BDW4, Darwin Green, Cambridge

Paul Basham Associates' Cambridge Office supported Barratt David Wilson on a successful reserved matters planning application for the development of 342 homes in Cambridge as part of the wider Darwin Green Development. 

Initially, our Transport Planning team supported the initial development of the site masterplan from a highways perspective building our previous experience of other phases of the wider masterplan. 

Consideration was given at this stage to the internal highway design and internal road layout to meet Cambridgeshire County Council Highways adoptable requirements. We also assisted the projects team with the masterplan design to accord with national policies such as LTN 1/20 to provide a permeable layout and to encourage travel through the development by sustainable modes of travel.  

Following the pre-application discussions with the highway authority the Paul Basham Associates' Transport Planning team prepared a Reserved Matters Transport Statement to be submitted as part of the planning submission. 

Whilst the masterplan continued to develop through the planning process as our team provided swept path analysis plans to demonstrate that refuse and emergency vehicles were capable of accessing all areas of the site. Whilst the production of visibility splays for all site users demonstrated the highway safety of the proposals. 

Our Civil Engineering Team undertook the development of a detailed sustainable drainage strategy to support the RM application. This entailed the preparation of a levels strategy for the site followed by the hydraulic modelling and analysis of the drainage network serving the site. The design comprised various open SuDS features that organically integrated within the landscape in effort to provide added benefits for amenity and biodiversity, whilst uplifting the water quality. 

We were delighted to see this scheme receive reserved matters planning consent in December 2022. We look forward to continuing work on the subsequent phases of the scheme and seeing this development built out.