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New housing sites ‘will be needed’ across Greater Cambridge if sewage works move collapses, say planners




New sites across Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire may need to be found to build around 8,000 new homes if the proposed move of the city’s sewage works does not go ahead.

Thousands of new homes would be built on the land the existing plant sits on as part of the North East Cambridge development.

The settlement tanks at Anglian Water's existing waste water treatment works in north Cambridge
The settlement tanks at Anglian Water's existing waste water treatment works in north Cambridge

Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council are relying on the development to help meet housing needs over the coming years. But the government has for a second time delayed a decision on whether the Anglian Water sewage works should move into the green belt at Honey Hill.

Senior planners at the two councils are continuing to work on the assumption it will move, but said if the waste water treatment works are not moved and the North East Cambridge development cannot proceed, homes will have to be built elsewhere.

Councillors on the Liberal Democrat-run district council’s cabinet were presented last week with a timetable for the emerging Greater Cambridge Local Plan to be submitted before the December 2026 deadline.

It includes putting out a plan for consultation this autumn.

Stephen Kelly, joint director Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service, told councillors: “Clearly we have assumed some of the housing need that we have identified in the Local Plan will be made up by the redevelopment of that site.

“Indeed from an infrastructure perspective, the treatment of Waterbeach New Town’s waste will be accommodated by that new facility.”

Save Honey Hill campaigners discuss the new sewage site plans. Picture: Keith Heppell
Save Honey Hill campaigners discuss the new sewage site plans. Picture: Keith Heppell

He added: “We will proceed on the assumption that a decision will be made, and an expectation in line with the council’s submission to the process that the water treatment works will be relocated.”

But he warned: “If that site is no longer available for the city and district council to meet that housing need, we will need to review alternative locations for how that need will be met, and to do so in a way that meets this consultation timeline is going to prove very challenging.”

Mr Kelly said the situation would be kept under review and that councillors would be updated.

The Local Plan will guide development across Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire to 2040 and includes the North East Cambridge development, where up to 8,000 homes could be built. Developers are already working on plans for 5,600 of these homes under proposals to create a community called Hartree.

Anglian Water has applied for a Development Consent Order (DCO) asking for permission to move the sewage works from the North East Cambridge site on to land north of the A14 between Horningsea and Fen Ditton, known as Honey Hill, to enable the redevelopment.

Anglian Water's existing waste water treatment works in north Cambridge
Anglian Water's existing waste water treatment works in north Cambridge

The company has said the new site would be “operationally net zero carbon” and would “provide a long-term solution” to meeting the demands of the growing population.

The government has committed £277million to the project to build the new sewage works, with the overall cost estimated to be around £400million.

But the project has been met with backlash from residents, who have questioned why green belt land should be “sacrificed” in order to build the new sewage works when Anglian Water has acknowledged there are “no operational reasons” to move it.

A decision on whether the new facility could be built was initially due to be made last October, but Steve Reed, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs delayed it until 12 January. He then pushed the decision deadline back again to 14 April in order to consider it under updated planning policies.



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