Plans for student house development move forward

Sixty new student rooms are planned to be built on land off Owlstone Road

Plans to build new university student housing have moved forward, despite fears construction traffic will pose dangers to vulnerable people in the area.

Cambridge City Council has agreed to sign off two conditions around managing construction traffic and air pollution from the Owlstone Croft redevelopment.

Neighbours argued they still had outstanding safety concerns that had not been properly addressed.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, a local resident said the construction management plan was "a danger to elderly people and people with pushchairs".

Queens' College was given planning permission to build 60 new postgraduate student rooms off Owlstone Road in 2023.

After initially being refused over concerns of the impact on the nearby Paradise Nature Reserve, the decision was overturned on appeal.

A construction traffic management plan had to be created to show access to the site and a condition to create an air quality and dust management plan.

'At risk'

It was highlighted during a planning meeting on Wednesday that the proposed hours for lorries would be between 09:30 and 14:30.

Another local resident questioned "how much damage" could be caused from air pollution in the two-year construction process proposed.

Naomi Bennett, Green Party councillor at the authority, said she was concerned that children at a nearby school had not yet "developed full road safety judgement and are particularly at risk".

Planning officers said while it would be "tight" for the construction vehicles to access the site, it would be possible.

Andrew Bainbridge, domestic bursar at Queens' College, said the college recognised the traffic management plan was of "real importance" to the community.

He stressed that the college was "100% committed" to the project and would be building the development.

Another councillor highlighted that the highways team at Cambridgeshire County Council had not raised any objection to the plan and said they "take their responsibilities seriously".

Officers said steps had been taken to reduce the amount of dust spreading into the wider area, and said this would also be monitored.

They added that a commitment had been made to notify the primary school immediately if there were any exceedances of monitoring levels.

A majority of councillors agreed to sign off the condition, on the basis that further discussions would take place with the college about sharing the air quality management data.