Inquiry into plans to build 1,000 homes near Cambridge amongst serious water supply worries
The Environment Agency says our regions' water supplies are under "extreme stress"
An inquiring is looking into whether plans to build 1,000 new homes on the edge of Cambridge are sustainable amongst serious concerns over water supplies.
The Environment Agency says our regions' water supplies are under "extreme stress".
but the Darwin Green developers say the homes wont be built for a few years, by which time issues will have been solved.
Building a further 1,000 homes on the edge of Cambridge will put more pressure on the area’s water bodies, which are already under “extreme stress”, the Environment Agency has said.
The organisation has argued the proposals for the next two phases of the Darwin Green development should not go ahead while it said there is not a way to supply them with water sustainability.
However, the developers behind the proposals argue the new homes are not due to be built for a few years, at which point they said the issues could be resolved.
An inquiry was launched this week to examine the plans for the next stages of the Darwin Green development.
The developers, Barratt David Wilson Homes and The North West Cambridge Consortium of Landowners, lodged an appeal with the planning inspectorate due to non-determination.
The outline application proposes to build up to 1,000 new homes, as well as a new primary school and secondary school, shops, community facilities, and a new country park.
Councillors from Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council met in October last year to discuss the plans after the appeal had been lodged.
Councillors said they believed the application should be refused due to the Environment Agency’s concerns about water supply.
A decision on whether the application gets approved will now be made by the planning inspectorate.
The first hearing of the inquiry took place this week (January 16), with representatives of the developers, the Environment Agency, and the councils making their opening arguments.
The representative of the developers highlighted that the main concern raised about the plans was the Environment Agency’s objection due to water supply concerns.
However, they highlighted that Cambridge Water, the company responsible for supplying water to the area, had not raised an objection.
The representative said there was a disagreement between the Environment Agency and Cambridge Water about the company’s plans to manage water supply and meet the increased demand from new developments in the area.
They said Cambridge Water was working on addressing these concerns through its water resources management plan, which they said was part of a separate approval process.
The representative went on to explain that the development’s first homes were not due to be built until 2028, at which point they suggested the dispute would be resolved.
They added that the developers were prepared to commit to reducing the usage of water on the new development to 95 litres per day per person.
They also suggested a condition could be put in place to prevent people moving into the new homes until the water management plan was signed off.
The representative said this management plan was going through its own approval process and argued it was not a reason to withhold planning permission for the Darwin Green homes.
However, the Environment Agency representative argued the developer’s representative had presented a “simplistic” view of the water resources management plan process.
They explained that water in the region was sourced “almost entirely from water aquifers” and said the area was under “extreme water stress”.
The representative said Cambridge Water had “failed to control demand or provide alternative sources” of water, including to sustainably supply developments that were already planned.
They said allowing increased abstraction of water to meet demand from new homes would “risk the deterioration of water bodies and the associated ecological impacts”.
The representative said allowing a further 1,000 homes to be built at the Darwin Green development at this time would “add to the pressure on existing water bodies”.
Referencing the developers’ proposed condition to prevent people from moving into homes until the water management plan is signed off, the representative said there was “no certainty” the issues the agency had raised would be resolved, or when this would be.
The councils representative confirmed to the inquiry that the 1,000 proposed homes were included in the local plan and emerging local plan for the area.
They also said the development would “deliver benefits in terms of housing, social infrastructure, as well as other benefits of a new public open space”.
However, they said the councils had to follow the Environment Agency’s advice on the water issues, including that the development would have an “unacceptable impact” until further water supply could be created.
The representative said the councils could not support the plans while the Environment Agency objection remained in place.
The inquiry examining the plans continues .