Community Forum (12th June 2025)

Updates on Darwin Green 1, 2, 3; Eddington; Schools in Darwin Green
By Quentin |


Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/notebook-1226398/

The North West and West Cambridge Community Forum held a meeting on 6th March 2025, with Barratt and different stakeholders reporting on the progress on the development. For the first time, this was a hybrid meeting, with both physical and remote attendees. Here are some notes collected from the meeting.

For previous updates, see the report from the previous Community Forum.

Please keep in mind that these are the notes from attendees. They may be incomplete, inaccurate, and were not validated by Barratt or Eddington representatives.

Preliminary observations

  • The Greater Cambridge Local Plan is making progress. The draft plan should be ready in autumn 2025, there should be a proposed submission plan by summer/autumn 2026, and a submission to government by December 2026.

  • Regarding water: the local planning authority has been working with the Water Scarcity Group, to ensure there’s enough water to cover the new developments.

  • At the national scale, a new plan-making system is to be introduced by 2027, but Darwin Green will use the current plan-making system. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill 2025 is under consideration, and includes legislative changes to reform the planning system. It is part of government’s strategy for growth, to deliver new homes and help speed up decision making and the planning system.

Education

A much awaited update on schools in Darwin Green.

Secondary school

Context

Local authorities are under general duty to provide a school place for every child living in their area - see Section 14 of the Education Act from 1996. However, there is a shortfall of places for secondary schools in North Cambridge. The Council has plans to build a new school with 600 places for pupils aged 11-16 (with capacity to increase to 900), on the new Darwin Green Development.

Status

  • Planning application for master plan was approved in September 2024
  • The Multi Academy Trust who will run the school is Meridian
  • The budget has been set (from Barratt, Council, and Government)

Next steps

  • “Aspiration of targeting completion by September 2028”
  • Officers will run in-person meeting with Year 6 parents at University of Cambridge Primary School in September 2025 to talk through in details the admissions process
  • Other options for meeting place demand in interim are being reviewed (for example, opening the school at a different location, then moving into the new buildings once completed).

Send your questions to: placeplanningreferrals0-19@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

Questions and answers

  • Attendees have raised numerous concerned about the notion of “reasonable distance” defined by the Department of Education. Several children are sent to school miles away from their home, which undermines the local community. Parents are getting concerned about secondary schools as soon as children start primary school.
  • Chesterton decided to open a Sixth form and to close a classroom in 2020, which hardly makes sense to attendees given the current context. The Council did not support the decision, but it was not up to them.
  • It was not entirely clear during the meeting what triggers are pending to allow the Department of Education to access the site. Once they have a clear understanding for access to the site, then the construction program can begin and the department can provide a more accurate timescale. The Department of Education is to follow-up with a written response about these triggers.
  • Local residents are not happy with the situation, and explained that the Department of Education waiting on more funding was a poor excuse in light of the funds already provided by Barratt and the Council. More pressure ought to be put on Chesterton so that they accept more pupils (a number of additional places can be attributed at their discretion, but often they don’t use all these places). The planning permission for the school needs to be brought forward as soon as possible.
  • Attendees also raised serious concerns about the feasibility of completing the school in time for September 2028. They asked Barratt to not use government’s reorganisations as a motive for further delays; Barratt replied they are eager to get on site and start the work as soon as possible.
  • The Catchment area for the future Darwin Green schools has not been fixed yet.
  • Regarding the in-person meetings with Year 6 parents: This can be done with parents from other schools if there are concerns. Send your request to the email address previously mentioned.

Primary schools

There is a site for a primary school in Darwin Green 1. Strangely enough, there is now a site for a primary school in Darwin Green 2 & 3, as well. These should be two primary schools.

Seeing that the demand is currently dropping for places in primary school, but there is a shortage in secondary schools, this planning doesn’t sound optimal. It was not very clear in the meeting how we came to this, apparently the needs at the time of the application (early 2010s) were different from the current context.

Nevertheless, two sites are currently allocated for primary schools. Given that the site in Darwin Green 1 is now managed by the Department of Education, nothing will happen there until the Department validates the project and start the works. It’s unclear when any of this might happen (one consequence is that the work for the primary school on Darwin Green 1 might take place after the rest of the development is finished, meaning additional difficulties to bring the work engines to the site and to secure the area).

Darwin Green 2 & 3

See the area on the map.

A drop-in session for feedback and questions will take place on 25th June 2025 from 3:30 pm to 7:30 pm, at the Darwin Green Community Rooms.

Status

  • A first draft of design code, focusing on climate, community, character, and connectivity has been created and should be submitted by October this year.
  • There is a Guide development coming forward with mandatory and optional design requirements
  • Several meetings are scheduled for June, documents are being signed.

The application and First Reserved Matters should be submitted during summer. They are expected to contain the following deliverables:

  • a temporary community facility after the 100th occupation (Phase 1),
  • a neighbourhood-equipped area play (NEAP) after the 500th occupation (Phase 1),
  • a permanent community facility, as well as garden allotments, after the 750th occupation (Phase 2 or 3).

The Country Park will be delivered from East to West, as completion progresses on the development. No ETA at this point.

Questions and answers

  • Attendees raised serious concerns about the infrastructure that will be in place, particularly in relation to the schools. Barratt is currently drafting the Reserved Matters Application for Infrastructure.
  • It is too early to confirm how to put the Country Park into a stewardship arrangement (or other alternatives).
  • Concerns were voiced again regarding the need and timeline for the secondary school.

Darwin Green 1

Current status

Other:

  • Application for lab and office space: there was a request for more place making on plans, and to consider access arrangements with Howes Place. New information will be subject to the consultation process (including nearby residents). The request will come back to the committee for decision in late summer.
  • Failed street lights: not being resolved, Barrat is taking that forward
  • Visitor parking bays: were painted
  • For Woodlark Road residents: Piling cap points survey yielded good results, within 5cm (maximum in some places). The first major piling phase is now finished in parcel 2, some more piling is anticipated in 2027 to complete the site (a bit further from Woodlark Road).
  • In Franklin Gardens, some challenges were met to build out as designed, developers have been working on solutions and are confirming the plots are at the correct positions.
  • The change-of-use application for the old Sports Pavilion to a Kinder Café is ongoing.
  • The tennis courts are now blue.

John Shuttlewood is available monthly on the last Wednesday for drop-in sessions at the Darwin Community Rooms, from 10 am to 12 pm.

Future steps

The development keeps going:

  • Phase 1 and Local Centre: 100% complete
  • Phase 2: 40% complete
  • Phase 3: 15% complete
  • Phase 4 should start in 2027/2028

The site should be complete by the end of 2031.

Other facilities:

  • Allotments
    • 80% complete
    • Landscaping and finishes for the hut are anticipated for July 2025
    • Handover is anticipated for July 2025, too
  • Library: practical completion achieved
    • Snagging: ongoing, some legal papers are pending signature
    • Handover: County Council library services invited to view prior to formal transfer
  • Health centre:
    • Revised designs: prepared and shared
    • Ongoing discussions with NHS and Red House Surgery
  • Sports Pavilion:
    • Nearly completed, ready by summer holidays this year
    • Exact date of completion, handover: to be advised
    • Tennis court are complete, Barratt is investigating a range of options to open the courts to the public. Ongoing discussion with Cambridge City Council for the handover.
    • Sport pitches and the open space are completed, landscaping is in progress. For public use, Barratt is investigating range of options to open safely because of the surrounding works. Ongoing discussion with Cambridge City Council for the handover.
  • Parking:
    • White linking and identification work complete, new street signage has been installed. Barratt acknowledges that the previous signs mentioning the e-permits were confusing.
  • The Community building has a meeting room overheating issue. A specialist consultant visited the site on 20 May, resolution is in progress.
  • Retail shops: No update, no shop owner is showing interest at the moment

  • Supermarket: (From offline discussion after the meeting:) A brand is showing interest in the site, Barratt is hopeful that the process will go through.

  • Greenway; (From offline discussion after the meeting:) The Greenway cuts across the building site, which at some point will have homes in construction. To avoid closing the Greenway without a good alternative, the current plan is to construct the permanent path before closing the Greenway, and then to switch over.

Other items

There will be a community event (toy swap?) for the National Play Day, on the 6th August 2025 from 10 am to 12 pm, on the Plaza.

Barratt will offer a new method of reporting issues. They will create an share a new email address, for use by all to report issues of concern. This email will differ from Barratt homeowners’ usual point of connect for customer care issues.

Questions and answers

  • Attendees asked for more details about the library, but there are none. It will move forward as soon as we get all legal details in place.
  • No progress (still!) on community electricity, but Barratt say they will get it sorted.
  • The adoption from Council for King’s Court is still underway, a specialist company is handling it. Barratt will also help King’s Court home owners change RMC if they want to.
  • Residents from the Square voiced concerns about water drainage for the water coming from Huntingdon Road, with regard to Darwin Green Parcel 2. They really need the parcel to drain its water properly. Barratt mentioned that Darwin Green should be self-contained in that regard, the ditch near Howes Place is cleaned every three months (and this will carry on after the site gets adopted), but will double-check anyway and come back to the residents.
  • The website with updates is no longer updated. It’s part of a constellation of websites owned by Barratt, but that have been neglected. Barratt will work on a new portal for updates, as well as for capturing the comments from the residents (Not quite a public ticket tracker yet, but it sounds promising anyway!).

Eddington

The Masterplan will deliver up to 5650 homes, with 1850 delivered or under construction in Phase 1 and up to 3800 in future phases. Consultations took place, with 15 drop-ins, 3 webinars, over 1100 conversations, 65 hours of consultation.

Status update:

  • The Stage 3 design has been completed. In Q3 2025 should happen the submission of outline planning application, and public information sessions.
  • Storey’s Field s now run by a trust from the University, rather than both the University and the Council.
  • Autonomous shuttles between Eddington and Cambridge West are coming soon.

Community:

  • Grow club (tend planters to grow food and plants sustainably)
  • Beer fest, yoga in park, ecology walks, …
  • Eddington Carnival coming in September

Questions and answers

  • Residents asked about the use of zebra crossings rather than raised-table crossings. Zebra crossing are currently being assessed, they may, or may not, be the best option.
  • Cartwright Avenue will take some traffic away from the Centre of Cambridge, which is not intentional but Eddington can’t stop people from driving through. At some point this will need an Infrastructure RMA. It’s several years away anyway.
  • There are more and more community facilities in Darwin Green, but Eddington residents feel somewhat neglected in comparison. No allotments planned, but Eddington has plans on how to rectify some of the issues, for example with the football pitches.

Community development

See also the minutes from the last Community Focus Group meeting.

Council Community Development Team for Darwin Green is Sue and Julian; Steph is leaving. They have regular meetings with partners: Eddington Residents Association, Portal, Darwin Green Residents Association, developers, Community Centres, and housing associations. They also find regular opportunities to talk with residents and give advice as needed.

There is now a welcome pack available for new residents, hardcopies are available for free at the Community Rooms. There is also a revamped website for the residents association: https://dgra.cam (but you found it already, congrats!).

Community events:

  • Mondays
    • Eddie’s café
    • Drop-in work space
  • Tuesdays
    • Teddington parent-led baby and toddler group
    • Lego club
  • Wednesdays
    • Community coffee mornings
    • Rhymetime for babies

See also https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/summer-events.

A plant swapped happened, organised by a resident.

For community grants and funding, see also:

Questions and answers

Barratt has mentioned a event to celebrate the opening of the pitches and Sports Pavilion, but we’re already mid-June and the target is end of July, there’s a concern that it will be finalised and announced too late to draw attendees. Sue will chat with Barratt to come up with a date and advertise it.