Why Cambridge City Council will object to Cambridge South railway station plans
Cambridge City Council is expected to become the second local authority in the county to object to the proposed Cambridge South railway station over biodiversity concerns.
The city council has said it supports the aim for a new station but intends to object to the current Network Rail application on the grounds that more information about the project is required, while it also has biodiversity and wildlife concerns.
The planned objection ahead of a public inquiry into the proposals has been set out in papers released ahead of next week’s meeting of the city council’s environment and community scrutiny committee, on January 27.
If councillors back the approach, it would mimic the approach taken by South Cambridgeshire District Council, which also raised similar concerns despite being in favour in principle of the new station.
The two councils work together on planning matters such as the Local Plan as the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service.
The new Cambridge South Station is planned to be created alongside Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
It is hoped the railway station will provide access to the growing employment area, and help relieve congestion.
The city council is both a local planning authority and a landowner with a potential interest in the land, as it is the leaseholder for land within Hobson’s Park.
One area of objection is the city council’s concerns that not enough information has been provided to show how the 10 per cent biodiversity net gain will be achieved.
In the council documents it says “limited information” has been provided in the current proposals, adding the priority should be to secure the biodiversity net gains on the application site, before looking off site, which it says has currently been put forward.
Another area highlighted of concern is the temporary planned use of land within Hobson’s Park for storing materials. The city council has said that not information has been provided as to how long the temporary storage will be required.
The report adds that the area of land used and the duration need to be justified, and only used for the “minimum required for the construction”.
The city council has said it also has concerns for the impact on both corn buntings and skylarks nesting within Hobson’s Park.
In the report it said that during construction fencing and management around the areas for the ground nesting birds will be needed, and that this issue needs to be given more weight in the assessment of the project’s impact on existing biodiversity.
The papers add that the city council hopes to ‘work positively’ with Network Rail to resolve its issues with the plans during the public inquiry.
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