Chance to look at plans for huge new South Cambridgeshire village

Developers are showing their plans for up to 3,500 new houses.

Bourn Airfield is a proposed new village between Cambourne and Highfields Caldecote, six miles to the west of Cambridge, being considered by local plan inspectors.

Developer Countryside is hosting two public exhibitions this week to show the latest plans for the new village, which will include two primary schools, a secondary school, health facilities and a central square with shops and leisure facilities.

Some villagers are speaking out, claiming representations of the plans don’t give a true reflection of what it will be like. Campaigners for residents’ group Stop Bourn Airfield Development claim that the images which are being shown are “cynical” and unrepresentative.

They add that the latest plans increase the boundary of the development and will bring the new buildings closer to Caldecote and “mean that villages will lose their character and identity”.

“The plan has been modified to encroach even closer to Caldecote village simply to fit [the additional homes] in,” a spokesperson for the group said. “To achieve a development such as the artwork portrays, they would need to be building tower blocks just to fit in the rest of the residents.”

The campaigners believe the density of the development is too high for a rural area, but as Countryside points out, the 270-hectare site has been allocated by South Cambridgeshire District Council in the emerging Local Plan “for the development of a new settlement of up to 3,500 new homes”.

A spokesperson for Countryside added: “Our masterplan provides a range of essential services to help create a sustainable new community and will have dedicated landscaped green spaces and other types of open space to prevent coalescence with Highfields Caldecote to the east, Cambourne to the west, and Bourn to the south, ensuring that each settlement maintains its own character and identity.”

Countryside says existing woods, hedges and water features will be retained.

The consultation events take place at The Cambridge Belfry in Cambourne between noon and 6pm today, (Friday March 9), and at Bourn Airfield (entrance via Broadway) tomorrow at 10am-2pm, (Saturday March 10).