Barratt wins appeal over 1,000-home Cambridge scheme despite water fears

Barratt has won its appeal against the planning refusal of a 1,000-home scheme in Cambridge on the advice of the Environment Agency.

Darwin Green was rejected by the South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge City Council’s joint development committee in November 2023 after being warned that the scheme’s water supply demand posed a significant risk of deterioration to water bodies in the region. 

However, a letter sent from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government on Wednesday 25 September revealed that the government had overturned the local authority’s decision.

According to the letter, the decision was made by Rushanara Ali MP, minister for building safety and homelessness, who supported the recommendation made by the Planning Inspector.

The Planning Inspector said that while it did not find all of the Environment Agency’s evidence “compelling”, it was satisfied that the weight of evidence suggested that abstraction pressure is contributing to ecological deterioration.

However it concluded that the cause of this abstraction pressure could be linked definitively with the scheme.

“It is common ground that the impact in terms of water demand will be felt cumulatively with abstraction also needed to serve other planned growth and it is not possible to isolate the exact location of abstraction serving the appeal proposal,” it said.

It added that the government had confirmed that the availability of a sustainable water resource “need not be an impediment to the consideration of planning permissions envisaged in Local Plans”.

>> See also: A vision for 150,000 homes but no water to supply them. Does Gove’s Cambridge 2040 plan stand a chance?

>> See also: How Cambridge embraced growth, overcame nimbyism, and built better housing

The secretary of state agreed with the Planning Inspectorate’s conclusions and said that “appeal scheme is not in conflict with any development plan policies, and is in accordance with the development plan overall”.

The Planning Inspectorate said that if the secretary of state “concludes that water demand would have unacceptable consequences for water supply and quality” then they may wish to impose an additional planning condition that would delay the occupation of the development until a new pipeline to transfer water from Grafham Reservoir into Cambridge Water’s supply zone was operational.

The secretary of state considered that such a condition was “not necessary”.