Policy S/HHR: Land between Huntingdon Road and Histon Road

Vision and identity

1.    Darwin Green will continue to develop as a new community, providing a mix of affordable and market homes supported schools, shops and community facilities, focused around a new local centre. On the edge of the site, a country park will be delivered, providing accessible open space to the city and responding sensitively to its setting on the edge of the

A statutory designation made for the purposes of checking the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas, preventing neighbouring towns from merging into each other, assisting in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment, preserving the setting and special character of historic towns and assisting in urban regeneration by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land. Specific Green Belt purposes have been set out for Cambridge.

, maintaining separation from Girton, and Histon and Impington villages.

Uses

2.    Darwin Green (Land between Huntingdon Road and Histon Road) is allocated for mixed-use development as shown on the Policies Map, comprising:
  a.    Indicatively, approximately 2,700 dwellings of an appropriate mix of types, sizes and tenures (including affordable housing) attractive to, and meeting the needs of, all ages and sectors of society, including those with disabilities. This is subject to a design-led assessment, and the final number of homes may be higher or lower than this indicative capacity;
  b.    a range of services and facilities commensurate with a sustainable urban extension of this scale, including:
    i.    Secondary school;
    ii.    Two primary schools;
    iii.    Community facilities and rooms;
    iv.    Retail units, including a food store (up to 2,000 net square metres gross internal area);
    v.    Library;
    vi.    

Areas of land not built on and water bodies such as rivers and lakes, regardless of ownership and access. These areas include parks and gardens, natural and semi natural green spaces, green corridors, outdoor sports facilities, amenity green space, teenagers’ and children’s play areas, allotments and community gardens, cemeteries and churchyards, accessible countryside in urban fringe areas and civic spaces.

and recreation, including allotments and outdoor sports facilities, and appropriate provision for children and teenagers; and
    vii.    A new Country Park.

The development of Land between Huntingdon Road and Histon Road must do the following:

Context

3.    Maintain definitive footpaths that cross the site linking Histon Road and Huntingdon Road with Girton.

4.    Respect the setting of the former National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) headquarters building on Huntingdon Road, a non-designated heritage asset adjoining the site.

5.    Maintain a clear landscaped buffer between the site and the nearby villages of Girton, and Histon and Impington.

Built form

6.    Demonstrate that the design of the whole site is coherent and the portion of the site in South Cambridgeshire integrates effectively with the wider North West Cambridge area, including development in Cambridge City, through:
  a.    Preparation of a spatial masterplan, to be submitted for approval by the Local Planning Authority as part of the first application for planning permission for the South Cambridgeshire portion of the site, setting out principles of good design (supplemented by a

A statement that accompanies a planning application to explain the design principles and concepts that have informed the development and how access issues have been dealt with. The access element of the statement should demonstrate how the principles of inclusive design, including the specific needs of disabled people, have been integrated into the proposed development and how inclusion will be maintained and managed.

);
  b.    Preparation of Design Codes for each phase of development, to be submitted and approved before granting of the first reserved matters consent, ensuring a high- quality development; and
  c.    Incorporation of measures to mitigate against noise impacts from the A14 on sensitive uses, including implementation of a substantial buffer zone.

Public space

7.    Deliver a new Country Park, set within the Cambridge

A statutory designation made for the purposes of checking the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas, preventing neighbouring towns from merging into each other, assisting in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment, preserving the setting and special character of historic towns and assisting in urban regeneration by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land. Specific Green Belt purposes have been set out for Cambridge.

, between Huntingdon Road, Cambridge Road/Histon Road and the A14, providing:
  a.    public access enhancements; and
  b.    new footpaths, cycleways and bridleways, including access via the existing A14 overbridge to connect to the wider Public Rights of Way.
 
Nature

8.    Through preparation of a landscape-led masterplan, ensure the development retains appropriate existing features of ecological interest and the new Country Park provides:
  a.    New landscape features of interest, while protecting the existing landscape;
  b.    

The variety of life in all its forms. This includes the plant and animal species that make up our wildlife and the habitats in which they live.

enhancements;
  c.    Appropriate hedgerow management and enhancement measures; and
  d.    Measures to protect and enhance wildlife habitats.

Movement

9.    Ensure the development is highly accessible and permeable to all its residents by walking, cycling and high-quality public transport, to support non-car modes of travel, recreation and health. Measures, which will need to be explored in further detail through the

A comprehensive and systematic process that sets out transport issues relating to a proposed development. It identifies measures required to improve accessibility and safety for all modes of travel, particularly for alternatives to the car such as walking, cycling and public transport, and measures that will be needed deal with the anticipated transport impacts of the development.

and

A long-term management strategy for an organisation or site that seeks to deliver sustainable transport objectives and is regularly reviewed. 

for the site, must include:
  a.    Securing a network of strong internal and external cycle and pedestrian links to neighbouring parts of the urban and rural areas;
  b.    Provision of high-quality public transport to serve the development, including bus priority through the development and segregation if required, linking effectively with the route through the adjoining development in Cambridge City and into the wider bus network;
  c.    Encouraging car clubs to minimise the amount of land given over to car parking.

10.    The timely provision of vehicular access points for Phase 2 via the spine road approved as part of Phase 1, connecting to the B1049 Cambridge Road in the east, and connecting to Huntingdon Road via the street network within Phase 1. The site must not provide vehicular access directly onto the A14 or to Girton.

11.    Adequate highway capacity will be required to serve all stages of development. Planning permission will be subject to conditions requiring that sufficient highway capacity is available in the A14 corridor between Girton and Milton throughout the development for the traffic forecast to be generated by each phase of development.

12.    The applicant must prepare and submit a comprehensive transport strategy, dealing with the whole allocation site, to reduce the need to travel and to maximise the use of sustainable transport modes, so as to achieve a modal share of no more than 40% of trips by car (excluding passengers). This will include the provision of employee travel plans, residential travel planning, and other similar measures which could include car clubs.

Resources

13.    Integrate surface water drainage measures within the development, including the provision of on-site balancing ponds to be located south of the A14.
 
14.    Undertake and submit noise and air quality assessments demonstrating that noise and air pollution will not have an adverse impact on residential amenity, and health and wellbeing.

Lifespan

15.    Phasing plans must be prepared and submitted by the applicant to demonstrate that services, facilities and infrastructure necessary to meet the day-to-day needs of the development, specifically the secondary school, two primary schools, local shopping and community facilities, including a community building and library, will be planned and delivered in a timely and efficient way. Additional off-site services and facilities may be delivered within the wider North West Cambridge area, if appropriate.

16.    In addition to the specific supporting studies required elsewhere in this policy, the applicant will also be required to prepare and submit a comprehensive environmental management and construction strategy for all phases of development. Measures to minimise the adverse effects during construction may include:
  a.    Imposing planning conditions to minimise the adverse effects of construction activity on residential amenity and the environment;
  b.    Introducing a scheme to avoid construction vehicles travelling through existing residential areas of Cambridge and villages in the locality, and to avoid unacceptable adverse impacts on traffic flows on the A14 and the surrounding road network.
  c.    Imposing planning conditions around the timing of construction traffic movements on the network, if necessary, taking account also of the need to minimise adverse impacts on residential amenity.

Previous Local Plans allocated developments on the north west edge of Cambridge, referred to as Darwin Green. The form of development responded to the setting of the city and surrounding villages, retaining areas around the edge of the site within the green belt for use as a country park.

The phase 1 part of the site in Cambridge has outline planning permission, and some parcels have detailed planning permission or are under construction. The phases 2 and 3 in in South Cambridgeshire also have outline planning permission. Given the site will still be coming forward when the new plan is adopted it is proposed to carry forward the allocations into the new plan. The policy will ensure that Darwin Green is built as a comprehensive sustainable development regardless of administrative boundaries.

The policy seeks to ensure that the development integrates with the wider North-West Cambridge area whilst also continuing the separation of Cambridge from Girton and Histon & Impington villages. The delivery of an appropriate level and type of services, facilities and infrastructure will be central to creating a sustainable community. This will include a country park reaching up to the A14, important for delivering landscape and biodiversity enhancements within the

A statutory designation made for the purposes of checking the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas, preventing neighbouring towns from merging into each other, assisting in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment, preserving the setting and special character of historic towns and assisting in urban regeneration by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land. Specific Green Belt purposes have been set out for Cambridge.

. It will also provide improved countryside access and informal recreation for the wider community of North West Cambridge.

It is important that any urban related open uses, such as playing fields, that are proposed in the

A statutory designation made for the purposes of checking the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas, preventing neighbouring towns from merging into each other, assisting in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment, preserving the setting and special character of historic towns and assisting in urban regeneration by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land. Specific Green Belt purposes have been set out for Cambridge.

are carefully located and designed to ensure they do not reduce the effectiveness of the

A statutory designation made for the purposes of checking the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas, preventing neighbouring towns from merging into each other, assisting in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment, preserving the setting and special character of historic towns and assisting in urban regeneration by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land. Specific Green Belt purposes have been set out for Cambridge.

separation between Cambridge and Girton in visual terms, particularly having regard to matters such as fencing and floodlighting.

Some parts of the site are at risk of surface water flooding which will need to be controlled by means of a sustainable drainage system which will only release surface water run-off into surrounding water courses at least at a rate no greater than if the site was undeveloped.

Noise and air quality assessments will be required as part of any planning application. If necessary, development will be subject to measures, which may include planning conditions and / or planning obligations, a landscaped buffer, and layout and design measures, to mitigate the effects of air pollution and noise caused by traffic using the A14 north of the site and Histon Road east of the site.

Noise attenuation fencing will only be permitted exceptionally where it is demonstrated that landscape bunds are impractical or inappropriate. The length of such fencing will be minimised. Where noise attenuation fencing is permitted, any potential for reflected noise shall be minimized through the use of noise absorptive materials or other surface finishes to the fencing, to ensure no unacceptable adverse impact on nearby communities.

• 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.

  : Strategy Topic Paper

• 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.

  : Sites Topic Paper
• Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (2025)

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

  Employment Land Review & Economic

  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.

  Evidence Base (2020)

• A Heritage Impact Assessment is a tool used to evaluate how a proposed development may impact heritage assets.

  (2025)

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.