Alex's Blog
Alex Plant, Chief Executive of Cambridgeshire Horizons, is keeping a blog to give you an insight into the day to day life of Cambridgeshire Horizons.
10/03/2010 - Funding for Northstowe
Yesterday, the housing and planning minister,
John Healey, announced that Northstowe will receive £1.5 million worth of eco-town funding to fund a package of measures to improve energy efficiency, which includes an education centre to develop learning and awareness of sustainable living, and fully functional demonstration homes in Rampton Drift.
The funding award is great news, and the success of our bid is testament to the excellent work put in by colleagues working in partnership across
South Cambridgeshire District Council, the
County Council and Cambridgeshire Horizons. The team will now be working hard to ensure this extra cash is used in the best possible way to help us reach the overarching goal of creating a truly sustainable new community, somewhere that can rival the best in the world.
We all want Northstowe to be a place people are proud to call home - and this funding will help to achieve that. I was pleased to be able to discuss the good news in an interview with
Antonia Brickell on her
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire drivetime show this evening.
04/03/2010 - Developer for Trumpington Meadows announced
Following the granting of planning permission in October last year, Grosvenor and USS have announced that
Barratt Homes will build the first phase of the
Trumpington Meadows development, located to the south of the City. Work is due to commence work on infrastructure for the site, including road access and the country park, in Autumn before house building commences early in 2011. These will be the first homes to be built on the Southern Fringe development area, and we look forward to seeing the plans turn into reality.
I have also read in the news today that
Persimmon have announced a £77.8 million profit for the year, and plan to open 90 new sites throughout the country during 2010 as buyers return to the market. It shows that developers still have an appetite for delivering much needed new homes, and are returning to profit.
02/03/2010 - Urban Challenge to replace Transport Innovation Fund
The decision to abolish the Transport Innovation Fund is a real blow as a successful bid could have provided transformatory levels of investment in Cambridge's public transport network. However, the work that has gone into the bid is still of value, and it will be even more important now that all partners work together closely to find other ways to fund improvements in transport infrastructure that will meet the needs of a growing County.
26/02/2010 - And the result is in...
This morning, the Secretary of State announced that two appeals raised by Countryside Properties against non-determination by
Cambridge City Council, with
Cambridgeshire County Council, of the planning application for both Clay Farm and Glebe Farm have been dismissed, thereby refusing planning permission.
This upholds City Council's planning policies requiring 40% affordable housing on the major new development sites around the fringes of Cambridge, which are underpinned by
housing market research we have carried out over the years, and provides the partnership with the opportunity to help even more people live in a new home close to friends, family and places of work.
Therefore, our focus must now return to working in partnership with the local authorities and Countryside Properties to find a way forward to deliver these much-needed new homes and facilities as soon as possible now that we have received the Secretary of State's decision.
You can read Sir David Trippiers statement
here and the Cambridge City Council press release
here.
12/02/2010 - Green Vision Consultation gathers pace...
The end of another busy week in the world of Cambridgeshire Horizons. On Thursday the
Joint Strategic Growth Implementation Committee (JSGIC) met to discuss progress on the major developments sites in Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire, as well as finding out more about progress on the
Water Cycle Strategy for the area, and hearing from Chief Fire Officer Graham Stagg on plans for ensuring appropriate fire and rescue provision in our new communities.
On Wednesday and Thursday, the
Green Vision Team held public consultation events in Soham and on Ely Market, where over 100 people found more about the draft Strategy and were able to give their views.
The consultation is running until 7th March and people can have their say online
here or by attending one of the seven remaining
consultation events.
I am now off for a week's annual leave over half-term, but will return to my blog week commencing 22nd February.
05/02/2010 - Eco-town talks
Colleagues from Norfolk travelled to Cambourne earlier this week to speak to
South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridgeshire Horizons about planning for an eco-town, comparing notes on the eco-town developments of
Northstowe and
Rackheath.
After introductions from colleagues at
GO-East, Jo Mills (Corporate Manager, New Communities, South Cambridgeshire District Council) and I started the day with an introduction to the local growth agenda, including an overview of strategic governance and joint planning arrangements, before hearing more about lessons learnt from the developments of
Cambourne and
Orchard Park.
The day provided a useful opportunity to share ideas about how we can seek to achieve high levels of sustainability within these two proposed new communities, as well as looking at the work that must be undertaken to encourage local people to easily lead a low-carbon lifestyle in the future.
02/02/2010 - Paxton Pits
On Friday I attended the unveiling of benefactors' event at
Paxton Pits Visitors Centre, located close to St Neots. In recent years Cambridgeshire Horizons has
supported the development of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve through the allocation of Growth Area and
Housing Growth Funding, and it is good to see work progress over the years.
After the official event we were treated to a (rather muddy) walk around the Reserve to enjoy the beautiful surroundings, which included a sighting of a Peregrine Falcon.
26/01/2010 - Have your say on Cambridgeshire's Green Vision
Preserving and enhancing the natural surroundings of Cambridgeshire is an important part of creating sustainable new communities, which is why we are currently undertaking a review of the Cambridgeshire Green Infrastructure Strategy.
Green Infrastructure is the natural environment that provides social, economic and environmental benefits. The term covers a wide range of different things, including rivers and watercourses, commons, natural and semi-natural habitats for wildlife, country parks, playing fields, woodlands, hedgerows, historic parks, allotments, public rights of way, wetlands, cycleways and much, much more.
The
Green Vision for the sub-region was established back in 2006, and now, four years on, we are undertaking a review to check the Vision is still appropriate, at the same time as expanding it to cover the whole of the County.
Until 7th March 2010 we are asking local people for their thoughts on our
draft revised strategy through a range of consultation events and also via our website. You can find out more about when and where our consultation events are taking place here or have your say online here.
Following on from the public consultation the draft report will go to the six Cambridgeshire local authorities for consideration, where they can take the public views expressed throughout the consultation into account before the report is finalised.
22/01/2010 - Adept Over Dinner
Last night I travelled down to London at the invitation of Brian Smith, Executive Director of Environment Services at
Cambridgeshire County Council, to attend the Annual Dinner of CSS (formerly the
County Surveyors Society).
The event was a good opportunity to catch up with a wide range of colleagues from across the country, and hear the speeches from Sir Robert Kerslake, Chairman of the
HCA, Alison Quant, President of CSS, and Bronwyn Hill, Director-General of Regional Networks,
Department for Transport. It was also a historic occasion, as Alison announced that the Society was going to change its name (the society was formed way back in 1885) and will henceforth be known Adept (the Association of Directors of Enivronment, Economics, Planning and Transport).
Throughout both the speeches and conversations around the table, there was a clear focus on the importance of stronger collaboration between all levels of Government, as well as the need for innovative new ways to deliver infrastructure, particularly via the aligning of capital programmes to ensure public money can be used to leverage private money.
It was also lovely to have the chance for a long conversation with
Brian Smith, who will be retiring this Spring after a long and distinguished career, and who has been a great friend and support to me during my time at Horizons, and previously when I was at the Government Office for the East of England.
21/01/2010 - Innovators needed...
With thousands of new homes and facilities planned for the County over the coming years, it is imperative that high quality standards are upheld. This is why we are searching for experts in the four C's of the
Quality Charter (Climate, Connectivity, Character and Connectivity) to join a new
Cambridgeshire Quality Panel.
The Panel is being set up by Horizons, in conjunction with the six Cambridgeshire Local Authorities, to provide a consistent approach to design review for
major growth sites across Cambridgeshire.
If you are interested in becoming a panel member, or know someone who might be, please click
here to find out more. The closing date for applications is 8th February.
19/01/2010 - Cambridge - weathering the storm
Centre for Cities published its Cities Outlook 2010 this week, which reviews the economic performance of cities across the UK.
The Cities Outlook report identifies cities with the right ingredients to succeed beyond the recession, and Cambridge has been identified as one of the five top cities to watch over the coming year.
According to the research, Cambridge has the highest proportion of residents qualified to degree level or above, and the lowest percentage of residents with no formal qualifications. In addition to the strong backdrop of education that Cambridge is so famous for, between February 2008 and November 2009 the city saw the smallest increase in Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) claims, and is also ranked 5th out of 64 cities in terms of average weekly earnings.
It is good to see external confirmation of the key role that the Cambridge can play in helping to lead the UK out of the current recession. And the importance at a national level of maintaining the competitiveness of Cambridge on the international stage shows even more clearly how critical it is that we are given the tools we need to deliver additional infrastructure and high quality new communities which are the key ingredients for sustainable economic growth.
You can access the full report here: http://www.centreforcities.org/outlook10
13/01/2010 - Quality Charter embedding
Monday evening I travelled to Ely to meet with around 25 Councillors from across Fenland, East Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire to talk about the
Cambridgeshire Quality Charter for Growth.
The event is part of a wider programme of activity to further inform Members and Officers across Cambridgeshire about the uses of the Quality Charter, and give people the opportunity to find out more about how they can use the document as a practical tool in their working lives.
It was another very interesting session, with plenty of debate about how the Quality Charter can be used to assist the deliver of sustainable new communities in the future, in particular focussing on further raising awareness of the document with developers to ensure they are aware of our aspirations for future communities.
08/01/2010 - Welcome to 2010
A happy New Year to you all. As expected, the first week back in the Horizons office has been a busy week for the whole team, although our travel arrangements have not been helped by the wintry weather. In particular we have been developing plans for
Northstowe in response to the
annoucement before Christmas about its potential to become a fully-fledged eco-town. Local partners have always had ambitions for Northstowe to become an exemplar new-town, with the highest standards of sustainable living, what we are now doing is looking at how we can use the eco-town process to secure those ambitions, meet the required standards, yet maintain a focus on the overall deliverability of Northstowe.
In addition to the work on Northstowe, we have also been developing, in partnership with the
Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), the local investment plan for Cambridgeshire. This plan will build on our existing evidence base to outline the key investments required for new developments across the County, and provide the basis for what we hope will become a shared investment plan with central government.
2010 looks set to be a challenging, but interesting, year for the Horizons team and our partners. I will be sure to keep you up-to-date on major developments via my blog.