Date published: 2008/10/16
The BBC says:
An £820m plan to refurbish and modernise Cambridge train station and its surrounding area has been given outline planning permission.
Cambridge City Council planners gave the go-ahead for the CB1 scheme, put forward by developers Ashwell, which includes 331 new homes.
The scheme will also include improved transport links to the station and a new Station Square.
It also includes 1,250 student rooms for Anglia Ruskin University.
There will also be space for 28 taxis, parking for disabled people and nine bus stops.
It includes a multi-storey car and cycle park with room for more than 2,800 cycle parking spaces, 50 motorcycle parking spaces and car parking for rail users.
There will also be improvements to the existing Hills Road and Brooklands Avenue junction and the junction between Hills Roadand Station Road, as well as new roads, footpaths, public spaces, and public and private open space.
Existing office accommodation in the area is to be redeveloped to increase office space by 36%.
It has been a ridiculously long time in the planning, in the usual British way. And unfortunately, it has also been made worse the longer it has gone on, because of the involvement of the Cambridge academic middle class in the planning decision. It is not at all obvious that this scheme will make a wonderful contribution to Cambridge but the railway area is so bad it is hard to see this scheme making it worse than what it is now. Unfortunately, given the credit crunch and the recession, this is not the best time to be starting on this development, and it will be interesting to see if Aswhell goes full steam ahead.
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