Councillors decide on 134 homes at Ekin Road on Wednesday. Residents object to closing part of the road for about 57 weeks; officers say access will be kept.
Residents of the Ekin Road estate say a plan to close part of their road for more than a year during rebuilding could leave them cut off. The council’s planning committee decides the redevelopment on Wednesday 7 October, and officers are recommending approval.
The application, 26/00039/FUL, would demolish 108 homes on the estate in Abbey ward, east Cambridge, and build 134 new ones. The applicant is Cambridge Investment Partnership, the council’s joint venture with Hill. Because the council is part applicant, the scheme has to go to committee rather than be decided by officers.
The road closure objection
The objection comes from the Save Ekin Road Community Group. The officer report summarises it. The group objects to closing the southern section of Ekin Road to vehicles for approximately 57 weeks during construction.
The group’s points, as the report records them:
- it wants uninterrupted vehicle access to homes, except for short spells when work is right outside a particular house
- it is worried about residents with disabilities, and about access for taxis, carers and deliveries
- it is worried about the security of cars moved to temporary parking areas
- it questions whether emergency services can reach homes throughout the work
- it suggests using the planned temporary access road as the vehicle route for the whole construction period
- it wants any revised arrangement fixed in amended plans, conditions or a legal agreement
Those most affected are the 14 homes along the southern edge of the estate. They were taken out of the redevelopment after local consultation and will stay, so their occupants live through the building work. The report also says 13 households are still living in the homes due for demolition; the other 95 of the 108 have been moved out and are empty.
What the officers say
Officers say the plans keep access open. The report states that the construction and traffic management plans allow the retained homes to stay occupied throughout, “with pedestrian and vehicular access routes maintained, temporary resident parking provided where necessary, refuse collection arrangements and emergency access maintained at all times”. Residents of the retained homes will get advance notice of any temporary restrictions.
The report accepts that construction “will inevitably result in a degree of temporary disruption”. It says that can be managed through the construction plan and conditions.
Cambridgeshire County Council, as highway authority, did not object. It asked for more detail first, and officers have written that into condition 7. Before work starts, the developer must get approval for an addendum to its traffic and construction plans covering:
- where any temporary bus stop goes, with a shelter for as long as it is moved
- temporary parking bays of at least 2.5 by 5 metres
- construction accesses built before any work begins
- how the closure of the south-eastern footpath access will be kept to a minimum, agreed with the highway authority
- the double yellow lines planned for Ekin Road, and how long they will last
Checks submitted with the application show bin lorries and fire engines can get in and turn around on the new layout, the report says.
The homes
The council says the existing homes have serious damp and mould, water getting in, structural problems in the flat blocks and shortcomings against current fire safety standards. The report says they are near the end of their life.
The new scheme, according to the report:
- 134 homes, two to four storeys, with the tallest along Wadloes Road
- 88 parking spaces, about 0.65 per home, all with electric charging, plus a car club space
- about 0.66 hectares of public open space, more than double today’s 0.3 hectares
- 97 new trees and a 20% biodiversity net gain
Fewer affordable homes than policy asks
The Local Plan expects 40% of a scheme this size to be affordable. The applicant’s adviser, Savills, said the scheme would be in deficit even with none. The council’s own viability adviser, Quintic Advisory, said it could support about 15%: 20 homes, five at social rent.
The agreed figure is 34 affordable homes, or 25%. The council has said it will deliver 58% affordable at Ekin Road if it secures Homes England funding. No such money has been allocated to the site yet, so the report gives that figure no weight. The legal agreement would let more affordable homes be added if the funding comes through.
In August the council won £96.4m from Homes England for 803 council homes, and the housing cabinet member named Ekin Road among the schemes in line. The report says none of that funding has gone to Ekin Road “at the time of determining this application”.
Anglian Water has a holding objection to the scheme. It wants alternative plans confirmed for extra capacity at the existing Cambridge Recycling Centre to handle wastewater from growth. Seven people objected and four sent neutral comments, the report records.
What it means for you
If you live on or near Ekin Road, the detail that matters to you is not settled yet. The access arrangements, the bus stop, the parking bays and the yellow lines all sit in the addendum required by condition 7. It must be approved before work starts.
The committee meets at 10am on Wednesday 7 October in the Council Chamber at the Guildhall. The agenda and all the papers are on the council’s website. Ekin Road is item 5.
We will update this page with the committee’s decision. For other schemes in the city, see our Cambridge planning news page.
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