Sewage plant would sacrifice green belt - campaigners

Anglian Water has submitted proposals for a new Cambridge Waste Water Treatment Works north of the city

Objectors have questioned why green belt land should be "sacrificed" to build a city's new sewage works.

Ian Ralls, from Cambridge Friends of the Earth, told a hearing that the city's countryside needs the protection its green belt offers.

Anglian Water has submitted plans to build the plant on land north of the A14, between Fen Ditton and Horningsea.

The new facility would replace an existing water treatment plant and free up the land for the proposed North East Cambridge development.

In March 2019, £277m of funding was allocated to Anglian Water and Cambridge City Council from the government for the project, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Anglian Water said the new site would be “operationally net zero carbon” and would “provide a long-term solution” to meeting the demands of the growing population in the area.

'Gold rush'

Tony Booth, from the campaign group Friends of the River Cam, said the carbon footprint of developing the current sewage site into homes should be considered by planners.

He added at an initial hearing on Tuesday there was currently a “gold rush” in Cambridge to develop land to make a profit.

Dr Alan James, chairman of the campaign group CPRE Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said the proposed scale of the new waste treatment site would "encourage urban and industrial sprawl into the countryside".

“[We] are concerned this will set a precedent and make it difficult to resist other industrial development in the green belt," he added.

A representative of Anglian Water told the hearing that they would respond in writing to all of the concerns raised.