Whittlesford is a hot development area, because it has amazing rail and road links, a real village identity, good school, good amenities (though beginning to creak a bit) and Duxford just a across the A505 is almost as good (I'm biased, I live in Whittlesford). Annd then we have the bit in the middle, the people's republic of Whittlesford Bridge. At one time part of Duxford, now formally part of Whittlesford parish, like some mitteleuropa province fought over by two now-forgotten principalities. The thing about Whittlesford Bridge is that it is close to the station, and there is scope for development because it is not surrounded by green belt. What has happened recently is a lot of unstructured development, such as the developments of Knight's Orchard and The Morraine, and the possible development across Morrfield Road south of Royston Rd. And there is the scrapyard, long established, at the end of Station Rd, and long a cause of complaint to local residents.
The possibility is that this can be developed, although there is a lot of negotiation going on atm because the developer is arguing the remediation costs mean they cannot offer much green space (see pic below of their current proposals, bit squished up to say the least) or money for education, or affordable houses. This is part of the poker game between the planners and the developers, and the parish council at Whittlesford had a good meeting with district council planners last week where priorities where discussed.
Now, this development could be the start of development of the current highways depot across the rail tracks near the Red Lion Hotel. The county want to sell the land for housing because it is hard up. And throwing into the mix is the scope for Whittlesford Parkway rail station to become much busier. When Addenbrookes gets its rail station you could live at Whittlesford Bridge and commute ten minutes down the line to the science park bio-medical campus, or commute down to London.
One of the other things currently going on is exploring with Network Rail whether we can run a pathway from the station platform UNDER the A505 roadbridge and out past Welch's Transport on the other side and into Duxford. (Jim Welch is very supportive of all this). Soo you have the potential connectivity there for children from all this development to go to Duxford School and people to cycle to Duxford without crossing the A505.
The other alternative if we don't do any thinking is that there are a load of new houses built willy nilly and lots of people try to drive out onto the A505 to access their amenities.
We need to make sure the plans for A505 and the City Deal tie in with all this, and the Neighbourhood Plan Whittlesford village are thinking of.
Only connect....
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