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Greater Cambridge Shared Planning

North East Cambridge Area Action Plan

We are developing plans for a new city district in North East Cambridge, and the Area Action Plan will be the planning policy framework that guides this process. In Autumn of 2021, the Proposed Submission Plan was considered by councillors at both Councils, and was approved. This included our proposed revisions to the Plan, following a consultation on the Draft Plan in 2020, and further evidence and stakeholder engagement undertaken between Autumn 2020 and Summer 2021. Read more in our news release, or visit the Proposed Submission Plan page.

 

What is the North East Cambridge Area Action Plan?  

North East Cambridge includes 182 hectares of brownfield land, just a 15-minute cycle ride from the city centre. Funding from central government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund to relocate the Cambridge Waste Water Treatment Plant creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the area and create a significant new city district.   

North East Cambridge new district location map

The vision is for North East Cambridge to be a healthy, inclusive, walkable, low-carbon new city district with a vibrant mix of high quality homes, workplaces, services and social spaces, fully integrated with surrounding neighbourhoods.

The area crosses the boundary between Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire District Councils and the Councils are working closely together to ensure that residents and businesses around the area are informed and involved with how the area develops.

The Area Action Plan will be the planning framework developed by Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council, to guide all development in the area over the next 20 years. At the stage that the Area Action Plan is adopted, all planning applications in the area will have to show that they have fully addressed the Area Action Plan policies. 

 

What have we done so far?

The Proposed Submission Plan has been developed following extensive consultation and evidence gathering over the past seven years. You can read about how the previous consultations have helped shape the plan in the Consultation Statement published in our document library.

At the last stage of the process, we consulted on the Draft North East Cambridge Area Action Plan from 27 July to 5 October 2020. Thank you to everyone who commented - we have now published all the comments (representations) that we received and these can be read via the Draft North East Cambridge Area Action Plan page on our consultation site. Each comment can be read alongside the part of the Plan that it relates to.

Prior to this, we held an Issues and Options Consultation in Spring 2019, following an earlier consultation in 2014. You can find all the documents relating to these earlier consultations in our Document Library.

The Communities Teams of both Councils run the North East Cambridge Community Forum, which is open to anyone to attend and find out more about all the different projects going on in the area.

 

What happens next?

The Area Action Plan was published in its Proposed Submission form and considered by Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire District councillors through their respective committee processes.

The proposed submission version is effectively a final draft which the Councils propose to adopt. Prior to formal public consultation on the Proposed Submission AAP, the Councils will now pause the AAP process until a decision has been made on the separate Development Consent Order process for the relocation of the Cambridge Waste Water Treatment Plant. This is because the Area Action Plan is being prepared on the basis that the existing Waste Water Treatment Plan will be relocated off-site, which will enable this new district to come forward, and the Development Consent Order is an important part of showing that the Area Action Plan can be delivered.

Therefore, we currently expect that the consultation period on the Proposed Submission for the NEC AAP will take place around 2024. The comments received at this stage would also be submitted to the Secretary of State alongside the Area Action Plan for consideration by the independent Planning Inspectorate as part of the examination in public of the Plan.

 

Find out more about the North East Cambridge Area Action Plan

Have a look at our frequently asked questions webpage.

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