 Okay, good morning everybody and welcome. I can see lots of you arriving now. Welcome to our sixth webinar for the Great Cambridge Local Plan Consultation Stated Proposals for our preferred options or the first proposals as we're calling it. We've had five sessions already. All of those were themed sessions around the themes of the local plan and this session today is around the North East Cambridge and the local plan, specifically this site because as you may or may not know, we have a separate AAP process for an area action plan process that has been going on kind of simultaneously alongside the local plan and it's one of the sites that's proposed and we thought it would be helpful to really have a bit of an explainer around that where we're at with that process, the relationship with the local plan, etc etc. So thank you for all the people joining us and welcome this morning and welcome back to people who have been before and welcome to you who haven't managed to come to these sessions before. We've got a good panel this morning or this afternoon should I say and a few slides taking you through some of the updates and we'll run a little interactive session in the middle and there'll be chance for questions all the way through the presentations as well which we'll endeavour to answer and so what I'm going to do is I'm going to take myself a screen so I'm going to introduce you to our super panel this morning so I'll ask them to all put their video cameras on so that if you can all put your video cameras on I'll come through and then you can introduce yourselves and so I'm going to go around my screen Matt. Hi everyone I'm Matthew Pedersen so I'm one of the project leads delivering the NEC AAP on behalf of the shared planning service for Greater Cambridge. Hey Matt really good to have you today and we're on to Caroline. Good morning I'm Caroline Hunt I'm strategy and economy manager in the Greater Cambridge planning service and overseeing both the local plan and the area action plan. Thanks Caroline nice to have you along Terry. Good afternoon everyone yet I'm Terry DeSousa so I'm a principal planning policy officer for the shared planning service and I work with Caroline and Matt and others in helping to bring together the area action plan and the evidence studies that underpin it. Thanks Terry it's good to have you here as well this morning and behind the scenes I keep saying this morning it feels like this morning and behind the scenes we've got Will Smeaton and Tim Cliff obviously not got their cameras on but without them we wouldn't be running this they're doing all the logistics and technical stuff so hopefully it all goes relatively smoothly this morning for those of you don't know any my name is Paul Frainer I'm the assistant director for strategy and economy so part of the team that's bringing the AAP and also the local plan together and just a quick outline I'll show my screen again give you a bit of an outline of what the session is going to look like so and how we're going to run it and you can post in the chat anonymously at any time we'll answer the questions the panelists will try and answer questions as we go along but there will be some time at the end as well for um for you know some more panel questions you can post anonymously um or leave your name it's up to you it's an hour's long if we move on a little too fast if there's plenty of questions if we don't get to all the questions some of them might have been answered in previous sessions already and then I can highlight that to where you need to go to get to those questions and those answers and if we don't manage to get to any questions we will try and pick them up and put them into our FAQs section on the website which I'll point you in the right direction so just a brief overview of today's session and we're going to talk a little bit about the relationship of northeast Cambridge with the local plan or the emerging local plan that's in consultation at the moment and try and demystify a little bit of the process around the AAP and the relationship with the local plan because we appreciate it's quite a complicated planning piece and the two processes working through and we're also going to give you a bit of an update on the AAP and what's changed and we'll get some views about what you think about that during an interactive session and then pick up some of the benefits and some of the challenges at the end and then we'll give you a chance to actually ask the panel some further questions if you do have any by that stage so without further ado I'm going to hand over to Caroline I believe who's starting the slides off for us Caroline. Okay thank you Paul so I'm going to run you through some of the overarching issues around northeast Cambridge and as Paul said we're preparing two plans at the moment that both deal with northeast Cambridge so it would be helpful just to explain how they relate to each other and their process and timetable for moving forwards. So some of you will know we've been preparing an area action plan for northeast Cambridge for some years now and that reflects policies in our current adopted 2018 local plans that identify potential for this area for redevelopment but we have also looked in preparing our new greater Cambridge local plan and our first proposals that are out for consultation at the moment and that work has confirmed northeast Cambridge as part of the strategy for the new local plan and we'll run through a little bit of both of those plans and what they do and how they work and northeast Cambridge provides then a more detailed planning framework for the northeast Cambridge area specifically and the timetable for the area action plan is that we are having undertaken several rounds of consultation taking a report through our member processes having just published the report this week and Terry will talk you through that in more detail shortly and in terms of the local plan we're out for consultation on those first proposals so there's an opportunity to comment around northeast Cambridge as part of the local plan consultation. So if we then think about the local plan specifically, call on the next slide please. The local plan looked at a range of strategic options for development. It identified a vision very much to focus development in locations where use of the car was minimized because our evidence showed that was how you made the biggest impact on carbon emissions as part of our move towards a net zero carbon strategy and northeast Cambridge actually came out as the most sustainable location for development in greater Cambridge reflecting the it's in Cambridge, it has the Cambridge North Station, it has the busway out from Huntingdon and it has proposals from the Great Cambridge partnership for links up to Water Beach, you've got the Chisholm Trail, you've got cycling, you've got city access so there's an awful lot of existing and proposed infrastructure that makes this a particularly sustainable location for development. So next slide please Paul. So having identified this is a really sustainable location for development. We have looked at through the local plan, drawing on the findings of the area action plan that we consulted on last year, what the vision for this area could be and how we could make best use of this brownfield site within Cambridge with that really high accessibility credentials. So we're revisiting this as a new city district of Cambridge. It's a really sizeable site and it has really strong potential for development but of course at the moment it is home to the chemical wastewater treatment works and that's been a barrier for development in this area for many years. But we know that there is now proposals from Anglian Water in particular looking at relocation of the wastewater treatment works and to a new site at Honey Hill is their preferred location as they are going through their separate process and I think it's important to emphasise that it's a separate process not part of the area action plan or the local plan. I'll say a bit more about that in a moment and as I said we've published papers now for the area action plan to go through its committee process starting with the first meeting at the joint local planning advisory group next week on the 22nd. Next slide please Paul. So looking at what we the potential thing we think that North East Cambridge has we think that has potential for over 8,000 new homes and 15,000 additional jobs. Recognising it's already a successful area with the Cambridge Science Park and St John's Innovation Centre and so on and but important also particularly given congestion and also as part of meeting our housing needs to bring some housing development into that area as well. But it's not just about homes and jobs it's also about the supporting infrastructure that makes it a really good place to live to have all those services and facilities on your doorstep so schools, community and cultural facilities, open space and links also out into the wider countryside and we'll say more about that because our strategy in our new local plan isn't just about homes and jobs it's also about the green infrastructure that is really important as part of our quality of life every day and if you know that's something that's been really highlighted hasn't it through the pandemic the importance of having access to informal green space and there are initiatives identified through the local plan that come very close to northeast Cambridge and provide real opportunities to provide that accessibility to the wider area. Next slide please Paul. So before we move into Paul I think you might have missed the slide. Thank you. Before we move into the more detail around the proposals for the site I think it is important that we we do discuss the relationship with the water treatment plant process so as I said both the local plan and the air reaction plan are predicated on the treatment plant having relocated so that separate DCO process is absolutely key to this site being able to come forward. If it's not approved then we would need to look again so it's you know it's quite significant in in the process for both plans. So for the local plan we can progress forward to the draft plan stage which will be the next stage but we wouldn't be able to progress the local plan forward to the formal proposed submission stage until we know the outcome of the DCO because part of that formal stage and submitting plan for examination you need to be able to demonstrate that your proposals are deliverable and until we know if and when the DCO the water treatment works would relocate we can't demonstrate and rely on development in northeast Cambridge. And similarly for the air reaction plan that also can't progress to that formal submission stage so the decision that members are being asked to make is around the proposed submission plan to be ready for consultation but it will be paused and that consultation would not take place until such time as the DCO is determined and if it is approved. We do expect that the development consent order examination process will look to these plans, our plans you know they will look to showing how sustainable the site is and the merits of development in in this area but they are two separate processes. Next slide please Paul. So if the DCO is approved on its current timetable we envisage that we will be able to take both plans forward for their formal publication for representations to be made ahead of examination around 2024. Obviously we need to keep that under review and we certainly need to make a health check of the air action plan to see whether any changes in circumstances meant we needed to update the evidence or change the AAP at that point. I'm just talking still around the relationship between our plans and the water treatment works relocation what our appraisals will do so they don't look at the alternative sites for the water treatment works that's covered by a separate process but they do look at the cumulative impacts of our plans with the plans of others other plans and projects and that would include wastewater treatment relocation. So I appreciate it's quite a technical process and it probably doesn't always feel logical when you're looking from from outside but that's the way that the system will will work. Next slide please Paul. I think there were two other issues I just wanted to highlight at the outset here before we look at the AAP in more detail and that's around how water supply is dealt with because those of you that have been engaging in any of our discussions around the new grade Cambridge local plan will have heard us say time and again we recognise that water supply is a really important issue and for the local plan it would be predicated on that adequate water supply being resolved at later stages in the plan and because the AAP is at a more advanced stage we need to have a very clear policy position now in order to take the plan forward through its committee stages. Now the action plan policies propose the same sort of facing as delivery as the local plan but the policies are very clear that that can only take place if there's evidence that there will be adequate water supply without causing unacceptable environmental harm. We also know that the AAP will not actually go forward to its formal examination stages until water resources east have prepared a new water management plan and that should give us the clarity we need and hopefully the confidence that we need that there will be an adequate water supply. Okay so one more issue from me I also wanted to pick up the Fen Road level crossing which is an issue that comes up in the consultations that we've undertaken on the area action plan and I anticipate will also come up through the local plan consultation because this is a you know this is an important issue locally and particularly for communities living in Fen Road and affected by traffic waiting to cross the crossing into Fen Road. The councils have been pushing quite hard for this to be an issue that Network Rails should be looking at because the downtime at the crossing now is really significant it's over half an hour and every hour that the gates are down so we think it's is a really important issue should be being looked at. Network Rail is currently consulting on an ELE area capacity studies the name of their project which is looking at level crossings between ELE and Cambridge and unfortunately they've concluded in their current consultation that they don't think any further intervention is needed. Now we are currently preparing to make our formal response to emphasise very strongly that we consider that's an important issue. Network Rail came to the North Area Committee last week and indicated they'd welcome further engagement with the council so we will very much be holding to them to that and wanting to have those further discussions and that we will do alongside work on the new local plan but we say that's a separate issue from the area action plan itself. So that's it from me I know there's quite a lot of technical stuff in there but I hope it's helpful just to set that context before we look at in more detail at the area action plan and I'm now going to hand over to Terry to take you through information on that. Thank you Caroline so yeah so just to recap I suppose of where we are with the AAP process and where we've come from I suppose. So for those of you that may remember we did issues and options consultation back in 2014 so at that time the site was known as Cambridge, Northern Fringe East and that basically just included the land that was kind of the eastern side of Milton Road where the wastewater treatment plant is at the moment and some of the land around it it was a much smaller kind of area than what is currently proposed and then in 2019 we did another round of issues and options consultation so there's about 80 odd questions that we asked for comments on and we actually amended the site boundary at that stage to include Cambridge Science Park because obviously the Science Park is a really important local regional employer in the area and actually they're a really big part of Northeast Cambridge so it kind of made sense to include them as part of the proposals. That was a really positive consultation and we received a number of responses to that that then helped us to draft the the area action plan which went up for consultation last year so that was kind of July to October and it was at that stage where we moved away from here are some questions tell us what you think to here is a proposed vision here are some objectives policies and a spatial framework which is essentially like a diagram as to show how the area could be laid out spatially and we asked for comments on those things and that was a really again a really positive consultation we had over 4 000 individual representations from that consultation from a wide range of backgrounds which was really good and as part of that consultation we again we amended the boundary of the site so it included Cambridge Regional College again a really important local site in the local area over 3 000 students so it was important they were part of the area and it was kind of seen to sort of embed it within Northeast Cambridge rather than just being on the fringes but it also excluded the Bramblefields local nature reserve and the Nufford Road Allotments because we weren't actually proposing anything for those areas given given their kind of uses and sensitivities so we thought it was prudent to exclude them Paul can we go on to the next slide please so on the consultation from last year there were a number of kind of key issues that came out of it just very broadly one was the open space provision on site so at that time the AAP was proposing around 10 and a half hectares of additional open space on site and people thought that that wasn't enough wasn't sufficient for the number of homes that we were proposing people were concerned around building heights and densities so thinking about you know some of it didn't necessarily reflect the something you know the character kind of existing in some of the emerging character of the city and also the wider impacts that would have on the sort of fenn landscape and also the densities as well people were concerned that the site was was too dense and in combination with the open space provision it was to quote kind of claustrophobic in some ways people were also worried about employment numbers that the site was was was promoting too much employment floor space and therefore it was an imbalance between not only homes and jobs but also the fact that it would then result in more in commuting into northeast Cambridge and therefore you know kind of going against the kind of sustainable vision that we had for the site people were concerned that the community facilities weren't adequate enough and they thought that we needed to do more work on that which we which we have done and then as I've mentioned before managing traffic traffic levels you know thinking about the amount of development that we're proposing for northeast Cambridge people were obviously concerned that you know this would just result in tailbacks you know all the way up the 8010 and all the way along the a14 so those were the kind of key key issues that came out so in terms of the vision for northeast Cambridge we it's still largely the same although we haven't made some some amendments to it so we wanted to make sure that we emphasise that they're kind of healthy and inclusive place that we want we wanted northeast we want northeast Cambridge to be and particularly thinking about kind of its walkability and I'll come on to that in a moment and also just and also thinking about how it would be about high quality as well because you know we've high density development well we've all development to be perfectly honest but with high density development there is a concern that if it's not done well then actually you could end up with a really poor place so it's about making sure that you know we have really good strong kind of principles and foundations for development in northeast Cambridge to make sure that you you get the right type of development that's going to leave a you know a positive lasting legacy cool so looking at the kind of proposed changes this is just a very brief summary of the changes that we've made but so coming on to the open space provision we took it took it right back basically and looked at you know how much you know what does the existing local plan standards require and how can we how can we accommodate as much of that on site as possible a lot of the comments as well we're talking around COVID and the fact that people really used their local spaces a lot particularly during the lockdowns and how those kind of informal spaces so you know the commons the local parks the rec grounds the children's play spaces were just so incredibly important to so many people at that time so we've amended the spatial framework now which is this diagram here on the left and the site now based on the new diagram the new policies it meets the informal open space and the children's play space in full onsite so that's not us relying on other sites like Milton Country Park to meet to meet those standards it means that people everyone every single home at northeast Cambridge will be within a five minute walk from their doorstep to an open space so that's something that we really wanted to make sure we we not only provided the open spaces but actually distributed them around the site in a way that was easily accessible to everyone building heights we've we've undertaken further work so we've done further heritage studies we've done townscape studies as well looking at the impacts on the existing communities as well as further afield and we've reduced the building heights as well so now generally speaking building heights are around four to six stories whereas before they were generally five to eight and even the proposed sort of landmark building that we've got proposed from northeast Cambridge it's come down from 13 stories to 10 stories so that kind of puts it on a par with roughly speaking with kind of Parkside Parkside fire station in terms of sort of in terms of meter height the densities have also been reduced so previously they went up to kind of 385 dwellings per hectare now the densities are between 70 along kind of Nuffield Road and back in on to the existing residential houses and then they peak at 300 dwellings per hectare in the centre so to give that some sort of context 70 70 dph is around kind of like what you have around the Romsey Mill Road area of Cambridge at the moment where 300 dwellings per hectare is kind of what you get at around the sort of CB1 area around Cambridge station and that is only one block at the district centre that is at 300 dwellings per hectare everything else is broadly speaking around 180 to 240 so it's it's significantly reduced at that top end in terms of densities the important thing about densities though is that you still it's still important that you kind of get the critical mass of people to make this a new city district with densities if you go as there's there's always the risk that if you go potentially too low then you don't necessarily get all of the infrastructure and facilities that you need to make it a self-sustaining place so you know the schools the the health care the cultural facilities community facilities you know they all need a critical mass even you know the bus the bus routes and everything else they all need a critical mass in order to make sure that they're deliverable we've reduced the number of jobs on site so we've gone down from 20 000 to 15 000 new jobs and that's still a significant number of jobs but actually you know it's it's helped us in terms of making sure that we can manage the number of vehicles coming into northeast Cambridge a lot better and it also makes sure that we don't have a negative impact on some of the other employment sites that are in the other parts of Greater Cambridge so in Walter preacher in Campbell and or in in in other areas we're still making sure that we repoveried the same amount of industrial floor space in northeast Cambridge so we're still proposing to move the industrial uses from Northfield Road industrial estate into Cowley Road industrial estate and around the aggregates railheads to sort of act as a buffer to to those uses but we're we're making sure that we're protecting those floor spaces because they're really important employee employment area for local for local people but also cities need you know those types of uses to function people need to get their cars cars MOT people need scaffolding when they're doing work to their house we've clarified our infrastructure requirements for our infrastructure studies and there's more information in the plan about that from kind of schools health hubs and and those types of uses and we've now got an agreed transport strategy which helps to make sure that we can deliver our transport policies and work within the trip budget from northeast Cambridge and then pull if you just go on to the last slide for me it just sets out the change between the draft spatial framework on the left and the proposed spatial framework on the right and essentially you've got a really kind of clear green network now which runs both sides of Milton Road really linking in as well to the wider area so into kind of north Chesterton into King's Edges but also over towards the river to make sure people have access to the wider countryside as I mentioned before every home will be within five minute walk off an open space and also every home will be within a five minute walk off a local centre or district centre which will meet their day-to-day needs so it's really focusing on that kind of you know walkability easy access to to facilities and I think that kind of emphasises the point that Caroline was saying earlier about you know most sustainable location out of all of the sites in in Greater Cambridge it's about making sure that you know it's not just about going to work and jumping your car but it's also you know going out for a pint of milk or you know taking your kids to school and making sure that you know all of that is done in in the most sustainable ways possible so on that I think I'll pass back over to you Paul Terry thank you very much and Caroline as well I think that that was yeah really helpful I mean I know that there was some detail in there and but I think it's really helpful to give you a clear picture of some of the technical stuff that we've had to kind of navigate as well as also certainly the updates from where we've gone from the previous round of consultation and some of the work that Terry Matt and the team have been doing it's a really fantastic piece of work that's been happening and so what we'd like to do and just just a quick reminder that obviously all of the sessions all of the webinar sessions are up online at the moment all the previous ones this session will be exactly the same it will go up online probably by the end of play this week and so you'll be able to access it access with the slides as well and just for that and and you know and then and revisit some of the things that you've been we've been talking about what I'd like to do now is I don't know how many of you have had some of these sessions before we'd like to ask you a couple of questions yourselves get you a bit involved you can see some questions coming through in the chat and we'll pick them up as we go through those of you haven't used Menti before MentiMeter is a interactive kind of session and piece you can scan the QR code or you can visit menti.com and stick that code in there voting code 90005228 and we'll ask you some questions and get you involved and my panel as well can you pick all cameras back on as well please so people can see you so and we can actually get them back involved in the conversation as some of the questions and thoughts come through to everyone so firstly you know you've heard a little bit from Terry now about you know what the vision is how it's changed and those of you have been involved in knowing about the plan and you know previously you know you will have seen its evolution right back from kind of 2014 really so I think we'd like to really ask you you know what parts of this vision that you feel particularly excited about or parts of the vision that you feel are you know are really good opportunities not just the city of Cambridge but also for the wider area for the people who live here for the people living now the people who live here in the future so as I said if you go to that Menti code you should be able to stick in with some some thoughts I think I've allowed a word count of five but you can put in as many as you want really and while we're waiting for so many more thoughts to come through please do go and I'm waiting for some of your thoughts to come through I'm going to ask I'm going to ask someone the panel what you they think and Matt I'm going to come to you because you've had some serious involvement in this project for quite some time really and other projects as well so what are the things that you feel the most excited you about sort of the new vision as it were yeah I think for me it's the ability for us to in undertaking wholesale regeneration of this area to look at in particular some of those key barriers that that are limiting this area in particular the road networks that we have around and the rail and the bus linkages as well while they provide excellent public transport opportunities and connectivity they also provide physical barriers to movement what the AAP6 do is to as well as regenerate northeast Cambridge knit this area into its surrounding communities and location and by doing that as well doing it in a way that we can promote walking and cycling as the primary choice of travel around here and make this a kind of new exemplar I mean Cambridge has a long and and very successful history of cycle use in the area that that's the envy of everywhere else nationally and we can build on that as well through the proposals for NEC and really drive a new sort of place that that is really connected really usable in terms of walking cycling and all the facilities in the area that that provides everyone with fantastic opportunities to live to for employment and for connectivity to other facilities that we have across Skate of Cambridge as well so yeah that's what I'm really excited about yeah thanks Matt and I think we can see some of those thoughts coming through and people getting involved now I mean walkability obviously comes up really strongly in there but I mean Terry talked quite a lot about you know the re the review of the green spaces as well and you know don't forget nature yet of course and you know as Caroline mentioned earlier on underpinning not just NEC but our entire strategy for the local plan is both climate and you know biodiversity in green spaces and I think the changes that we've made have reflected that and you know I think what's the what are the what are the distances from a green open spaces Terry refresh me yeah so every home will be within a five minute walk of an open space so that will include you know kind of sort of kick around sort of spaces there's a sort of a larger green space that we propose now in the centre sort of in addition to the kind of the linear park that we've we've got along the first drain but also a lot more kind of local parks as well so you know various size sizes and shapes but you know those sorts of things that you could sort of just just go to as an easy stroll rather than it being an event having to you know make the effort to go and visit something and Paul perhaps just picking up on that because I've seen there's a question from in the chat from CPF about the potential impact that Northeast Cambridge might have on the wider area and you know would it impact on places like Wiccan Fenn for example I think it's really important to stress that so are the revisions to the air action plan meet our informal open space standards in full on site so we're not relying on offsite provision but I think it's also important to recognise that we are providing connections over to over the railway so that people can connect into wider footpath network so along the cam and so on but also there are going to be three ways of connecting north overall under the A14 and that's that that's really important in terms of the wider green infrastructure strategy that we have we didn't specifically have a map on that in the slideshow but there's an area to the north of Cambridge the area between Milton and Houston and wrapping right up to Walter Beach and and Cotun that are green infrastructure strategy work identified as a north Cambridge green space to provide enhanced recreation facilities so whilst that's a local plan proposal you know the north east Cambridge area and with that connectivity will will have on the back of that wider infrastructure provision real opportunities for access into the wider countryside and and should that you know should really help reduce pressures on some of these more sensitive spaces that are you know still some way away from the area and that has been looked at carefully through our sustainability appraisal and our habitats regulation assessment and I'm sure some of you will want to look at those and see you know what they've concluded but we think that that wider green infrastructure strategy is really important there's also another enhanced area to to the east as well over into the eastern fence so this isn't just about development it is about green space too and I think that's really important to see it in that wider context yeah and sorry on on that point sorry just to come in on the chest and pen point so so yeah the the area that we call chest and fen isn't within the area action plan boundary it's the land kind of between the railway and the river now there is potential for that area to be used for kind of biodiversity enhancements and informal amenity space but because it is within the flood zone it's not something that we can necessarily you know define as you know this is informal public open spaces at children's place spaces these are football pitches because you know they potentially can't be used all year round so the kind of aspiration is that that will become a kind of a biodiversity and informal amenity space that would link up the river and the northeast Cambridge site now you know that footbridge therefore to go over from northeast Cambridge into that area is really really important for that and as Caroline was saying in terms of general kind of movement into the wider countryside you know if you lived in northeast Cambridge to get onto the river topa without that bridge would actually be quite a cumbersome route you'd have to come all the way down to Moss Bank or you'd have to go through Milton Country Park and work your way up so actually it's a really important piece of infrastructure that would you know be a real benefit to the site. Yeah thanks Terry, Caroline and others and I mean you know I'm going to move over to the second question which is sort of the reverse of this question now and I just sort of mentioned you know obviously one of the things that hasn't come up in some of this is around the climate issues and as you know you know we'll have a whole session you can refer back to the green spaces of biodiversity webinar for what Caroline and Terry have been talking about obviously climate and you know the absolute requirement for us to get to zero carbon and within the green timeline set in the sixth carbon budget you know it does have an implication on where we put things and you know the strategy is reflected on that and you know northeast Cambridge is a very very sustainable location as well and so moving on so conversely and you know again same entity you should be able to answer this one straight away as well and before we go over to do a bit more do a few more slides is you know what parts of that vision in the morning northeast Cambridge are you worried about and I did notice some of the comments coming through and you know obviously we do understand the concerns around the relocation of the water treatment works obviously Caroline's and gone into detail about that and there is further detail on that and you know planning a lot of the time is a very kind of emotive and sensitive topic and you know we know that we understand that we're all planners and you know we've worked in very many environments where we've had to make decisions that not everyone likes and you know but we have done quite a lot of work on this and you know I think that probably Terry and his team I think this is one of the most detailed action plans I've seen and it is it is exciting I think it's genuinely exciting but you know there are things that people are going to be worried about we want to make sure that we can address them absolutely as far as we possibly can so you know please stick your comments in here as we talk over I know that we mentioned some of the issues that have cropped up recently in terms of the Fen Road issue and some of the issues that we kind of come across are that quite a lot of the way that we work in planning especially in the UK is quite dependent on other organisations you know there's certain things within our gift but we have to work together you know with both central government and other partners to deliver things and you know that is complicated and so yeah water supply I mean water supply is one of the things that's I think it's front and centre our entire local plan and you know our whole strategy is only deliverable on the fact that if water can be the issues with water can be mitigated and you know new regional scale infrastructure can be in place to deliver during that planned period but we know that we've got no money from within the water companies oh can I just comment on the concerns that people are highlighting which I think you know very real concerns one of the interesting areas that's being discussed not just in relation to this side but actually across the kind of planning landscape at the moment picking up on all of the issues that people are we can see on the mentee plan is effectively how do you make good places how do you make inclusive places how do you make places that are not either mono tenure or indeed are so dispersed that there is no economic driver for the kind of amenities and the important places where people can interact and where families can mix with with other parts of the community and one of the issues that is emerging and it's a reflection in some respects of why northeast Cambridge could be a very positive space is this dynamic about population densities now we can talk about heights of buildings and densities of buildings and so on but actually increasingly elements of population density and also workplace and population density and the relationship of them have been really central to some of the thinking around northeast Cambridge so sites like Camborn for example are very relatively low density locations where because of that people are quite remote from any form of centre people don't walk into the centre or don't encounter one another and I'm not using London as a reference point but a few years ago there was a lot of work done by the GLA around London's high streets and why they were so exciting and dynamic and vibrant places and what they found effectively when they mapped all of the different land uses and all of the different activities and importantly all of the different people that were using that space that street each day that became part of the that understanding that having school children and parents and working and retail and cafes and barbers and all of those kind of things as well as workspaces right on top of each other created much more interaction created much more comfortable but importantly much more economically successful and sustainable localities and for all of the concerns that people are highlighting in northeast Cambridge I think one of the issues around density of population is you know some of these issues are addressed because we don't see them perhaps in Cambridge's growth in relatively low density suburban forms of development one of the things that's different about northeast Cambridge is its potential to address some of those matters in a different way so I just I just wanted to kind of as I say put a bit of a counterpoint to some of these things require things like density of population and how do you think and your comments on this as we go forwards but how do you think we can achieve that in an appropriate form and Terry's talked about some of the changes that we that we've made but what you want to achieve in terms of those concerns in part are a function of population densities in locations going forward. Thanks Stephen and what we've I didn't introduce you to the bidding kicking because you know I knew you were joining late so this is Stephen he's a he's director of planning and development for those of you who don't know him as well so you'd be joining the panel so seeing questions come through now thank you for engaging with this it's been it's really interesting to see some of the comments coming through and what I'm going to do is I'm going to move to the last little part now and where I'm going to hand over to Matt and we will start answering some questions as we go through so I think this is these next to you yeah thank you Paul um yeah so hopefully everyone's aware that both of the local authorities have to clear climate change emergencies um and the sustainability agenda has grown massively um in the last 10 years or more and is at the forefront and that certainly comes through in the consultation responses that we've had to both issues and options and to the draft plan um about the priority that's we should be placing in the plan on addressing sustainability generally uh and therefore we've proposed very ambitious targets within the plan stretch targets beyond national standards in particular we're promoting obviously net zero carbon development but we're also trying to drive down uh water consumption from we're currently across Cambridge we've got a per person use of around about 133 litres the government's target is 110 litres per person and we are proposing 80 litres per person so we're really stretching those targets um we are not promoting any fossil fuels so no gas boilers or anything else recognizing the direction of travel that needs to be taken there but likewise driving down energy consumption through well we'd like to have promoted a sort of district wide hidden energy network actually the work that we did identified that actually we were better off looking at smaller scale decarbonized energy networks across the area so that's what's being promoted that will um help reduce the the draw on the national grid we have again through our evidence base said that 10 percent net biodiversity gain would be achievable but seeking to move that to a higher target would be challenging but we've gone for the higher target in a 20 percent net biodiversity gain across the area we think that's the right thing to do in terms of making uh everyone try to at least achieve the targets onsite where they can and that should be the aspiration here is to really challenge the development industry to deliver on our our expectations I think as local authorities but as community for them to do as much as possible that they can onsite um we are promoting 100 ev charging as well recognizing again the direction of travel towards electric vehicles being the dominant form in the future um and then looking at how we manage traffic generally even with EVs they will drive improved air quality across the area but that doesn't reduce traffic really um so again through the AAP we're promoting a trip budget that trip budget has other elements to it as well we're looking at car barns so people don't have ready access to their vehicles we're promoting delivery hubs for to do the last green mile journeys across the area to ensure that we intercept uh those trips before they enter into the area so looking further afield looking at milton park and riders potentially some of those uh locations where we can intercept vehicles before they come in um there was a question I think in the chat about air quality the air quality of the area is not fantastic in terms of it's mainly affected by the existing traffic air quality of the A14 but obviously with the further greening of the area that we're seeking to do the move to EV charging as well EV vehicles we hopefully will see a significant reduction in or improvement in air quality across the piece um we note that development's going to take a while before before we see real development on site so some of those things will start to come into play anyway thanks Paul do you want to move on and other key benefits to the site uh obviously with the number of housing that we're promoting we're also promoting a significant amount of those to be affordable housing um the government has set some requirements around that affordable housing in particular first homes which are discounted market housing for first-time buyers but beyond that we're looking at a combination of different types of forms of affordable housing um from affordable rent right through to social rent um as well as low cost uh housing products for uh for sale as well um recognizing that we have significant needs right across Cambridge because of our high house prices um that there is those that are on low wages that that need support as well as those in the middle-income bands as well that are struggling to get onto the housing later or find suitable accommodation as well so we have the ability through the AAP to provide for a wide range of different types of housing types and and 10 years to help people that are finding themselves in in housing constraint in particular again we're just back on that side sorry uh there we are looking towards things like custom and self-build housing we still see that there to be a role here in particular providing custom housing where people buy a shell and core effectively and then fit it out as their as they move in and they can then fit it out in their own time um but at least allows them to get onto the housing later and then we're also ramping up the standards in terms of accessibility so wheelchair housing provision as well as uh the enhanced uh part L standards of the building regulations thanks uh lastly for me is around some of the key wider benefits of here of what the AAP seeks to do obviously overall we're seeking to substantially enhance the built and environmental quality of the place um that we're looking for a very integrated community as well we're looking to target uh the widest range of of residents from um those more senior as well looking to downsize looking for a place where it's easily accessible it has all the amenities locally for them as well as great connections to everywhere else they need to be as well as those that are working and living in the area as well um and right through to families there are housing that we're promoting on site as well as flated development um we want to see those significant improved connectivities where we provide new community facilities within NEC we hope that they will be a benefit as well to the wider area and those strategic connections will allow people to uh within the surrounding communities to access those facilities as well as improvements offsite that the NEC can provide and again provide connections from from this part of NEC to to other parts within the wider area um and a key one for us I think Terry's already touched on is looking at the range of employment offer here at the moment we have very much a focus on the science life sciences and high tech office provision as well but then we have the industrial floor space which is really key to a sustainable local economy and through the AAP we're kind of promoting uh to bridge those gaps as well through more maker space more affordable workspace small medium-inch price spaces as well move on spaces too so significant employment opportunity both construction and post construction as well that we need to maximize the benefits off to the local community as well and and really make most of the new facilities that will be provided here thanks thanks very much much helpful overview there and what I'm going to do is I'm going to start coming to some of the questions you can sit up on the screen at the moment we've got the disturbents that we've done ones that are coming up as well and you can find that on the website and some events that we're coming up and what I'm going to do now is I'll leave that for a minute so you can see them we'll actually come to some of these questions here and there's a couple of questions on plan b so I'm going to come to Caroline potentially for that in terms of strategy and if the water treatment work doesn't go ahead is Caroline you happy to answer that yeah I mean we we are clear that if the water treatment works doesn't get approved then then we would need to find uh alternative locations for those 3009 b at this stage we still think there's a reasonable prospect of that coming forward and and but but clearly if it if that changes then we would need to look again and our what our evidence does is look at a whole range of different strategic spatial options and we've also looked at a significant number of site options so we would have to look and see well if our most sustainable location is not available for this plan where is the next most sustainable location um and we would need to look really long and hard at that honestly because um that's a quite a significant number of homes to find we would have to look at those other locations like around the edge of Cambridge that would involve looking at Greenbelt we'd need to look at um other locations that are well served on public transport routes do we look at another new settlement do we look at expanding others further um and we we would have to refresh our our strategy um but at this stage we haven't done that and I don't think that's the right thing for us to do at this point in time thank you thank you Caroline okay another question here and I think that there's some of these I can point direction in um in the chat afterwards where some of these have already been picked up in our FAQs and I think that the assessment of northeast Cambridge's sustainable location include the consideration of the carbon or environmental costs of decommissioning and moving the sewage works and of course I think that we've answered this previously but just to iterate obviously any development that took place on NEC we'd obviously be subject to our policy planning policy framework in place at that stage and hopefully we would have our um our carbon policies in place by that stage so actually it would be subject to the planning policies in place at that time and in as Caroline's mentioned before is one of the most sustainable locations for growth as shown in our um our sustainability appraisal um I think there's a question around numbers and I'll just touch on this again I mean there's a question saying why are you so persistent in exceeding the government survives numbers for developments and of course we're not persistent we have to do a job and and we have explained and I think one of the things is was very clear in the jobs and homes webinar which was actually I think our second session it really went into detail about why we felt that need that locally we needed to really look at those figures properly and because obviously local need is is the most important thing is whether you think government has a clear view on what is needed locally or not um but certainly we feel and what's incumbent upon us as um as planners and people are preparing plans to prepare a sound plan that meets its subjectively assessed needs and actually a lot of work went into that I don't know if any others want to say anything to that Stephen or Caroline um but so you know please do come in well I mean I think I think what we would what we would argue is that what we're doing on behalf of the communities is identifying the need that we believe will arise and planning for it um we're not necessarily following the government's um housing figure but that's because we from the work we've done we sincerely believe that the need that the area will experience for new homes and jobs is different and if we don't plan for that we do you all a huge disservice in Great Cambridge because it means that there aren't enough homes for the population that want to live here and um there are that has only one impact which is to increase the price of property as those who are more able to purchase it are able to outbid the people who may already be here or the families of people who may well already be here and it also means that local businesses face the same challenge when they're looking for premises or they want to expand or many long-standing businesses may well wish to expand and the price of business accommodation excludes them and second thing probably I'm sure there's only one but there's two the second thing is that actually all of those people end up coming to Great Cambridge they just drive and use public transport and so on so um I don't think we're abandoning it what we think we've done is identify what we think we need to plan for to meet the needs that the area is going to experience and just Paul I don't think you fully covered off the point that was raised about the carbon footprint of relocation I think the question related to whether or not the the net effect of redeveloping northeast Cambridge and the water treatment works had been considered and I think Caroline just to highlight I think Caroline highlighted that the sustainability appraisal that's associated with the local plan is one of those areas in which the consideration of the cumulative effects of the local plan that will will be considered thank you thank you Stephen thanks for that clarification as well so just a couple more questions here and I think I could see Terry is typing an answer but there's some questions around green walls and pieces like that which are some design pieces just know that you'd be interested in do you want to do you want to answer that in the live Terry let's save your fingers from typing it's too late speak to it but no yes uh no yeah no green wall is an important part of the overall strategy for northeast Cambridge alongside kind of green roofs as well that's not just a kind of aesthetic thing but actually there's two real valid reasons one is biodiversity you know there's a lot you can do um you know particularly for the smaller species and things around green green roofs and walls but also in terms of the kind of the thermal properties of buildings and how they work so thinking about the kind of heat island effect and how you can use green walls and that to actually help to sort of you know maintain sort of building temperatures and heat loss and things so yeah there's kind of there's a double sided coin on that one thanks Terry um I know we're a little bit either we've only got a couple of questions left so I'm going to spin through them um there's a question here around um parking provision um who will that be for people who are not qualified for blue badge have great difficulty and perhaps any temporary in walking more than a very short distance Matt I can see you're often ready to go with this one yeah yeah so we are we've made provision obviously I think and obviously blue badge parking will be outside of the residential dwellings uh and as close as possible to those as well there's parking will be for servicing as well for service vehicles and things like that in terms of people with mobility issues we're making provision for mobility scooters electric mobility scooters in particular to facilitate those as well we recognise that there will be a wide range of different types of beyond just bikes different types of ways and means of getting around um and other than that we're looking at uh internal trips through uh sort of localised um shuttle services and things like that to move people internally around the place as well so they will connect up with the local bus networks too so there'll be a wide range of different sustainable modes of travel within the area not just walking the cycle thanks Matt um question here on the emerging policy isn't written which leaves a policy vacuum um in terms of being wider than dco yeah do you want me to do that one as well uh yeah I mean we've got both local plans we're adopted 2018 they are the extent planning policies they account for the current circumstances on site and therefore any development comes forward ahead of either the emerging local plan or the aap will need to be dealt with in terms of the extent existing planning policies that are there so there's no policy vacuum as such that both of the emerging local plan and aap recognise a future opportunity but that opportunity is subject to the the success of the dco process so the extent policies reflect the current circumstances on site so and I think just to add to that it under circumstances that um the water treatment works didn't relocate and I wasn't sure if that might have also been part of the question we would obviously need to look afresh at whether we needed additional policies to cover places like the science park and the area around the station and so on so um we would we would reflect on whether we needed anything additional thanks Caroline and actually just one last question I think just to clarify again so there's a question around the sustainability appraisal in terms of the um embodied carbon um and obviously the contamination of the existing waterworks will the soil of the old waterworks be taken away as it has high metallis content from sewage do you want to just explain the sustainability appraisal piece that Stephen touched on um in relation to the um the movement of the water treatment works Caroline just just to touch on that well the the local plan and the erection plan are predicated on the water treatment works having having relocated um so the erection plan clearly needs to understand the risk of contamination and there is a contamination study as part of um the evidence supporting the erection plan which is looked at what conditions then ground conditions there might be and how they might need to be addressed um and the sustainability appraisal also looks at and understands um what risks there may be to soil and so on as part of that sustainability process um but we look at we are looking at this just to be clear on the basis of a site post relocation of the water treatment works on the basis that it will relocate that's the only way that we can be clear on a site being available for development just to add to Caroline's as well I mean modern technology allows us to treat most contaminants on site so that gone are the days we used to just dig up the soil and move it off site and bury it in a landfill somewhere now the environmental regulations pretty much require nearly all of the contaminants to be treated on site on site on source um which limits the amount of excavation that's required and then it's remediated on site as well to make it fit for purpose so only rarely where you've got some very noxious stuff that that has to be taken off and it has to be treated in a proper um proper process and plant to to deal with those um very noxious chemicals which we're not anticipating here sorry yeah thank you Matt that's a very helpful clarification so I'm going to wrap up now and then I just wanted to thank everybody for um coming along and not just the panel who've been great but also all of you for coming in and joining in and getting involved in discussion and giving us your thoughts and questions as I said at the beginning there will be um this will go up live including the slide deck um onto our website I think it probably will be by the end of the week usually it's pretty quick we'll deal with those things pretty quickly um but other than that we have got no more webinar sessions so this was the last one you'll be quite glad to know those of you have been to every single one you don't have to look at my face anymore um but you might be able to look at it in recording if you really wanted to and have a lovely week all of you and thank you for attending and thanks to the panel and I'll see you all soon