Planning Inspector (reporting to the Minister for Housing and Planning, & Deputy Prime Minister too)).
This also raises the issue of the consultation on planning fees. I think that local council planning services should be fully cost-recovering – especially for big developments, to the extent that councils can match the large salaries paid by the private sector. The reason? It gives a strong incentive for firms to train up their own talent rather than wait for councils to train them up before poaching them.
In the meantime, we wait to see what future announcements ministers will make over the next couple of months.
Food for thought?
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