Cambridge Science Park North

On Monday the Parish council vote on whether they would like to see Cambridge Science Park North, Impington, Trinity’s proposed new science park with country park and sports facilities (potentially pump track), included in the new local plan.

Being in the local plan is not the same as supporting the proposal to an extent it’s an assessment that there are risks in delaying decisions about the site and on balance it is worth pushing to go early and retain as much local control as possible.

There is a view that if it’s not in the local plan it might not happen but speaking to those working on the project this is a long game, they have an option on the site into the 2030s and believe the project is essential for the future of the current Cambridge Science Park’s. That belief means they won’t mess around they will find a way to make it happen at some point. Listening to government’s commitment to growth I think if they applied to government directly (NSIP process) they would get planning on the site and local representations would be weakened.

There is a helpful article in HiHub about this and I am extremely interested in understanding the views of the community.

Crudely summarising, arguments against the parish council wanting it in the next local plan

-it’s building on green belt land

-if it’s not in the local plan it might not happen

-could the land be used for something else

-we should preserve farm land

arguments for

-if it’s in the next local plan we would get access to a new country park and sports facilities sooner

-Trinity are committed to the site, if it’s not in the local plan they may go directly to government (NSIP process) making local negotiations harder

-government is desperate to kick start development and keeps talking about weakening green belt, creating grey belt and loosening planning rules. There is a risk in waiting that there will be weaker planning rules and a worse outcome locally

-Conservative and Labour governments are talking about the 100,000s new houses they want to build in greater Cambridge I don’t see any site as safe from development in our area and we need to be smart

-accepting this development would give Histon and Impington accesss to a permanent country park which would permanently protect east Impington from future development

A lot of local arguments are discussed in the article. I am here to listen and want to understand the community view. My feeling is that the project is popular locally, but I might be wrong. What do you think?

Councillor calls for community involvement in Science Park planning   

Link to Science park north website – which is obviously doing a selling job https://cambridgescienceparknorth.co.uk/