Agenda

Application No:  15/2355/FUL

Site Address:      Land To The Rear Of 27-37 Romsey Terrace Cambridge Cambridgeshire CB1 3NH

Description:        Proposed development of four dwellings - two semi-detached three-bedroom dwellings and two semi-detached two bedroom dwellings and associated amenity space and facilitating development.

Applicant:            TBC

Agent:                  Kimberley Brown on behalf of Bidwell’s

Address:             Bidwell House Trumpington Road Cambridge Cambridgeshire CB2 9LD

Lead Petitioner:  Resident of 32 Romsey Terrace Cambridge

Case Officer:      Sav Patel

Text of Petition: See Below

This Scheme goes against the wishes of the local community and is therefore disempowering. The applicant has failed to engage with in any meaningful discussion with us.

We object to the above application to develop this back garden site. It is an extreme example of “garden grabbing” and the proposal is completely out of keeping with the surrounding buildings.

The proposal contravenes the following policies in the 2006 Cambridge Local Plan:

1.     Policy 3/4 as it does not use “the characteristics of the locality to help inform the siting, massing, design and materials of the proposed development.” Any development on these back gardens would represent an over-development of the site and would be out of character with surrounding properties.

2.     Policy 3/7 as it will not create “good interrelations and integrations between buildings, routes and spaces” and it will not create “attractive built frontages to positively enhance the townscape where development adjoins public spaces and streets”. It will not locate “entrances and windows of habitable rooms next to the street” and it will not ensure the “the provision of clearly distinct public and private spaces and the design of such spaces so that they are usable, safe and enjoyable to use”.

3.     Policy 3/10 (Sub-division of Existing Plots) as it will “have a significant adverse impact on the amenities of neighbouring properties through loss of privacy, loss of light, an overbearing sense of enclosure and the generation of unreasonable levels of traffic or noise nuisance” and will also “provide inadequate amenity space, or vehicular access arrangements and parking spaces for the proposed and existing properties” and it will also “detract from the prevailing character and appearance of the area” and “adversely affect …gardens of local interest within or close to the site”. It will also “adversely affect trees”.  Several mature and semi-mature trees will be destroyed as a result of the proposed development.

4.     Policy  3/11 as it does not retain and protect “existing features which positively contribute to the landscape, character and amenity of the site…”

5.     Policy 3/12 because the new buildings will not “have a positive impact on their setting in terms of location on the site, height, scale and form, materials, detailing, wider townscape and landscape impacts and available views” and the proposal does not “successfully integrate refuse and recycling facilities, cycle parking, and plant and other services into the design.”

6.     Policy 4/11 as the loss of several trees directly adjacent to the Conservation Area and the construction of  ...  view the full agenda text for item 4.