Latest phase of Springstead Village homes north of Cherry Hinton to include local centre and allotments

Developers have updated councillors on plans to build 292 new homes north of Cherry Hinton.

They will form part of the Springstead Village development of up to 1,200 homes, work on which has already begun.

Representatives of Bellway Latimer Cherry Hinton LLP met with councillors from Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council to update them on its progress on details plans for homes in the third phase, which will also include building the local centre, featuring space for shops and a community centre. New allotments will also be created.

Architect Alexis Butterfield said “two small residential neighbourhoods” are planned, each of which will face on to a shared green space.

Mainly flats and terraced houses are proposed near the centre of the site, with a mixture of houses and some smaller flats in streets further out from the local centre.

Cllr Anna Bradnam (Lib Dem, Milton and Waterbeach) noted that many of the affordable homes would be grouped together in the centre, but said authorities favour these homes “scattered amongst the other housing”.

Mr Butterfield said he “totally appreciated” the point. He said they were ensuring some affordable homes face onto the neighbourhood parks and said in this case people would not know which was an “affordable” home.

But he added that the reason a lot of the affordable housing was proposed together in the centre was mainly due to urban design, since these properties tend to be “slightly smaller”, which did not always work with the design across the development.

Cllr Katie Porrer (Lib Dem, Market) welcomed a plan to create new allotments and asked the developers to take measures to mitigate the water scarcity issue.

A detailed planning application for the 292 homes will be submitted at a later date for councillors to consider.