Our ecological expertise has played an important part in securing planning permission for 230 new homes in Cambridge for our client, This Land.
Newbury Farm, south of Worts’ Causeway, was known as ‘Proposal Site GB2’ in the Cambridge Local Plan 2018, which identified the need for 14,000 new homes to be built in the city by 2031. Several sites across the city, including this one, were allocated for residential development to help address this demand.
Our Director and Principal Ecologist, Will O’Connor, said that there had been a number of challenges since the site was originally proposed for allocation in 2011. Not least was the need to ensure there was a biodiversity net gain whilst still managing to deliver the allocated number of homes. The need for a measurable biodiversity net gain was introduced post-allocation which required the project team to explore a wide range of opportunities. This Land and MKA Ecology Ltd worked collaboratively with stakeholders to reach a conclusion with which all parties were happy.
A sensitive and innovative approach to mitigation measures was especially important given the proximity of the proposed development to sites of significant nature conservation value. Ultimately a combination of onsite enhancements and contribution to offsite biodiversity enhancements will result in the target 10% biodiversity net gain.
Further information on the development can be found here