We also wanted to proactively seek feedback from local families as part of this consultation, as their views will help us design better spaces that draw new and existing communities into a more vibrant North East Cambridge, on all days of the week. This is why we hosted our first Science Showcase on Cambridge Business Park as part of the consultation – an event designed to engage local residents of all ages through interactive science experiments, science-inspired face painting, and even bringing in local celebrity Jack’s Gelato to serve free ice cream to attendees! Thank you in particular to Cambridge Science Centre, Bango, and existing customers at Cambridge Business Park who helped make the event such a success.
At the Science Showcase and across the four weeks, we received positive feedback about our plans, speaking with over 400 people. Consultation highlights include:
- 140+ people joining us at our public exhibition and the Science Showcase
- 170+ conversations with local residents whilst door-knocking around Cambridge North
- Hosting pop-ups in Cambridge town centre, engaging with over 80 people
- 16 local stakeholder and community group preview sessions of the proposals
- 45+ pieces of written feedback, and much more through conversations, already helping to shape real changes in our plans
- 44,700+ local people interacting online, with over 2,200 people visiting our website for more information
While we received lots of feedback, several common themes came through, which we’re now incorporating through our updated plans:
- Bringing the vision to life – a desire to better see how the long-term ambition is taking shape, with strong support for mixed-use.
- Sustainable and active travel – many welcomed the proposals to enhance sustainable and active travel beyond Cambridge Business Park through improved connections with neighbouring sites, and sought more details on public transport and cycle infrastructure.
- Design and place-making – enthusiasm for creating accessible public spaces that connect people with place and nature, including through new green corridors across the site and beyond. There was also a clear push for the design of landmark buildings and spaces to physically and visually integrate with the current area.
- Community spaces – more clarity was sought around the nature of the proposed high street and community spaces, including how these will be managed in the long term.
- Housing to reflect community needs – feedback highlighted the importance of increasing the number of homes and providing the right mix of homes, to support the design of an inclusive neighbourhood and contribute to much-needed local demand.
- Pushing sustainability boundaries – we heard strong support for ambitious environmental design, aligning with our desire to test innovative design methods to set environmental benchmarks. Some asked for clearer details on our sustainability commitments, including sustainable energy solutions and a long-term management strategy for biodiversity.
- Ongoing collaboration with local groups – there was support for continued collaboration with local groups, such as our Charity Hub initiative with local organisations, as well as partnerships with local schools, which remain central to empowering communities and supporting local impact.
We are also carefully working through areas where we have more work to do, which include:
- Being more ambitious on housing, including the number of units, mix, and affordability, to maximise the site’s contribution to meeting local housing need.
- Ensuring the design of landmark buildings is of the highest quality and integrates physically and visually with the surrounding area.
- Providing more clarity around the nature of the proposed high street and community spaces, including how these will be managed in the long term.
These pieces of feedback are just a snapshot, and we’ll be sharing a full feedback summary on our website soon, so keep an eye out for further details.
Matt Sampson, Regeneration Director at The Crown Estate, said:
“We were delighted to have had such diverse and wide-ranging engagement during our second consultation. Whether it was families discussing how they would use new public spaces and community facilities, or local workers sharing the need for collaboration spaces and more places to eat, every conversation has added further depth to our evolving masterplan. It was also great to be hosting these events alongside local partners such as Cambridge Science Centre, and I’m hopeful we can work with more local partners over the coming years.”
“The positive feedback and constructive challenges have given me and the design team some clear ‘homework’ to do ahead of our next consultation. Looking to our next phase of engagement, I’m particularly keen to get even more feedback on how we can design for inclusivity throughout the masterplan and how we can work with more local partners on the proposed high street, community spaces and public realm, and getting the residential mix right. We look forward to showing how these ideas are starting to come to life later this year.”
If you would like to learn more about the draft masterplan, you can still find the exhibition boards on our website. Our online survey concluded on Wednesday 2nd July.
We will be in touch soon to update you on our activities for the autumn, as we look forward to sharing further progress on our plans to transform Cambridge Business Park.
In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions: [email protected]
