North West Cambridge

The site can be split into three sections:

• Land between Madingley Road and Huntingdon Road (known as the University site or North West Cambridge)
• Land between Huntingdon Road and Histon Road (known as Darwin Green 1)
• Land to the north west of Darwin Green (known as Darwin Green 2)

The University Site also known as North West Cambridge.

You can also visit the North West Cambridge Development website to read more about Eddington, Cambridge's newest district.

Overview of North West Cambridge

The University of Cambridge, through their agents AECOM, submitted a joint planning application to us and the Cambridge City Council in September 2011.

The application was approved by members of the Joint Development Control Committee on 8 August 2012.

The officer report and minutes of the meeting are available on the JDCC pages.

The North West Cambridge Area Action Plan (AAP) produced by us and Cambridge City Council identifies land to be released from the Cambridge Green Belt, to contribute towards meeting the development needs of Cambridge University. The development has started but will take many years to complete.

The University's aspirations for the site are; include around 3,000 homes (of which 50% will be "key worker" housing for University and College Staff) plus 2,000 units of student accommodation, approximately 60,000m2 of higher education uses, including academic faculty development and a University Conference Centre and up to 40,000m2 of University-related research institutes and commercial research uses and associated community facilities and open space including a primary school.

The AAP requires all development to be built to the highest standards of environmental sustainability and designed to minimise carbon emissions. For example, the majority of new homes are required to be built to level 5 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, the highest level currently believed to have been required by a statutory planning policy.

If you wish to find out more about the area action plans adopted by both Councils in relation to this growth site they can be viewed by visiting the North West Cambridge Area Action Plan (AAP) webpages  and the Cambridge City Council website.

Darwin Green 1

Cambridge City Council has granted planning consent, subject to planning conditions, for an access road and 187 homes (including 30% affordable housing) on the Darwin Green 'frontage land' adjoining Huntingdon Road.

Amendments to an existing outline application has been approved for a further 1,593 homes on the NIAB site including 40% affordable housing, a new primary school, community facilities, local shops, roads, footpaths and cycleways.

You can view the Section 106 Agreement for Darwin Green 1 (NIAB).

Darwin Green 2

In early 2008 independent Inspectors advised us we had not identified sufficient land to meet our housing requirements of 20,000 new homes between 1999 and 2016. They concluded the shortfall must be made up through new sites in the Council's Site Specific Policies Development Plan Document (DPD). The Darwin Green site was extended to the north west to make up part of this shortfall. 

The DPD was adopted in January 2010 and it was confirmed that the Darwin Green 2 site will be developed as part of a sustainable housing led urban extension of Cambridge. The site will accommodate approximately 1,100 dwellings.

In February 2010, we advised the developers that an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) (NIAB 2 Screening Opinion) would be required to ensure that the various impacts of the proposed scheme are identified and suitably managed.