Ridgeons redevelopment - Cromwell Road

I went to the Ross Street exhibition on March 21st, and found it very depressing. I met and talked with people from the architect, the exhibition organiser and Ridgeons. I found it disappointing because I learnt that Ridgeons were originally persuaded by the council to submit their land for housing development; their buildings are less than 20 years old, and although the site has become a little oversized for their needs, they are still going to need a site in the area. They are considering a move to the Hansons site in lower Coldhams Lane (next to the Romsey Lakes possible development). The costs of the acquisition of a new site, the move, the development of suitable buildings and the redevelopment of the Cromwell Road site will be considerable. The proposals under discussion for development of the Cromwell Road site were all to do with housing at a high density; the overwhelming needs for educational (primary and secondary), social, leisure and infrastructure development have not been considered.

At the original meeting we were deluged with proposals from the council and the developers; our views were not sought. The council are supposed to respond to requests from developers and consider the views of the community; this has not happened in this case as I suspect that it is the coulcil who have initiated the redevelopment. The council say they are under pressure from central government to deliver more housing developments. However, the council are (theoretically) answerable to us, and not central gorvernment. They have evaded this responsibility and accountability in a deceitful and shameful manner. There is plenty of green space in Cambridge - beside Fen Causeway, adjoining Queens Road, next to Gonville Place - however these are desirable areas, either in public use or owned by the university. Instead they shoe-horn more and more high density housing into overcrowded areas. Several people on Saturday said "it's early days yet" - the next thing we will be told is "it's too late to change now.

Some of the figures displayed to show the impact were misguided - for example, on traffic movements it was claimed that daily traffic movements would be slightly less. However, Ridgeon's traffic movements take place between 7am and 5pm six days a week. The traffic of the proposed housing estate would all take place between 8 and 9 am and 5 and 6 pm, 5 days a week, considerably increasing rush hour traffic. We alll know there will be inadequate provision for parking. The exit from the estate will be either through the choked lanes of Sedgwick Street and Catherine Street in Romsey, or via Coldhams Lane into the traffic jams of the Newmarket Road junction and the Brook Street roundabout. We all know that nothing was done to improve these access routes after previous large scale developments in the area.

Of course the predominant use of the proposed housing will be buy-to-let - destroying further any vestige of community atmosphere in the area. This will be welcome if it replaces the "beds in sheds" developments currently widespread in the area - however I suspect that it will just add to it.

Am I alone in all this thinking?

The developer's website is better viewed as a downloaded pdf file:

http://cromwellroad-ridgeonsspd.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Cromw...

Such a huge area to develop.
They are going to what ever people think, it's the density that's the main issue.

The existing development on Cromwell Road is hideous and depressing as it is. The last thing it needs is another few hundred tiny flats.

To be fair to the university, though, I guess they're doing their bit with the North West Cambridge development.