Community

Planning for growth in Cambridgeshire is not just about delivering new homes and jobs. It is about building new communities that meet the needs of a diverse population that will grow and thrive over time. It is important that new communities get the support they need in the early phases of development so that they stand the best chance of success from the start.

Planned growth will deliver a range of benefits for both new and existing residents, including better public transport, new schools, leisure, arts and community facilities, and enhanced green spaces. Providing a wide range of facilities creates opportunities for residents to meet new people and form a stronger sense of community.

Community is one of the four principles set out in the Cambridgeshire Quality Charter for Growth, which offers a shared vision for achieving excellence in the planned new communities in Cambridgeshire. The Quality Charter encourages the creation of places where people of many different backgrounds live out of choice and not necessity, and actively participate in the development and management of their neighbourhoods.

Building socially inclusive communities that meet the needs of a range of household sizes, ages and incomes is a challenge addressed in our groundbreaking Balanced and Mixed Communities: A Good Practice Guide. This report sets out guidelines for achieving a wide mix of housing (e.g. family homes, flats) and tenure types (e.g. market housing, affordable housing, social and market rental) that will enable people to set down roots, mature and grow old within the same community as their circumstances and household sizes change.

Cambridgeshire Horizons' Quality of Life Strategies for Sports, Arts and Culture and Green Infrastructure set out our aspirations and priorities for a range of important community facilities for new and existing residents of Cambridgeshire. We also contribute to and support the community building work of our partners, for example in youth and community engagement and supported housing.

As part of the wider community facility provision, our report, Facilities for Faith Communities in new Developments in the Cambridge Sub-Region, offers guidance on how faith groups can be helped to obtain premises and settle in the new communities and contribute to social and community cohesion.

Finally, good design of shared public spaces - parks and recreation grounds, streets, and pedestrian and cycle ways - contributes to the overall desirability of community. Well-designed public spaces should be safe, attractive, functional, and easily accessible. The Cambridgeshire Design Guide for Streets & Public Realm aims to ensure a high standard of design for the public spaces shared by the whole community.