CAMBOURNE
Cambourne will consist
of 3 villages, Great Cambourne,
The 3 villages or more correctly
described as Hamlets are being built on a green field site that was used for
farming.
Cambourne will be a self-contained community of at least 3,300 homes (now up to 4250
after a recent application was approved due to higher densities being
built
in the first 2 villages), there were originally expected
to be over 10,000 residents. Each hamlet will have a traditional village
green.
There is also a growing
A single traditional high street
will be established along with a wealth of community facilities more associated
with a town.
An elected Parish Council manage
these facilities.
The Parish Council in Cambourne was
established in 2004.
For the first few years there was
a Management Committee, MLC (Management Liaison Committee) who were acting
as a
parish council for some matters, but it proved ineffective as no funding was
provided and the continuity was not acheved as none of the members applied
to be councillors, having been disolusioned with the MLC.
This committee was originally made
up of representatives of the developers, a parish councillor of Bourn (to whom
we were temporarily attached and collected the precept, Great Cambourne in Bourn
and
The community has a purpose built
health centre and library. It is hoped that these two facilities will gell
together to form an alliance in caring for health issues and information.
Many of the facilities in Cambourne
have trigger points to indicate when they should be provided these
are related to the number of occupied houses (see
legal agreement S106) and
the final first stage facilty is being built now (Sports Centre).
This section 106 legal document specifies
what the developers have to provide for being allowed to build homes
for sale,
including contributions to schools and sometimes land for facilities.
It also specifies community
facilities such as community buildings and sports provision for the community.
There is a traditional High Street,
commercial shops and offices are market led and have no trigger, and
after 11 years
of
occupations there is a major supermarket, pub, hotel, chemist, dry cleaners,
several take away food, restaraunt,
building society, vet, Bike shop, and turf accountant.
There are three primary schools (and
a fourth planned). No secondary school or village college was planned originally
but with the increased number of homes (and the very high level of births),
this is now necessary, youngsters currently are bussed
to
There is also a private nursery and permission for another.
There are 2 housing schemes for the elderley, one for over 60's and one for over 55's, There are plans for a high care hospital for cases of dementia/alzheimers in Back Lane.
The police station is now operational and a fire station under construction but this is likely to be a training base initially.
A start is soon to be made
to provide the first stage of the burial ground, initially 50 plots and
will be extended later.
There
is a golf course on the Masterplan but it seems that it will not be built
for some time as spoil for the latest homes is being used to raise levels
and provide disposal without moving it off site. And will a golf course
ever be viable?
Cambourne now has a regular 20 minute
bus service to
Cambourne is not yet well served with Broadband
as the planned Cambridge Cable service (Now Virgin) was only provided
in the first 5 phases
of Great Cambourne (up to 2003 only), the BT service should be upgraded
in 2012 due to winning
the BT Race to Infinity and superfast broadband should be available
to all.
As part of the permission to build
here the developers have to provide land for areas of social housing for rent,
run by housing associations such as CHS
The next stage
in Upper Cambourne will pepper the low cost houses (cheek by jowel) among market
homes, unlike Great Cambourne and Lower Cambourne (and the first stage of Upper
Cambourne)
which are in quite separate blocks,
peppering
seems
to
work in the Prince Charles village of Poundbury where the homes are generally
more
valuable
and
remain
as low cost homes as owners gain no benefit on purchase. POUNDBURY
Low cost homes are built using similar materials and will not have garages, they are available to either people on housing waiting lists, called shared equity, when property is partly sold and partly rented the resident paying up to 75% of the value and paying a nominal rent for the other part (typically £10 per year). When these houses are sold they have to be resold with the same condition and allow 8 weeks before going on the open market to allow bids from those on housing waiting lists
There are other schemes for key workers
and 50% share 50% rent.
Each area of building consists of
housing of differing density; the housing nearer the high street intended
to be higher density and reducing in density as you move away to the outer
areas, this is to emulate traditional village design.
High density is around 20 houses
per acre down (up to 50 typically in Broad St) to the least dense in Cambourne
at 5 per acre.
A design guide has been used, this
is a colour brochure of pictures and descriptions of how Cambourne was anticipated
to look, there are a number of variations since the book was published.
This guide is still used to ensure
Cambourne develops as near as possible to that originally planned.
Planners and developers oversee
each area of building and all designs were originally referred to the DEG
(Design and Environment Group). The committee decided if the architects
employed by the builders have met the design guide requirements, South Cambs
District
Council abandoned this in 2003.
All applications are dealt with in
a similar way to any new builds and referred to the Parish Council for
consultation.
Cambourne (whole site) is 1046
acres altogether.
50 acres are for the
business park B1 (office) land,
plus 5 acres for B2 (industrial) land,
11 acres of incidental open space
(LAPs, LEAPs, NEAPs
and SIPs - play strategy),
0.5 acres floodlit
sports surface, 2 acres sports centre,
1 acre ecumenical centre,
0.5 acre health centre,
0.5 acres library,
1 acre for community centre,
5 acres for allotments,
2 acres burial ground,
Up to 2 acres for caravan storage
etc (actual 1/2 acre),
37 acres for social and affordable
housing,
0.32 acres police station,
0.5 acres fire station,
0.5 acres children and family
centre,
2 x 5 acres for primary schools,
350 acres amenity land (golf
course, country park, etc).
- the rest
is Market homes
Thanks to Kate Wood of SCDC planning
for that information
In contrast
the proposed Northstowe Development near
(Cambourne 4250 homes on 1046 acres 0.25 per acre) Obviously these figures
include all the development including open space.
Since it was decided to build Cambourne, governments have different views on new developments - and densities (30 per hectare minimum) and therefore Cambourne is likely to remain unique although this is now more controlable with the Conservative Localism bill being introduced, giving more control to local communities.
They have
now started buiding Trumpington
Meadows 1200 homes virtually on the
M11 on a small 59 acre site but is linked to the guided bus, near to
Addenbrook's Hospital with 40% low cost.
Brown field (ex commercial
or previously used) sites are preferred, and nearer to existing towns
and
cities with good transport links or to provide guided bus systems (such as
in as Northstowe which is also closer to Cambridge).