Project to build 120 new council homes in Cambridge to cost £54million

A project to build 120 new council homes in one of the most deprived areas of Cambridge is estimated to cost over £54million.

Cambridge City Council is planning to redevelop a number of sites in East Barnwell as part of an aim to regenerate the area.

Two meetings were held this week to provide updates on where the plans currently stand and what the current expected costs are.

The project is due to be delivered by the Cambridge Investment Partnership, a development company created in partnership between the city council and The Hill Group.

The scheme will see the redevelopment of two sites on the corner of Barnwell Road onto Newmarket Road.

The first site is currently home to the Abbey Bowls Club and some tennis courts, which are both proposed to be relocated to the Abbey Leisure Complex.

The second site on the other side of Barnwell Road currently has a number of shops, a library, and some homes.

Planners behind the project updated councillors on the progress of the plans and showed them illustrative images of the development at a pre-application developer briefing this week (November 21).

Paul Belton, planning consultant, said: “East Barnwell is one of the more deprived locations in the city and country as a whole.

“It has been subject to numerous regeneration projects over the years that have either failed or stalled.

“The community suffers from consultation fatigue and the community is quite frustrated as they see other parts of the city improved and enhanced, they feel East Barnwell has been left behind.

“The area is home to a number of community facilities that are becoming more and more run down and some are no longer fit for purpose.”

Mr Belton said the result of this had led the city council to choose to pursue these new regeneration proposals for East Barnwell.

Across the two sites identified by the city council, 120 new homes are proposed to be built, all of which will be affordable housing and will be a mix of one, two, and three-bedroom flats.

A combined community centre and library building is also proposed to be built, along with a cafe and a number of shops.

A “generous” amount of public open space is also proposed to be created for people in the area to use.

The redevelopment is proposed to include 50 car parking spaces across the two sites for people living there, and 16 car parking spaces for people looking to use the community centre and shops.

Secure cycle parking is planned to be provided within the new flat blocks.

Councillor Katie Thornburrow said she was happy with the proposed heights of the flat blocks, as she said where it was appropriate they should build taller as it offered a “better carbon footprint”.

However, she said she was concerned that some of the flats were proposed to be single aspect, meaning they only have one wall facing the outside, and asked what was being proposed to reduce the risk of overheating.

Councillor Katie Porrer said she shared Cllr Thornburrow’s concerns about the single aspect flats, but was not as keen on the heights of the proposed buildings.

She said: “I take Cllr Thornburrow’s point, we do need to consider going high, but it is quite blocky.

“It is quite abrupt and a very square finish. Sometimes we expect to see some setbacks at higher levels, this is quite assertive and square building.”

Planners explained measures were planned to reduce the impact of overheating on the single aspect flats, including smaller windows and shading.

They added that all of the flats are designed to be “comfortable” even with the windows closed.

The planners also explained that in order to try and make the building more sustainable it could not have too many “cut outs”, as they said they needed to create a large enough block to make it efficient.

Councillor Dave Baigent questioned why any car parking, aside from disabled parking, was proposed to be included in the development.

He said the site was on a bus route and asked if it could be considered to remove most of the proposed car parking.

Planners said car parking was a “difficult subject” to try and balance what was right.

They said they did not want the development to lead to more on street car parking in surrounding streets.

However, the planners said the car parking was “flexible” and could potentially be changed in the future if the demand was not there.

At a housing scrutiny meeting later in the day councillors heard how the development was estimated to cost the authority over £54.5million.

Papers presented to the meeting also said the authority is also hoping to receive a £9.1million grant from Homes England to use towards the scheme.

Councillor Elliot Tong said he thought the project was “really exciting for the community” and said the new facilities were “absolutely” needed by people living there.

Some councillors raised concerns over the Homes England funding being relied on at this stage and questioned what would happen if that funding did not come through.

Officers said they were as sure as they could be at this stage about the funding.

Councillor Richard Robertson said: “120 new homes going to get out of this project, 120 more households can be housed, that is a great credit to us to take that initiative. I hope we do get a grant, but if it does not we will review it.”

ENDS