Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from City Councillors Thornburrow, Flaubert and Smart and South Cambs Councillor Hawkins. City Councillors Gilderdale and Levien and South Cambs Councillor Garvie attended as alternates.

The Committee received a presentation on Biodiversity Net Gain from the Natural Environment Team Leader, Built and Natural Environment Manager and the Principal Ecologist.

The report and Officer presentation were noted.

The Committee received an application for full planning permission.

The application sought approval for the redevelopment of the existing parking area to provide a new Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital building (C2 use) with alterations to existing access arrangements, underground link tunnel, public realm works, hard and soft landscaping, and associated work.

Carin Charlton (Applicant’s Representative) addressed the Committee in support of the application.

The Area Team Manager (West), Strategic Sites Manager and Legal Advisor said the following in response to Members’ questions:

      i.         Noted that the Applicant had advised that they had reduced water consumption on the site and that they planned, where possible, to make further water efficiency savings on site. 

    ii.         Referred to paragraph 6.50 of the Applicant’s Environmental Statement which noted that the proposed development was expected to increase water demand by 0.0195 megalitres per day.

   iii.         The planned delivery of the hospital (subject to planning permission being granted) was expected in 2029. Noted with reference to paragraph 21.29 of the Officer’s report that the major water infrastructure projects by Cambridge Water and Anglian Water were planned for delivery in 2032 for the Grafham water transfer and 2040 for the new Fen Reservoir.

  iv.         Landscaping conditions would secure the maintenance of the green spaces proposed within the building.

    v.         The development would include changing places toilet provision. 

  vi.         Noted concerns raised regarding two tier stacking cycle parking provision and advised that condition 31 could be amended to require details of the mechanism to be provided as part of the application to discharge the condition.

 vii.         Noted concerns raised about the amount of cargo bike parking. The amount proposed was planning policy compliant but noted that further provision could come forward through condition 31. The level of cycle parking provision proposed was based on the estimated number of users of the building.

viii.         Noted that the revised draft Water Resources Management Plan (WRMP) was currently with DEFRA for consideration. Officers had no fixed date for when the WRWP would be published in its final form. 

  ix.         Each planning application must be considered on its own merits. Applications which came forward in the future would need to be considered and assessed (in planning terms) in reliance of the circumstances then prevailing. Noted that the site was an allocated site within the Local Plan and water use would have been projected at the time the site was allocated.

    x.         Noted that the objection made by the Environment Agency had been weighed up in the report and considered as part of the Officer’s recommendation.

  xi.         The building had been designed to have an open plan, welcoming space and to provide areas for people when processing difficult news. Terraces had also been designed in the upper floors to provide additional social areas.

 xii.         Noted that the Applicant had agreed to work with the Shared Planning Service to develop a Supplementary Planning Document for a Masterplan for the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

xiii.         Condition 32 required information to be submitted to the Local Planning  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24/19/JDCC