skip to content

West Cambridge

 

You said, we did.

The University of Cambridge has ambitions plans for its West Cambridge site. Creating a premier location for physical sciences and technology, whilst enhancing entrepreneurial spirit is at the heart of the new proposals for the plan. In order to create a masterplan that meets these needs and creates a high quality place, we have been keen to involve our local communities, site users and the public to ensure that the plans are sensitive to the local environment. 

Community engagement throughout the development planning has informed the proposals over the last 18 months. Through dialogue with the local community and employees based on site, some key changes have been made as a direct result of feedback. These include:

  • Creating a central and open garden space for public amenity
  • Providing shared facilities to serve the on-site community including food and beverage
  • Moving the location of the energy centre to avoid sunlight levels affected low-lying neighbours
  • Adapting the heights of buildings at particular locations to develop sensitively to the Cambridge skyline
  • Landscaping the perimeter of the site to enhance the sense of place and Madingley Road frontage as a key route into the city

Heather Topel, Deputy Project Director of the West Cambridge Development said: “We have had some excellent feedback from site users and the local community who have attended exhibitions and residents meetings, provided comments via our website and represented their neighbourhoods by participating in the Community Group.  Whilst the proposals at the start met the development objectives, through listening to our local community, we have enriched the new masterplan and responded to concerns. We hope to maintain dialogue with our local community as well as our site users to contribute to the future of this project. ”

A new outline planning consent for the West Cambridge site was submitted in June 2016 to the local planning authorities.  Once planning permission be granted, a series of Reserved Matters Applications for the detailed designs of the buildings and landscapes will be submitted.