Policy GP/QP: Establishing high quality landscape and public realm

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This refers to development in its widest sense, including buildings, and streets, spaces and places. It also refers to both redevelopment, including refurbishment, as well as new development.

proposals are required to deliver high quality landscape and public realm by: 

  a. Enabling local communities: 

    i. Ensure new and enhanced existing routes are designed inclusively, prioritising a pedestrian led movement hierarchy including generous and level footways that avoids street clutter; 

    ii. Create a range of open spaces that provide comfortable formal and informal places to rest, socialise and play, provide drinking water fountains, shade and shelter, bicycle parking, street lighting, signage and public art, designed in a coordinated and needs-led approach that is accessible and age appropriate for its user; 

    iii. Parking should not reduce the functionality of open spaces, and if on-street parking should be inset, an expanded footway is required for pedestrian movements when not occupied. 

  b. Enhancing connectivity: 

    i. Ensure that new and existing public realm and green infrastructure seamlessly connects, is accessible for all intended users and that the quality and function of existing routes are enhanced. Street furniture should not obstruct the public realm or create street clutter; 

    ii. Establish streets and open spaces that are well defined, and which clearly demarcate public and private space; 

    iii. Create streets that respond to their levels of use while not allowing vehicular traffic to dominate. 

  c. Responding to climate change: 

    i. Be landscape led, by retaining and enhancing existing features including trees, natural habitats, boundary treatments such as hedgerows, and historic street furniture and/or surfaces that positively contribute to the quality and character of an area; 

    ii. Enhance biodiversity using native planting and/or species capable of adapting to our changing climate; 

    iii. Seek opportunities to incorporate street trees into the public realm and where possible position them to provide additional benefits, such as solar shading and cooling, to both external and internal spaces; 

    iv. Integrate surface water management through design to enable pedestrian accessibility and planting, retaining existing natural features where possible and incorporating the use of permeable paving and features; 

    v. Factor microclimates into design proposals and ensure public spaces receive adequate sunlight whilst avoiding wind funnelling affects. 

  d. Integrating with local character: 

    i. espond to its context and relate to the character and intended function of the spaces and surrounding buildings using high quality and well detailed materials that are easily maintained; 

    ii. Ensure that the right growing conditions and future management regimes for landscape schemes are secured as part of any planning permission granted and implemented across the agreed timeframe, and ensure that space for trees and other planting is incorporated that is appropriate to the scale of buildings; 

    iii. Preserve historic design, detailing and materials, and use high quality, durable materials that are appropriate to the historic context, resulting in reinforced local distinctiveness; 

    iv. Provision of public art will be required on all major development proposals and will make a significant contribution towards the appearance of the scheme.

A form of artistic expression created for the enjoyment of the general public within the public realm.

should be developed through a three-way partnership between the developer, an art consultant and the Local Planning Authority, in consultation with the local community. 

  e. Being accessible to all: 

    ii. Ensure that open spaces are suitable for different users throughout the year, with consideration being given to the needs of all public realm users, including people with disabilities. 

    iii. Provide clearly navigable places, which are easy for users to understand, utilising legible, permeable and inclusive design principles. 

    iv. Seek to remove any barriers, both actual and perceived, in public realm improvements, minimising barriers to accessibility and inclusion of users including those wheeling and skateboarding.

    v. Provide adequate lighting; lamp columns and lanterns should be carefully considered, well-designed and appropriately located, in order to minimise intrusive lighting and reduce light pollution. 

  f. Promoting health and wellbeing: 

    i. Use open spaces in flexible ways such as for allotments, concerts, performances, exercise classes, event spaces, and fetes that offer physical and mental health benefits. To support the flexible use of open spaces and any meanwhile uses, design should consider access to power and water. 

    ii. Encouraging walking, wheeling including by skateboard, cycling and active travel. 

Public realm relates to all those parts of the built environment where the public has free access. It encompasses: all streets, squares, and other rights of way, whether predominantly in residential, commercial or community/civic uses; the open spaces and parks; and the ‘public/private’ spaces where public access is unrestricted (at least during daylight hours). It includes the interfaces with key internal and private spaces to which the public normally has free access.

helps to define the character and experience of great places, whether within Cambridge or one of the surrounding villages, and it is crucial that these positive qualities are maintained into the future. The importance of creating and protecting high quality streets and open spaces, both public and private, is a key part of adapting to climate change pressures, supporting biodiversity, and promoting active and healthy lifestyles. 

The public realm acts as a way of siting buildings in their context. The spaces between, around and within buildings, streets, squares, parks and open spaces all play a key role in supporting public life and fostering social interaction.

The combined areas of Cambridge District and South Cambridgeshire District Councils.

’s landscape spaces and public realm are key to creating a sense of place and play an important role in enhancing communities’ quality of life and health and wellbeing and can even play a role in boosting the local economy. In addition to this, the public realm has many functions including providing space for recreation and social interaction, space for nature, supporting movement, climate change mitigation and adaptation and utilities provision. 

The long-term development of the

The combined areas of Cambridge District and South Cambridgeshire District Councils.

area requires careful consideration of how the design, delivery and management of new and improved public realm is coordinated. Proposals must ensure the design of the public realm is considered early in the development design process and that consideration is given to the integration of the public realm with the surrounding built form and that it responds to local context and character. 

Component parts of the public realm should be integrated with the wider townscape and should be delivered to provide an uncluttered environment. Developers will need to work collaboratively to deliver a coordinated range of materials, finishes and details that respond to and enhance local character. Durability will be key within the high-density environment such as within the city centre and materials will that are adaptable and sustainable will play a key role in delivering distinctive and resilient places. Proposals should not use hostile architecture such as spikes, uneven surfaces, harsh angles, or large bollards in the public realm that undermine the public space as a shared resource and prevent inclusive use such by homeless people, older and young people using the space to rest or socialise, and skateboarders. 

To support well designed public realm, the Local Planning Authority promotes the removal of paving in front gardens. When considering paving for front garden, it is encouraged that permeable paving is used. Planning permission will be required to hard pave in front of the principal elevation, if the area is greater than 5 quare metres. However, you can pave without the need for planning permission if you use porous materials for paving, or provision is made to direct run off water from the hard surface to a permeable or porous area or surface within the curtilage of the dwellinghouse. 

Proposals should define how they will support the activation of the public realm including the location of positive and active frontages to support natural surveillance and the positioning of seating or other elements of street furniture to encourage social interaction. These elements should be situated within appropriate locations of publicly accessible open spaces, town centres and other locations with good levels of direct sunlight. 

To support social cohesion and wellbeing, new and enhanced communal facilities, including seating and play equipment, should be accessible and age-appropriate to effectively serve their intended users. The Healthy Places Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) provides an evidence base for how Cambridgeshire and Peterborough can best support the health and wellbeing of our communities. The assessment should be used as guidance when submitting planning proposals that will require new or enhanced community provision. 

The Local Planning Authority places significant importance on the provision of public art and supports best practice in its commissioning. Successful public art demonstrates ambition, innovation and is relevant to its context, alongside providing social, economic and cultural benefits. It should genuinely engage people, including sections of the community that are hard-to-reach and contribute to local identity. Very broadly, public art can be understood as a process of engaging artists’ creative ideas in the public realm and with the community. 

A form of artistic expression created for the enjoyment of the general public within the public realm.

refers to permanent or temporary artworks in any media created for the public realm, built or natural, and is always community or site specific. Crucially, it is experienced outside of galleries or museums, ensuring wider public accessibility. The art should be original, of high quality and designed for and with community input.

A form of artistic expression created for the enjoyment of the general public within the public realm.

should be developed through a three-way partnership between the developer, an art consultant, and the Council and involve consultation with the local community. 

The Council is committed to producing an updated Public Art SPD post adoption of the Greater Cambridgeshire

A plan for the future development of a local area, drawn up by the local planning authority in consultation with the community. In law this is described as the development plan documents adopted under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. A local plan can consist of either strategic or non-strategic policies, or a combination of the two.

. Until such time, relevant documents such as The Cambridge City Council SPD (2010), the South Cambridgeshire Design Guide (2010) and the South Cambridgeshire Public Art SPD (2009) should be referred to when preparing and submitting planning applications for major development. 

All forms of major development are required to make provision for public art, meaning residential developments comprising ten or more dwellings. Other developments where the gross floor space created is 1,000m2 or greater, including offices, manufacturing, warehousing and retail development should provide public art where possible. For Outline planning permission, planning applications should provide a Public Art Strategy, including indicative budget. For Full Planning and Reserved Matters applications, these should be supported by a Public Art Delivery Plan. 

Where a Section 106 agreement is required, it should include a negotiated commuted sum based on the complexity and timelines outlined in the Public Art Delivery Plan or Strategy, covering the Local Planning Authority’s need for public art expertise to support delivery. National guidelines recommend allocating at least 1% of the total build cost in major developments for public art and culture to mitigate the development’s impact on people and place, with 1% serving as a starting point (Full details are in the draft Greater Cambridge Planning Obligations SPD). 

Exemptions may apply where public art requirements do not meet NPPF Paragraph 58 tests or where viability is a concern, and such cases will be considered individually. 

• The combined areas of Cambridge District and South Cambridgeshire District Councils.

  A plan for the future development of a local area, drawn up by the local planning authority in consultation with the community. In law this is described as the development plan documents adopted under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. A local plan can consist of either strategic or non-strategic policies, or a combination of the two.

  : Topic Paper 5: Great Places
• Healthy Places Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA)

We will consider all comments while developing the next version of the

A plan for the future development of a local area, drawn up by the local planning authority in consultation with the community. In law this is described as the development plan documents adopted under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. A local plan can consist of either strategic or non-strategic policies, or a combination of the two.

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All comments must be received by 30 January 2026 at 5pm.