Cambridge City Council has produced a Planning and Development SPD for the Ridgeons Site on Cromwell Road to set out the joint aspirations of the City Council and Ridgeons regarding the development of the site. The SPD is designed to guide the re-development of the site for housing and will provide greater certainty and detail to support the site’s delivery. It outlines
- the aspirations of the site; and
- the site's key issues, constraints and opportunities.
After being approved for public consultation at Development Plan Scrutiny Sub-Committee, 8 December 2015, the draft Ridgeons Site, Cromwell road brief was the subject of consultation for 6 weeks between 18 January and 7 March 2016.
The Planning and Development Brief SPD for the Ridgeons Site on Cromwell Road was approved at Development Plan Scrutiny Sub-Committee, 21 July 2016.
The Ridgeons Site Development Framework SPD was adopted by the council in December 2018.
Public consultation
Public consultation on the document ran from 9am on Monday 18 January 2016 to 5pm on Monday 7 March 2016.
A public exhibition took place at: Ross Street Community Centre on 24 February between 4pm and 9pm.
The SPD has been prepared to support the delivery of the entire site which is allocated under reference R12 in the Cambridge Local Plan 2014: Proposed Submission (and amended by the Addendum to the Cambridge Local Plan 2014 Proposed Submission Document (July 2013): Schedule of Proposed Changes Following Proposed Submission Consultation (February 2014) [PDF, 20MB] [PDF]).
Context
The aim of the Ridgeons site Planning and Development Brief SPD is to set out the joint aspirations of the City Council and Ridgeons regarding the development of the site. The SPD will represent a planning policy document to guide the future development of this site; It details the relevant constraints and opportunities for the site and sets out key 'parameters' for how the site should be developed in future.
At the time of preparing this SPD, the Ridgeons site was allocated for residential use (approximately 245 dwellings) under reference Site R12 in Appendix B: Proposals Schedule of the Cambridge Local Plan 2014: Proposed Submission (and amended by the Addendum to the Cambridge Local Plan 2014 Proposed Submission Document (July 2013): Schedule of Proposed Changes Following Proposed Submission Consultation (February 2014)). The SPD has been prepared in line with the requirements of the Town and County Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012.
The site
The Ridgeons site is located at 75 Cromwell Road Cambridge, between Coldham’s Lane and Mill Road. The Ridgeons builders’ merchants site is 3.27 hectares in area. The site being considered in this SPD also includes several houses that The Ridgeons Group own on Cavendish Place and Cromwell Road, which increases the site area to 3.40 hectares. The site is currently used as a builders’ merchants. Ridgeons are planning to relocate their Cromwell Road branch to a new facility. The move will free up the Cromwell Road site for new housing, both market for sale and affordable. A site location map is available Ridgeons Site Location Plan.
The objectives
The document has been prepared jointly by Ridgeons and Cambridge City Council to set out what is expected in relation to the future re-development of the site. The purpose of the SPD is to guide the preparation and assessment of future planning applications on the Ridgeons site. As such, this document will form a material consideration, which will be taken into account by the council when determining any future planning application for the site. In addition, all proposals for the Ridgeons site will have to comply with the policies in the adopted Cambridge Local Plan 2014, once adopted.
The Sustainability Appraisal and Habitats Regulations Assessment
A Sustainability Appraisal (which included the Ridgeons Site allocation reference Site R12 [1]) and Habitats Regulations Assessment Screening Report have been carried out and consulted upon for the Cambridge Local Plan 2014: Proposed Submission. This consultation took place between 19 July and 30 September 2013. These documents, along with other supporting documents will also be available to view during this consultation.
A Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) is an assessment to ensure that a plan will not have an adverse effect on the integrity of either Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) or Special Protection Areas (SPA). For the Ridgeons site, Cromwell Road Planning and Development Brief SPD, a HRA Screening Report has been produced, which updates the findings of the Screening Report carried out for the Local Plan. This document, which is currently being considered by Natural England, concludes that the draft Ridgeons site, Cromwell Road Planning and Development Brief SPD is unlikely to have any significant impacts on the conservation objectives of Natura 2000 and Ramsar sites identified.
A Sustainability Appraisal Screening Report was also completed for the draft Ridgeons site, Cromwell Road Planning and Development Brief SPD. This document confirmed that the allocation of land at the Ridgeons site on Cromwell Road took place as part of the process of developing the Cambridge Local Plan 2014, and as such has been subject to a Sustainability Appraisal as part of the Local Plan process. The conclusion of this screening process is that as the draft Ridgeons site, Cromwell Road Planning and Development Brief SPD does not make any changes to this allocation it will not give rise to significant environmental effects.
The draft Ridgeons site, Cromwell Road Planning and Development Brief SPD does not give rise to significant social and economic effects beyond those already identified as part of the appraisal of the parent policy and site allocation contained within the Cambridge Local Plan 2014. As such it is not considered necessary to undertake a separate SA for this SPD.
Equality Impact Assessment
The proposed residential development at the Ridgeons site on Cromwell Road should not lead to the loss of any overall amenity and therefore it is not considered necessary to produce an Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) to support the draft SPD. The emerging Cambridge Local Plan 2014 along with other planning considerations will also ensure that the needs of disabled people, older people and other local community members will be considered in full as part of the planning process and any related planning application.