New Urban Extension at Wintringham receives Resolution to Grant
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New Urban Extension at Wintringham receives Resolution to Grant

Published on 17 April 2018

Urban&Civic’s proposals for a significant new urban extension to St Neots, designed by JTP, have secured resolution to grant from Huntington District Council within 20 weeks from submission.

JTP led the design process for the 2,800-home neighbourhood, heading up a team assembled by the masterdeveloper to drive an aspirational vision for the site.

The new settlement, known as Wintringham, sits at the edge of St Neots, 18 miles west of Cambridge, and covers a large portion of the St Neots eastern expansion area.

The hybrid application comprises an outline masterplan together with the detailed infrastructure for Key Phase 1, as part of a commitment to the early delivery of community facilities, to establish the new residents in their setting.

“
The application, including almost 3,000 new homes, was determined within 20 weeks. That must be a record. In thirty years of large scale development, I have never known a new strategic application being determined so expeditiously.
Nigel Hugill, chief executive of Urban&Civic

Wintringham will feature up to 2,800 new homes in a range of sizes, from apartments to five-bedroom family homes. It will also include 63,500 sq m of commercial uses including space for creative industries, extensive employment space, two primary schools, community facilities including shops and a health centre, and new landscaped access points to create a sense of arrival into the neighbourhood.

The community facilities are set around a civic square in the north-west portion of the site, to provide maximum accessibility to residents in neighbouring areas, and to St Neots train station with journeys to London in under an hour. The first phase of delivery will include a temporary primary school for both new and existing residents to help relieve the strain on nearby overcrowded schools.

As well as creating the masterplan for the site, JTP also produced a Design Code for Key Phase 1, which sets out specific guidelines to safeguard the quality of the proposals as the project progresses to implementation.

The proposals draw the existing features of the surrounding natural landscape into the site; a linear park connecting the different areas of the expansion forms the spine of Wintringham, and one of the two brooks that span the width of the neighbourhood reconnects with an existing brook, creating a new leisure route from Wintringham to St Neots town centre.

“
The swift approval of this new extension is the product of a successful collaborative process between a committed design team, developer and local authority, underpinned by a common ambition to deliver an exemplar placemaking project.
Emmet O’Sullivan, JTP Partner leading the project

The first residents are due to move in by November 2019.