 Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the third Q&A session of the North East Cambridge Area Action Plan. My name is Terry De Souza. I am a principal planning policy officer at the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service, and I'm going to be your host today for this session. I'm very pleased to say that we have a number of people joining us today on our panel who will hopefully be able to answer all your interesting and really relevant questions on water and climate change, which are very important and key topics, not only for North East Cambridge, but generally for Greater Cambridge overall. Before we get started, I just wanted to run through how the session is going to run today. So there's just going to be a quick introduction where everyone will introduce themselves, and I'll also set out some of the housekeeping rules about how you can answer questions and how the team will answer those. My co-host, Emma, will then do a short presentation on not only the area action plan, but provide some details as to what the climate change and water policies say in the plan. Then it's over to you, and you have the opportunity to ask us questions. As I said, we will do our best to answer those for you. Now, the way you do that is very simple. At the bottom of your screen, there will be a button that will say Q&A. Within that, you can type in your question, and you can do that either anonymously, or you can put your name against that, and the team will then pick those up as the session goes on. Now, in previous sessions, we have run out of time to answer all of the questions. So what we've done previously is we will get through as many as we can within the hour, and then after that, any questions that we aren't able to answer live, we will then provide a written response to those and put those onto the council's website, alongside a recording of this Q&A session. Now, the recording, it won't show any of the people that are there watching us. It's only going to be the panellists and myself that will be visible on the screen, so you don't need to worry about you being visible to the world, and we won't be reading out any names either when we're answering your questions. So, without further ado, I'm just going to now introduce my co-host and fellow panellists, so I'll first turn to Emma. Okay, good afternoon. I'm Emma Davies. I'm the Principal Sustainability Consultant for the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service, so I'm here to provide a quick presentation and then ask any kind of climate change and sustainable construction specific questions that you might have. Thank you, Emma. I will then now pass over to Julia. Julia, I think you want to mute, sorry. Hi, sorry about that. My name is Julia Beedon. I work for the County Council. I'm the flood risk and biodiversity manager, and although I haven't been as directly involved, my team works across this project with a number of colleagues from the Greater Cambridge Shared Partnership. We're looking at the ecology and surface water flood risk impacts of this site going forward. Thank you, Julia, and Harry. Good afternoon. My name is Harry Pickford. I work for the County Council as well as a Sustainable Drainage and Flood Risk Officer. It's kind of commenting on planning as it comes through the surface water impacts on this development. Thank you, Harry. That's great. And Louisa. Hi, I'm Louisa Noons. I'm drainage engineer for Cambridge City Council. I've been involved in giving advice to the planning team on flood risk sustainable drainage policy for this site. Thank you. Matthew. Hi, I'm Matthew Patterson. I'm the project lead developing the Northeast Cambridge Area Action Plan on behalf of the Shared Planning Service. Great. Thank you, Matt. So people who will be watching will also see my colleagues Joe and Hannah on the screen. Joe and Hannah are providing invaluable technical support with this Q&A and others. So just in case you were wondering who they were. OK. I should also say that there's no chat facility within the webinar. It is just a Q&A session. So as I said, please feel free to ask questions. You can do so any point from now on and we will start, I think, with the presentation. So Emma, if you'd be able to run through the presentation, that would be fantastic. Thank you. Of course. Thank you. Just wait for the screen to start sharing. There we go. OK. So welcome all to this Q&A session where we are focusing on climate change and water for you today. So if we move on to the next slide, just going to give you a very brief overview of the site. So we're looking at 180-ish hectares of brownfield land in an area of the city that's got good transport accessibility already and which will improve significantly over the coming decades. The site is a 15-minute cycle ride from the city centre and we've got a range of landowners on the site, which is one of the reasons why we are looking to produce a coordinated planning framework for the site. The site is also strategically important not just for the Greater Cambridge area, so Cambridge and South Cambridge, but also for the wider region, which includes the Oxford Cambridge Ark. But what we're very clear on is that the development of this site must also benefit local communities, so it needs to address deprivation and also ensure integration. So the next slide will take you through what is an area of action plan. So basically it's a planning framework to guide the development of a specific area and it has equivalent status to a local plan. So the document will set out the spatial framework for how the development will come forward and it sets out a range of thematic policies. It's supported by a very extensive evidence base, so there are various studies and also topic papers and it will go through an examination process with an independent planning inspector prior to its adoption. So moving on next now to our vision for the site. So we really want North East Cambridge to be an inclusive, walkable, low carbon new city district with a lively mix of homes, workplaces, services and social spaces, which is fully integrated with surrounding neighbourhoods. So the next slide will take you through just some of the headline figures for the site. So at the moment, this site, it's 182 hectares of land. There's 15,000 jobs currently on the site and just three homes. There are also 4,400 unused car parking spaces on the site and as we've already mentioned, it's 15 minutes from the city centre by bike. In the future, what we're looking at is around 8,000 new homes on the site for around 18,000 residents and 40% of those homes will be affordable. We're looking at 20,000 new jobs being created across the site in many different sectors and also we're looking at the creation of 10 hectares of public parks and squares. There'll be three new primary schools for the site, a new library and we'll be looking at around 10 new or improved walking and cycling connections with the rest of the city and surrounding area. So next slide really and now focusing in on the purpose of today's session which is climate change and water. I don't think you need to start with the site itself. It is a highly sustainable location for low carbon living and through the area action plan we're going to ensure that new development takes a holistic approach to designing for both climate change mitigation which is reducing emissions and also adaptation so making sure that the site is resilient to future climate change. The development of the site will also have to support the transition to net zero carbon. Now if you've already looked at the area action plan there's no specific carbon reduction targets in there yet and that is because we're actually working at the moment on a piece of evidence space that will develop those carbon reduction targets not just for the area action plan but actually for Greater Cambridge as a whole and we've got the local plan happening kind of in parallel to this process. We are also going to be developing an energy master plan for the site so that's a document that will identify the energy systems required to support those carbon reduction targets and also the infrastructure required to facilitate their delivery and also we're working on a water cycle study that's being developed which is looking at both flood risk and also water resource availability and water infrastructure and that's a document that we're going to have independently peer reviewed by a specialist in this sector. So moving on to my next slide as I've already mentioned this is a really good site for low carbon living. It's a site that already benefits from good sustainable transport links so we've got Cambridge North Station, there's the bus route and we've already got some good cycle links on the site all of which will be improved. The area action plan really focuses in on the creation of compact liveable and walkable communities. It's making use of an existing brownfield site rather than a greenfield site so what this allows for is a higher density development and also a mixed use development meaning that the development will be more walkable and it will be more energy efficient than you would get with a lower density development. Next slide is really what's some of what's key in all of this is the opportunity that this site presents for low carbon travel and it presents an opportunity for a major shift in travel behaviour. So we're very clear that the car will not be king on this site. The site is going to be designed for walking, cycling and public transport to make active travel the natural and obvious choice for people living and working on this site. There are a number of ways in which we can discourage and unessential car use. So for example thinking about quotas and also parking restrictions and one of the clear benefits of this is that we'll actually see an improvement in air quality and wellbeing benefits for everyone who's currently affected by the levels of transport on Milton Road. So next slide is this is kind of a slide that's showing you some of the opportunities on this site for designing for the climate emergency. So policy two of the area action plan is our climate emergency policy and this diagram here sets out some of the opportunities to integrate climate resilience into the design of the built environment. So looking at things like enhancing green infrastructure through planting trees, through using green and brown roofs, all of which helps to keep buildings, streets and spaces cool. We're looking at requiring external shading and overhangs on buildings to help reduce overheating and we're also talking about things like using cool materials and also looking at integrating water and sustainable drainage systems into open spaces. And then the next slide which is my last slide before I hand back to Terry is some of the water issues. Now we know that water is a very sensitive issue for greater Cambridge as a whole. The area action plan sets out a number of policies on water. There's a water efficiency policy in there. Now some of you may know that we are slightly hampered in the water efficiency standards that we can require of new development because government have actually restricted us to only be able to set a certain level of water efficiency from new housing development. But we are looking to introduce policy in the area action plan that will encourage and incentivise developers to do better. We've also got policy in there requiring the use of sustainable drainage systems which are systems that are integrated into buildings and into landscapes to slow the flow of flood water but also deliver other multiple benefits including biodiversity enhancement and also amenity benefits. To inform policy as already mentioned we're working on an integrated water management study and this will identify what water resources are available for the future growth and will also help to identify what infrastructure in terms of water supply and also wastewater will be needed. And I think that's it from me so I'll hand back to Terry briefly. Thank you Emma that was really helpful. So before we get started we had a few questions come through kind of on social media and things what people have been asking. So we thought we'd put them into the beginning of the Q&A session just to try and address some of those some of those questions. So we've got various members of the team that are going to go through these questions. So the first question that we have is how will the scheme deal with flood risk? I'm going to pass over to my colleague so he'll pick that up. I can answer this one. So the development proposals will require strategic flood risk assessment and the strategic flood risk assessment is being carried out for Cymru City Council and South Cymru Chire and of course the North East Cymru is included in this area. The study is going to look into assessing flood risk from different sources and looking at the effects of climate change. This study will be available is being carried out by a consultant's standard and we are aiming to have a draft in September. There is also some stakeholders involved, environment agency, lead local flood authority, water companies and as the individual development proposals come forward for the North East Cambridge we can then identify which sites are within the flood risk zones and if the specific site is in the flood risk zone there will be a need of a specific flood risk assessment for depth development. There will be also to minimise the flood risk. There will be also the implementation of sustainable drainage measures for all sites even without being in the flood risk zone. Those standards and expectations for the sustainable drainage are drafts in the policy for C flood risk and sustainable drainage. I think that's it. That's great. Thank you, Louisa. Okay, we have another question and this will be going to Julia and will there be enough water for the proposed development? Hi, okay, so there's the three effective levels of this question to tackle. There's the local level in terms of the building design and the development design is then what's happening as part of the local plan and what's happening on a more regional basis at which the water companies work. So first of all in terms of the development itself, a large number of different regulators and stakeholders are obviously involved in or in a role whereby they'll be approving these designs. So there's a lot of very close working from the local level right up to the more regional level with the water companies and with the developers and it is going to be an area where everything is managed very very carefully and there's very significant awareness of the local concern around water resources. So everyone's working very closely together and developers will be expected to demonstrate that all proposed development will be served by an adequate water supply. So in terms of the development itself, buildings will be designed to reduce water by over 15% compared to the current average for Cambridge. The proposal is also that the new development must achieve as a minimum water efficiency which is equivalent to 110 litres per person per day. There will also be as Emma mentioned a desire for mains water consumption of actually 80 litres per person per day to be achieved and this we hope can be achieved using main water harvesting and various other methods of water recycling. So weight will be afforded to try to encourage that to happen. As Emma mentioned there is that limitation from government unfortunately. So proposals for non-residential development must also achieve five BRYAM credits for water use that's policy W-A-T-O-1 unless it can be demonstrated that that really is not economically or technically viable. So that's what we're looking for, five BRYAM credits for water use. So in terms of the local plan at the next level for all the developments, as Louisa mentioned the consultant STAN Tech have been appointed to carry out a strategic flood risk assessment. They're also carrying out an integrated water management study and the point of this is to provide a robust evidence base for the local plan to support that plan's development and this includes looking at the NEC air action plan site. So the aim of the study is to look at all aspects of the water environment to consider the sustainability of the growth that's being proposed and what water infrastructure will be required and then to work out what measures are needed to manage and protect the water environment. So it's very much a case of looking at all that growth and working out what is needed along in partnership with the water company, so Cambridge Water and Anglian Water to make sure that that infrastructure is going to be able to be provided. The study will identify what water resources are available for future growth and then will help the councils looking at different possible growth scenarios. The water resources element of the study is also going to be independently reviewed by a national recognised expert in this field to ensure rigourous scrutiny. So as Emma mentioned earlier that's the peer review. So the consultation encourages common and feedback on policies 4a which is water efficiency and 4b which is water quality and ensuring a supply for the draft air action plan. So then just briefly at the wider scale many of you may be aware of water resource management plans. These are water company plans that plan for 25 years and these are updated every five years and the current one for Cambridge Water is 2020 to 2045 and at that much more regional level the water companies are working together to try and work out how they are going to provide water resources for the future and this is looking at much broader scale measures around whether the county needs more reservoirs, how they can reduce abstraction from groundwater and therefore provide greater resilience for our chalk streams. It's also going to be looking at water transfer with other regions and in order to do this in the best possible way what's happened is a lot of the water companies in the region have clubbed together to create water resources east which was also mentioned earlier and through that organisation they will be developing some quite broad ranging and hopefully quite innovative solutions to tackle this for the long term so that that work can underpin any kind of growth in the local plan. Okay that's all from me thank you very much. Great thank you Julia. Okay and then the next question we have is how does the draft air action plan help address climate change and I think Emma will be able to help you with that. Okay so section 4.1 of the draft air action plan sets out to designing for the climate emergency so in terms of addressing climate change and I'm going to focus in a little bit here on kind of climate change adaptation is that policy will require all development to be climate proofed against a range of different climate risks so this includes flood risk and water availability that Julia's already touched on and Louisa and also risks such as overheating which is becoming quite a critical area that we're experiencing so in order to minimise the risk of overheating for example the area of action plan requires all development to apply what is known as the cooling hierarchy so this is looking at ways to reduce the amount of heat entering buildings primarily using energy efficient design using measures to reduce heating such a reduce heat entering buildings such as looking orientation of buildings the amount of fenestration but also looking at things like shading the use of cool materials green roofs and wider green infrastructure and it's looking at those kind of passive design measures before we then start to think about having to use mechanical means of ventilation with air conditioning being the absolute last resort we're also going to require all development to undertake overheating analysis using kind of industry guidance and we're asking them to do that using future climate scenarios as well under a 2050 climate scenario and also when designing for overheating risk they also need to take account of the external environment and constraints that there might be so thinking about noise air quality and that sort of thing so I think that's probably enough for that for now thank you Emma okay and then the final question before we get on to the questions that are coming in at the moment well now this is a good question because you know the draft area action plan talks about how this would be a green development and very sustainable but will this development actually be net zero carbon so Matt hopefully you'll be able to answer that question for us thanks Terry yep so yes the draft northeast area action plan has been fundamentally shaped really by the requirements for the low carbon low impact and to and to meet our requirements regarding net biodiversity increase so therefore development at north cambridge must support the transition towards net zero carbon society and in that context development must minimise carbon emissions associated with the operational energy and construction including materials as well as wider emissions for example those associated with transport development has to be supported by decentralized energy low carbon energy combined with smart approaches to energy infrastructure including energy storage which is policy three achieving net zero carbon requires us to rethink all aspects planning in place making not just about how the buildings are designing constructed but also about siding development where it will be well served by public transport cycling and walking as well as renewable and low carbon energy proposals should be future proofed as well to enable future occupants to easily retrofit and upgrade buildings and or infrastructure in the future to enable achievement of a net zero carbon development we're currently working with bioregional to develop an evidence base for net zero carbon policies in the local plan and we'll use those to define targets and policies for inclusion in both the AAP but also in the local plan and that works not just looking at energy use in buildings but also issues like transport and embodied carbon as well as wind development should achieve net zero carbon so for now we have a placeholder in policy two in the AAP and that's where we're at great thank you Matt okay so two of the questions that we've had through so far I think I'm going to try and group them together and probably send them over to your way Emma so many moons ago I attended a presentation at then new hall college or water management strategy for the area what happened and the environment agency have written a letter on the 7th of August saying they determined that current levels of obstruction are causing environmental damage any increase in use within existing licensed volumes will increase the pressure on a system that is already failing environmental targets how do you reconcile reconcile development with an acknowledged lack of water resource now I think Julia probably picked this up a little bit in her response but Emma would be good if you could just just touch on those a little bit please that would be great yeah okay so I think the first question I think that actually relates to the water cycle study that was produced to support our existing local plans which was produced by I think it was Helcro I think the date on that document is 2011 something like that so that was a document that informed policy development for our existing local plans now that document did actually recommend in terms of water efficiency a figure of 80 litres per person per day which is the policy that we had in our draft local plan and unfortunately that policy was removed from the local plan by the planning inspector this links back to what I mentioned earlier about us being restricted in the policies that we can set so that is an issue for us moving forward and something that we are looking at as part of the new kind of integrated water management study that we've already referenced and that Julia has referenced the environment agency I believe are on the steering group for that particular study so we are working very very closely with the environment agency the water companies and also other groups involved in the water environment because we do know that this is a critical issue that needs to be addressed across all sectors not just new development but every area of water use really does need to consider how we can reduce water demand so that we have long-term sustainable supplies of water resources so that is something that is being looked at in great detail as part of the integrated water management study and looking at you know what can we do to perhaps go further than we are currently able to uh in local policy conversely we can set whatever water efficiency standard that we can for non-residential development so the the standard that Julia referenced which is the maximum credits from the Bream certification process that is the highest standard of water efficiency that you can actually get from non-residential development so it is a key issue moving forward and one that we are looking at with our various partners as part of the integrated water management policy and also considering what we can do in terms of lobbying for for powers to to set more stringent water efficiency standards okay thank you and then there's a follow-up question to that which is about the time scales for new water resource are far longer than the time frame for development Julia is that something you might be able to put up on? Yeah that's fine so yes that that is it's true in terms of if um if the solution is to develop a new reservoir for example that is obviously a very long-term plan um so that's why the water resource management plans are planned for 25 years but you're right in the in the short term that's why it's imperative that the development does consider to take as many as much action as it can and that the things that Emma and I've mentioned in terms of reduced water usage um but the if you look in the water resource management plans for Cambridge Water and Anglin Water um it is you know it's reassuring to know that they are working together and that these issues and it's nothing new for those water companies the environment agency and the um has been making the water companies aware of that there's concern for a while and the partners are working very closely together to try and look at solutions so there are proposals to try and look at some quite short-term solutions to improve the resilience of the chalk streams so I think you'll hear over the next kind of year the next probably six months or so um the water company through water resources east looking to try and create some local projects working with um local partners like the catchment partners and um with the district councils and others and local landowners to try and work out what they can do on a short term basis um and I think the priority is very much about that resilience for four chalk streams um because everyone is aware not just it's not just about the water resource levels but about when that water is abstracted from the the chalk streams the impact that that then has on the habitat and the biodiversity of those streams so it is very much an issue um that people are aware of and I think that the public pressure you know has to certainly have been a really good thing because it has meant that that issue really stays at the top of that agenda and I think there is there's definitely going to be some movement over the next few months as um we start to look at um you know how we can take some of those projects toward in the short term so that then there's methods in place so that the long-term schemes can then pick up from from there um there's certainly been a discussion with the county council um with south camps and with some farmers um in some of the catchments about whether we can get together and start a project so that's something that we're all quite excited about doing and very much watch this space sounds good thank you Julia okay we've got another question um one of the previous slides had somebody holding a carrot which I think um sparked a question so what profession will this development make for residents growing food which is a key element of a low carbon community we need dedicated facilities including allotments and community gardens so that's a really good question so uh Matt is that something you could take on please yeah sure um so a key requirement of the AP is to require the master planning of the area to be landscape led and it's purposely done so and the the open space environment within NEC has to work really hard it has to deliver on the biodiversity agenda our working and cycling agenda um has to deal with the climate change as well in terms of trees and planting for cool um but alongside that the amenity spaces that are provided are there for recreation purposes for proper amenity purposes but it can also be providing for community gardens allotments in particular we're looking at green roofs which are equally able to cater for community gardens and the like and part of this will come down to the planting strategy of the landscaping proposals as well what we're looking for there is things like community orchards as part of those landscape strategies and making provision for growing thank you Matt I know some of the community orchards um in the city at the moment are extremely popular aren't they um we've been looking for local communities so yeah definitely something that we'll be looking to to to build on really for northeast Cambridge yeah and you can build a lot of that into the landscape strategy that you put in place um you know a landscape doesn't necessarily just need to be um you know of nice trees and things like that but they can be functional as well in terms of her planting and other types of planting that can deliver on them absolutely thank you okay um so we've got a question about uh it's quite relevant actually as soon as the weather we've been having recently so certainly it was hit by flash flooding not so long ago how will you deal with this now um um now that we've got this raised risk especially during the summer so does something Louisa you might be able to answer please so with the climate change we will see that the rainfall will be quite frequent and like flash floodings will appear more in the summer um so in terms of the design we expect the sustainable drainage uh to accommodate the climate change allowance um to prevent you know to accommodate the the rainfall this intensive rainfall I know if Julia and Erie do you have any think you have should I come in so yeah as Louisa mentioned there's obviously um work that needs to be done at the site detail and that's what Louisa and Harry will review in in detail as the applications come come forward but very much along the lines that Emma's mentioned around sustainable drainage systems um you know holding back that water so that it doesn't have a an impact downstream and then obviously wherever possible providing betterment but just for the wider context um there is a you know growing obviously concern across the country about flash flooding this is what we call surface water flooding or you you may hear referred to as pluvial flooding and the environment entity has just released its new national strategy so it's the national flood and coastal erosion risk management strategy that was just um released for public awareness last week because that's sorry week before last I think because that's now going through parliament for approval and that recognises that increasing risk of all sorts of flood risk as Louisa mentioned through climate change but for surface water that's an area that um that my team at the county council and also Louisa's team are very very aware of and then the county council have a duty to prepare a local flood risk management strategy which we will update now that the national strategy has been approved and we look very much to um to try and work with existing communities that have that have that risk uh to see what we can put in place with them to uh to manage the risk better and I think one of the difficult things as Louisa mentioned because climate change is going to have a significant risk um is balancing that against the infrastructure that we have in this country at the moment because the types of rainfall that we're seeing and we haven't got the figures yet but I suspect for Sydney it's will prove that um the drainage itself in terms of the existing highway drainage probably had a very minimal effect on the rain because I suspect the rainfall was so heavy um that it was uh for much greater quantity than could be coped with by any any highway or local infrastructure on that that scale and what that means is that for all of us across the country we're going to have to be much better prepared for this kind of rainfall um obviously in terms of replacing huge ways of infrastructure that's a massive project and will take time and cost money so we're all going to have to be much more much more prepared and while the emphasis is on the individual landowners to uh to manage their the risk to their property and that involves things like working community to do community flood plans and personal flood plans we want very much to work with you with the water companies like Anglin Water with the Environment Agency and across the district and and council partners and also internal drainage boards where they exist in the area to try and find you know solutions that we can take this forward what I would do though is to say if we do have any flush flooding in any of areas just urge you to report that because the county council can only take forward projects and investigations about areas where it's aware that internal flooding to properties has happened um so just to put a general plea out there for anyone that is aware of uh flooding to internal properties to please report that to the county council so that we can then look to to make improvements um but I think the focus here is very much on the site we've got a new development and we've got that opportunity to make sure that that site does have a a really fantastic drainage strategy and incorporates things like green roofs and and fantastic sustainable drainage systems that do not only reduce the the risk not only sorry not only prevent there being an increase in risk but also reduce that risk and then provide betterment to the current situation. Thank you Julia. We were talking earlier actually about when there is flush flooding and who that gets reported to and how there's a bit of ambiguity out there is to you know who do you contact you can't contact the council or you know the fire brigade or other so it's helpful that you um you added that in there because I don't think people really know because I don't think they come across it very often so I think it's it's quite good to know that if it does happen there's an iteration as well it's something that I think any of us would have chosen for government to give us this um this messy picture you know with having water companies district councils county councils highways internal drainage boards environment agency everyone has a different role in flooding and I think that's incredibly confusing for the public and not something that any of us would wish on it so I'll always say um you know they're very welcome to report the flooding to us as a lead local fellow authority and we can make sure that the right people um you know then dealing with those reports. Thank you. We've got some more questions about allotments but before that I'm just going to stick to the water theme for just a second for one more question it said will some of that water be collected to water the green spaces within northeast Cambridge so um Emma you're nodding your head so that might be a question that might be coming your way. Yeah that's quite a common approach actually and a lot of schemes that we come that come forward and it's something that our landscape architects will often look at is what is the strategy for actually watering open spaces and they will establish much more successfully if they are actually watered with rainwater um so I would say it's something that we will be looking for in terms of the long-term management and maintenance of those open spaces. Yeah and I know in the actual area of Action Plan itself it talks about um sort of drought resilient landscaping as well to make sure that we're not increasing the problem in terms of water usage and trying to make sure that the landscapes and public realm are resilient to you know the client the changing weather patterns that we're seeing at the moment so yeah absolutely thank you. Okay coming back onto the allotment question it seems to be a popular one so um there's some skepticism about um about green roofs and whether that whether that will provide you know the allotments that people are going to need and also um talking about how you know within within within parishes there is a you know there's a real there's a real requirement um that you know new homes provide allotments so what does what does the city council say in terms of its sort of planning obligations or planning requirements on allotments and how will how will that be picked up as I suppose as part of the northeast Cambridge development as sites come forward. Yeah so I can deal with the first one um green roofs are any part that they're potentially a small part of what we're talking about in terms of space for growing food really uh what we're talking about is within the wider open space and amenity spaces provided within the scheme's landscape surrounds but roof gardens can provide component of that as well. In terms of allotments themselves the local plan standard is a requirement of 0.4 hectares per 1000 head of population. We are looking towards meeting that but it may be that that is better met rather than through allotments through community garden space that more people can then obviously access and share and looking at code joining those with schools and things so that the children get involved in growing and understanding how plants grow early on. Right on mute there yeah yeah and there's just a follow-up question I think on that was about um talking about the standards which I think you've already mentioned Matt um recognising that northeast Cambridge isn't um it's not an urban extension but it clearly needs significant provision given the absence of allotments in nearby orchard park um and what growing areas on the ground will there be I think you've sort of covered that a bit in universe once already. Yeah hopefully I mean we we've got the allotments next door to the site that are already there um we would be looking to make complementary provision on site but like I say I think whether it's allotments in the traditional sense or whether you're looking at more community garden growing areas. Cool thank you okay um but I think that's a really good point actually and I think if you know with all of the the things that we're talking about today and others you know if people have you know real strong kind of views and thoughts on on these topics then you know we would you know we really really encourage you to you know firstly thank you for taking part in the Q&A but to actually put in your comments formally through through the consultation process because that is really how we're going to be able to you know understand what the concerns are of local people and how we can then try and address those as we as we seek to finalise the plan over the next over the next months and years before it gets adopted so so yeah just a just a plug really for the to the consultation just to make sure you get your comments in in writing that would be really good. Okay um so moving away from water and allotments now going on to mid construction materials so what requirement is being placed on developers to use low carbon construction materials to limit embedded carbon that sounds like an Emma question that does sound like an Emma question okay so this is quite an interesting area actually and it is quite critical area for net zero carbon because dealing with energy use in buildings is actually quite easy to do and the embodied carbon in materials is quite a big proportion of the building's energy use now it is an emerging area because at the moment in the UK there's no one defined way of actually calculating embodied carbon so what we've done for now is we've again it's a kind of placeholder that we've put into policy two of the area action plan so we will be requiring all developers to minimize carbon emissions associated with embodied carbon and we are asking them to use a specific way of calculating that and I think we refer them to what's in the I think it's the rix embodied carbon or climate emergency design guide so that's what we're using for now because that's kind of one of the established methodologies but I think there's a lot of work still to be done on actually defining a really good tool for calculating embodied carbon and it's something that bioregional are looking at for us as part of their work on net zero carbon so when we've got the outputs for that study which should be later this year we can re-look at that part of the policy and if we need to slightly amend that policy we can do but yet we are certainly wanting all development to be calculating and limiting the amount of embodied carbon in materials used sorry I'm on mute follow up question to that can you insist that rix or rural institute of charter survey standards are met it's a very good question I think we can only try this as far as I'm aware at the moment there aren't any other local plans adopted that have got embodied carbon policy requirements so it is an area that I would say we're possibly testing through the area action plan and also through the local plan but the rix targets are quite widely used already in the construction industry so I would hope a lot of the developers that we will see on site will already be quite familiar which is why we went for the rix approach for now because it's probably the most familiar approach to the widest part of the construction industry okay and then one of the questions that I was actually asked on the first webinar and I thought it's probably more appropriate for this one was about timber framed buildings and about how what sort of you know there's a big push at the moment I think centrally from government about you know looking at other methods of construction and timber is obviously one that is getting a lot of international attention and just you know what role could timber frame buildings have at northeast Cambridge and how does that help if that's all in terms of you know carbon reduction and you know sustainable construction in general really yeah so yeah there's nothing in the area action plan to prevent timber frame construction being used and it's already quite a popular approach certainly in residential development you see the use of a lot of timber in modular construction for example and cross laminated timber which is a very kind of strong structural type of timber is becoming more and more widespread so some of that would get picked up in that kind of embodied carbon approach the area action plan does require kind of life cycle analysis as well so there is a bit of debate amongst architects as to what is a better performing material when you look at life cycle and take into account things like you know using concrete frame that might give you slightly better thermal mass and helps to cool the building reducing cooling loads so there is a bit of a kind of argument about what's the best technique but I think certainly we may well see more timber construction for some of the the buildings coming forward it becomes slightly trickier when you get to slightly taller buildings because building regulations requirements kick in as well and they they will sometimes limit the use of timber for structural elements but I think certainly we'll we'll see it coming forwards more and more thank you sorry I'll keep it getting to our mute thank you all right we've got 10 more minutes in this Q&A so if there's any more any more questions people like to ask please please do ask them in the Q&A function at the bottom like I said if we don't manage to get through them all we will provide written responses and put those online within the next couple of days just to give you just a quick update in terms of what's coming up moving forward we do have four four it's got five on there five more Q&A sessions lined up the next one is on open spaces and biodiversity and that's on the 26th and then as you can see we have a few more themed sessions before we have a more general one to conclude on the 21st of September which is just a couple of weeks before the consultation closes which the date for the diaries is five p.m. on the fifth of october so if you are going to respond to the consultation please make sure your comments are with us by then and there's a lot more detail on the website on the council's website as to how you can engage in the process details on the screen now okay so before we run out of time we've got some questions here okay so we've got one about okay for amusement I know that timber was used for the framework of the roof at York Minster after it burnt back in the 80s I would have thought that that was a tall building bear it up okay and we've got one here about basements okay so it's very often deep basements and underground carparks require more concrete and embody more carbon will you refuse permission for these that's a really good question actually so Emma you might be able to help with or is it a math question oh that's an interesting question I'm not sure what the response is because we do actually see quite a lot of basements and they use for multiple uses so they you know they do provide basement parking they also provide plant space but undoubtedly they do have quite a high embodied carbon requirement so I think some of the work that's ongoing looking at you know targets from bodied carbon might help with some of that there are some benefits when you're digging a basement though in that you could actually be at the same time thinking about putting in ground source heat pumps so there are possibly some advantages with that approach I think in terms of the carparking obviously the standards within the area or action plan will hopefully be reducing the amount of carparking spaces anyway but yeah that's a really interesting question I think with more work done on embodied carbon and coming up with actual targets for that that would hopefully help to limit some of that yeah just to add I don't think we're really looking at underground basement carparking at NEC the proposal here is to look at carbons more than anything else so it's car storage and we're looking at those are sort of multi-story carparks more than underground basement parking within buildings and then even then they'd be wrapped around if you like with other uses around them but as Emma says if there are basements going in certainly to could be for any purposes really cycle storage and other things you could look at how the other benefits that could be delivered from those as well in terms of heat source pumps I think you ended on the right word because the next question was are heat pumps part of the planning part of the planning process I think do you want me to pick up on that one yeah you can go for him I suspect we will see a shift to heat pumps we're already seeing quite a shift towards heat pumps in applications coming forward now that's partly linked to government's proposals to ban new gas boilers in new homes from 2025 and certainly most commercial developments non-residential developments coming forward now are either using ground source or air source heat pumps that is one of the things that we will be looking at as part of the energy master plan work as well as what sort of technologies are there out there to help support the targets that will be in the area reaction plan so I think we may well be seeing a bit of a mix of technologies really but I think certainly we will be moving towards electric forms of heating for this site and you could see possibly you know district scale heat networks powered by heat pumps I don't want to preempt to the work but certainly this development is of a scale that that sort of approach could be possible and a follow-up question to that then Emery's so you talk about the energy master plan it was in the presentation at the beginning but what happens if a developer or a landowner doesn't want to sign up to the energy master plan for the site would you have a like a gap would they kind of be allowed to do their own thing how how would that work they would need to provide justification as to why they couldn't sign up to the energy master plan I mean that energy master plan is going to be subject to viability testing as well as being a technical piece of work so I think you know any proposals to move away from the energy master plan which will be required through policy there will need to be some quite detailed justification as to why it cannot be implemented for a particular site I mean the whole idea is to try and take a more efficient approach to energy across the whole site and to also integrate that with utilities infrastructure as well so anything that kind of goes outside of the master plan it could be that there isn't sufficient infrastructure to support that approach anyway so hopefully if we can work with landowners and bring them on board with this energy master plan as well it will get delivered and will deliver a much more appropriate response for a development of this scale great thank you Emma okay we've just got a couple of more minutes left one question that really came through particularly from councillors actually during before we were well when we were seeking authority to consult it was about whether we're setting a high enough standard for new homes and and workplaces in relation to kind of carbon standards or could could we should be be doing more Matt or Emma I suspect there are probably questions for you review I think those are really yeah I think I mean it's a good challenge by members and I think it's right to challenge it and to push the targets as far as we can you're we are slightly hampered and that we were hoping such targets would come from national and be led by national planning policy and rather unfortunately the MPPF and others have gone slightly the other way in terms of you know we were ramping up to code for sustainable home six at one point and then we were going to be net zero carbon by 2025 or 2030 I think it was originally and those targets have slowly gone away really and it's been left to the local authorities to try and forge ahead and try and deliver on the aspirations that I think we all want to see which is to to drive towards net zero carbon but at a time when potentially you know the government's priority is around building building beautiful but building lots and lots of homes and probably at the at a cheaper level then then we would want and at a lower quality of standard than we would I think well and want through policy certainly so I think it's right that we are certainly trying through the AAP to push the boundaries of what is achievable and we're doing that in essence through doing an AAP for what is a large area which enables us to do this at scale so that when we come to the individual development plot hopefully it's a much easier ask of the developer to deliver that if we've got the wider infrastructure put in place to help them achieve net zero carbon from the outset. I would agree with everything that Matt has said we do encourage the use of other standards as well so I know members are particularly keen on things like passive house so we do encourage the use of that through the the area action plan and I think also one of the things that the bioregional work is looking at is how to express standards and how to you know is carbon reduction the right the right approach or should we be looking at kind of energy intensity metrics which really drive stone energy demanding buildings so it's it's quite a new area for us and I would say we are going much further than we've ever done before in policy so it's but yeah I think you know we need to be challenged on these things as Matt has said absolutely brilliant thank you Emma okay that pretty much draws us to the end of the time I just want to say thank you to the person who shared a link about how you can report flooding from the central government website so that's really helpful so thank you I think we can actually put that in the in our written response that goes with the that goes with this video online so that if anyone's watching this on demand so to speak then they can they can see where that is that will be really helpful so thank you okay so thank you very much everybody who has joined us today I hope we answered your questions kind of as fully and comprehensively as you were hoping you know this is a big development you know very exciting but doesn't come about as challenges climate change and water is definitely one of those so you know we're really really keen for you to provide us with your feedback on the draft plan you know are we are we doing enough enough should we should we be asking developers for more so yeah so please do provide your feedback before the before the consultation deadline there's a lot more information on our website there's FAQ videos about you know the plan in general and some specific topics as well and there's also a feedback form on the on the Q&A session so if you have any comments or you want to tell us how you thought that the event went today or previous sessions have gone then we would really welcome that you know these are new to us you know we've never done webinars before as a as a local planning authority this is strange times that we're living in but we are hoping that these sessions are helpful and useful to you they're not quite the same as speaking to you all in public in public places face to face but I think given where we are at the moment these are you know hopefully a good alternative option but yes but and just to say thank you very much for joining us and also to my co-presenter Emma and all of the other panelists as well for taking the time today to be here so thank you very much goodbye