Lots to consider in this document but it could pay for the long-awaited Cambridge Rowing Lake – even though I will probably be six feet under by the time it is complete!
Image – from the consultation on densifying and improving the existing Cambridge Science Park
Greater Cambridge Shared Planning’s further call for sites
It looks like this one passed me by – would be good if the GCSP and the local councils could be much more proactive when such huge documents are submitted to them. Especially when they are published online!
At the moment I cannot find the landing page for the Cambridge Science Park North proposals from Trinity College. The GCSP pages on the emerging Greater Cambridge Local Plan don’t make it easy to find what you are looking for. It was mainly through luck that I discovered the additional paper submitted to it back in March 2025 which came back as the top-scoring result in an online search here.
Above – nothing comes up when I search the landing page https://oc2.greatercambridgeplanning.org/ yet clearly there is a document about ‘CSP North – because I was able to access it
Above – hello chaps! What’s in here?
And this isn’t the only one.
Start playing with the attachment numbers at the end of the URL and lots of fun things come up!
Above – copy the link address https://oc2.greatercambridgeplanning.org/download/attachmentform/4763 and change the last couple of numbers (eg say 61 instead of 63) and see what comes up.
For example the 2025 proposals at Hardwick.
Now in the case of Hardwick, they already have a separate community engagement website which has the boards at https://cambridgeroadhardwick.co.uk/boards/ and which went out to consultation late last year. Whether the residents there have seen the 2025 update I don’t know.
Another updated proposal is to turn Foxton into a small town.
Above – see Station Fields here. The existing railway station/pair of platforms is at the bottom right. The proposed GCP travel hub is centre-right, and they also include the long-overdue A10 road bridge which was proposed by Davidge in his Cambridgeshire Regional Plan in…1934. So they might get it built 100 years after it was formally proposed!
“What does CSP North say?”
It puts the exhibition boards at Saturday’s event into context (See here, scroll down, or see here)
For me the two most important segments are the main entrance on the busway at Milton Road, and the link to Cambridge Regional College, the main vocational further education college in the city.
Above – Future Cambridge Science Park (2025) p8 detail
The buildings and facilities that are built next door to Cambridge Regional College really should be ‘partnership buildings’ that benefit the students
In the map below I have highlighted King’s Hedges Primary School with the Red Balloon.
Above – from G-Maps here. Cambridge Regional College used to have some green space for its students but it has all been built upon. Which is why I think a new wide ‘green corridor’ that covers the A14 in a tunnel to enable pedestrian access to open green space (and some sports pitches too) is long overdue
“Coming back to the gateways…“
They don’t need me to tell me that the current look is awful.
“How awful?”
Imaging a grey world full of grey men that look like John Major’s Spitting Image character!
Above – the jarring impact of the advert (with foliage growing out of the ground) with the grafitti combined with the security fencing separating it from the Milton Road Garage (understandable given the motor assets) makes for an unpleasant arrival.
Hence why I think that the Milton Road Garage site should become a new municipal swimming pool which could serve both the Science Park *and* the residents of King’s Hedges.
With the proposed expansion of the Cambridge Science Park over the A14 the dream of a new Cambridge Rowing Lake re-emerges.
Above – the proposed Green Loop (presumably an active travel link) would connect the CSP North (in the white blocks in the middle) to the long overdue Milton Rowing Lake.
Cambridgeshire Horizons proposed a rowing lake back in the mid-2000s
Fast-forward 20 years and how are we doing? I had a look back in June here.
Above – Cambridge City moved out to Sawston, and the ice rink finally got built
We’re still waiting for the University of Cambridge to deliver on its swimming pool. One senior figure told me not so long ago that within University circles there are a couple of people who keep on raising the issue of the unbuilt swimming pool at every single meeting they go to that covers the future of the University. So I’m glad someone other than me is making some noise about it!
The proposals from the Cambridge Sports Lake Trust incorporate the lake. (click & scroll down). The section closest to Milton and the A14 is below top
…followed by the section furthest away.
Above – Cambridge Sports Lake Trust. One way or another they will need to build a railway station whether for suburban or light rail.
Talking about transport… E-scooters and quadracycles – micro-e-cars
As I mentioned in this piece about Peter Freeman’s evidence to the Planning Inquiry into the C2C busway, the teenagers are ahead of the game. See also Electroheads below.
Furthermore, Trinity College have the option to make pool-car micro-e-car transport travel an alternative to the standard motor cars. I mentioned this at the consultation event saying that the two Cambridge Science Park developments have the option to implement micro-e-cars ***at scale***, linking up with existing and new developments to build in areas for neighbourhood pool micro-e-cars.
Micro-e-cars are technically not cars. They are quadracycles and are subject to a different licensing regime because they are not nearly as powerful as normal vehicles. They have a much lower maximum speed and a much lower range. Which also means they are much lighter and do less damage to the roads.
That’s why it’s frustrating that the Department for Transport and HM Treasury have not got their act together to legislate for new modes of transport *and* have not provided highways authorities with the funding to build new infrastructure to separate e-micro-vehicles from both pedestrians and existing motor traffic.
Above – Electroheads on the Citroen Ami
“Doesn’t look like it has much room for luggage!”
That one doesn’t, but there are other models out there emerging, such as the YAW Pony. What’s even more striking is how far ahead manufacturers in other countries are with micro-vehicle production. One for policy-makers in Whitehall.
And finally…a lifelong learning centre?
We discussed that too – it looks like the emerging option is creating a facility that can train up more people to meet the skills shortages in technical areas, and where existing employers can donate the expensive equipment to fit out such new facilities in the knowledge that those completing the courses will be able to move seamlessly into new jobs or existing vacancies nearby.
Got any questions about the emerging local plan? You can put them to the Performance, Assets and Strategy Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The problem is that the next meeting is six weeks away. But at least that will give you time to prepare and do all of the background reading!
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