Wintringham Park Development

• Residential development of up to 2,800 dwellings (Use Class C3)
• Up to 63,500 sq. m (Gross Internal Area (GIA)) of employment development (Use Classes B1/B2/B8): District Centre including:
  • Up to 8,500 sq m (GIA) of retail and service development (Use Class A1/A2/A3/A4/A5) (of which the supermarket is not more than 2,500 sq m net sales floorspace);
  • Up to 1,150 sq m (GIA) of community development (Use Class D1) including a community centre and health centre;
• Local Centre including up to 500 sq. m (GIA) retail and service uses (Use Classes A1/A3/A4/A5) and up to 300 sq m for community uses (Use Class D1);
• Two 2-Form Entry Primary Schools (Use Class D1);
• Open space, play areas, recreation facilities and landscaping;
• Strategic access improvements including 4 new access points;
• On site roads, pedestrian and cycle routes;

To put this in perspective, this development is roughly double the size of Love's Farm in terms the number of houses proposed.

Access to the site will be by way of:

• New arm on Dramsell Rise roundabout
• New arm on Stone Hill roundabout
• A new roundabout on the A428
• A new T-junction on A428

Full details of the application can be seen on Huntingdonshire District Council's planning portal. The reference number for the application is 1300178OUT. There are numerous pages of technical documentation which are not for the faint-hearted, which you can access by clicking on the "Documents and Plans" tab, and then "View associated documents". The most useful document by way of introducion is the Design and Access Statement which is a colour brochure containing numerous illustrations and easy-to-follow description.

I would urge every resident to take a look at the plans and to make comments to the District Council. You can do this quickly and easily through the online portal. The deadline for this is Wednesday 20th March 2013 - which is really soon!

Like Love's Farm, the development is being touted as public transport and pedestrian friendly, with the site intended, to an extent, to be self-sufficient in terms of providing employment and facilities. You might wish to think about how this relates to our experience of Love's Farm, where public transport has been almost non-existent, and facilities like healthcare, nursery, shops, the railway bridge have either been edged out in favour of increased housing, or delayed to the very tail end of the build so that residents establish patterns of dependence on facilities outside of the development.

The developers are proposing to make minor changes to existing roundabouts on the A428 at Tithe Farm and Caxton Gibbet in order to mitigate the impact of the new roundabout they propose to add to the A428, and increased traffic stemming from the development. Anyone who travels on the A428 or A1 in the morning - or by train to London - will attest that each of these modes of transport is running close to, or well beyond, its capacity.

You should also be aware that Gallagher Estates are expected imminently to submit plans for a further 1200+ houses to the east of Love's Farm.

Of course, the development does have the potential to bring great benefits to the Love's Farm community. It will help shift the centre of gravity of St Neots in our direction, bringing improved transport, access to facilities and a much bigger voice on local issues.

The development will affect all of us in numerous ways, both positive and negative. This is the only real chance we have to influence the decision making. Use it!