Almost 300 homes approved on city outskirts

A market square and shops were part of the plans

A further 292 homes will be built on the edge of Cambridge after councillors approved the plans this week.

The new homes will form part of the Cherry Hinton North development, known as Springstead Village, where more than 100 homes have already been built.

A new 'local centre' with shops, a market square, and a community hub will also be created as part of the latest phase of the development.

Councillor Katie Thornburrow said this will be the "heart" of the new community, adding that the success of this area "will be the success of the whole development".

A total of 1,200 will be built in Springstead Village once completed

Outline permission was granted in 2020 to build up to 1,200 new homes north of Cherry Hinton.

Since then, detailed plans for the first two residential phases were approved, with some people already living in the new homes.

The latest application for 292 homes and the new local centre will be the third residential phase of the development.

The developer, Bellway Latimer LLP, said 117 of the new homes would be made available as affordable housing, with the rest sold as market homes.

Of the affordable homes, 85 are proposed to be offered at social rent and 32 as shared ownership.

The new homes will be a mix of one and two-bedroom flats, and two, three and four-bedroom houses.

There will be 292 car parking spaces across the development, as well as 951 cycle parking spaces, with 90 of these spaces allocated to the shops, community hub, and the allotment site planned to the south of the development.

Thornburrow said the development would be the place where people all across the Cherry Hinton North development would come together.

She said: "What you are doing now is going to be the heart of the community, the success of this will be the success of the whole development, because it is bringing the whole community together.

"I think this is a great scheme and I am really interested to hear in the future how the community comes together in this space."

When a decision was put to a vote, councillors voted unanimously to approve the application.