Sewage works 'odour zone' may reduce homes scheme

An "odour zone" near sewage works could lead to fewer homes being built at a proposed business park redevelopment.

Plans to relocate Anglian Water's Cambridge treatment works were cancelled in August after the Ministry of Housing ruled the scheme was unaffordable.

The decision has had a knock-on effect for the nearby Cambridge Business Park proposal and could nearly halve the number of homes originally earmarked for the site.

A council meeting on Wednesday has heard that about 70% of the area was covered by the odour zone where homes are restricted from being built.

However, one councillor questioned whether reducing the number of homes planned was due to the odour zone, or to "convenience".

Councillors from Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council heard that a 200-to-250 bedroom co-living building is proposed outside of the odour zone on the edge of the site off Milton Road.

A further 190 to 210 homes had been proposed within the site, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The business park site, which is owned by The Crown Estate, also features proposals for new office and laboratory spaces as well as leisure and cultural facilities.

Labour's Martin Smart suggested mitigations could still make those homes possible, but the development team denied his suggestion of changing the plans because of "convenience".

Liberal Democrat city councillor Katie Porrer feared having fewer homes could see the site become a "dead space" at night which people would not want to walk through.

Matt Sampson, from The Crown Estate, which is hoping to submit an outline planning application to redevelop the site in spring, said uncertainty around the sewage works move added a greater responsibility to "provide some place making" to deliver a "shared ambition for the wider area".

Further homes could be built if there is a change to the odour zone constraints, he added.

Anglian Water was given permission to replace its sewage facility near Milton with a new plant on land known as Honey Hill, close to Horningsea.

But after about £80m was spent on the project, the government cancelled the plans in the summer, although it has since been claimed they are "not dead".

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