Date published: 2009/06/26
The Cambridge News says:
Residents of an unfinished housing estate are living on a building site and are cut off by busy roads that act as "barriers", according to a council report.
A Cambridge City Council review of Orchard Park highlights "lessons to be learned" on the 900-home development, where only half the homes are occupied after building work stalled during the credit crunch.
Although Orchard Park is the responsibility of South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC), the city council wants to avoid making the same mistakes on developments in Cambridge. And boundary changes could see Orchard Park transferred to the city.
...
City councillors have also criticised moves to build residential units next to the A14 on the margin of the site.Cllr Sian Reid, executive councillor for climate change and growth, said: "It is wrong to force people to live on the edge of huge dual carriageway, because physical and mental well-being suffer from noise and poor air quality."
Well, it is very easy for one set of bureaucrats to criticise another, it would be far more meaningful if South Cambs had their own report.
The criticism about "barriers" is a bit ridiculous because the A14 and King's Hedges Road were there long before Orchard Park (Arbury Park) was even imagined. And the masterplanners, John Thompson and Partners, specifically mentioned the issue of the King's Hedges Road being a barrier at a meeting on 31 August 2002, at which bureaucrats and politicians from both South Cambs and the city attended.
At that meeting it was also suggested by a member of the public that it would be good to have a line of office buildings along the A14 to shield the residents from the noise and pollution, and in theory that was taken on board. But there are currently no offices on site and it's hard to see any being built in the next N years. There is now a Premier Inn at one end, but it doesn't do much by itself. And unfortunately on the easternmost third of the site they have built housing far too close to the A14 (and the Guided Bus route). Especially since the A14 is supposed to be widened (if the government ever gets around to it).
As it happens, the developers, Gallagher, put up a fence along the A14, and that shields the noise reasonably well. In fact the A14 noise can be heard far from the Orchard Park estate, so a good half a km or more away, especially at night, but it's not a big issue unless you are sensitive to noise. The pollution is another matter.
And the phrase "lessons to be learned" is a bit obnoxious. Will anyone take responsibility and resign or be sacked? Of course not.
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