Cambridge South East Transport Scheme Phase 2 and the Babraham Neighbourhood Plan
The Cambridge South East Transport Scheme (CSET) is the planned development of a new transport route from Babraham to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, delivered by the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP), which is itself a partnership between Cambridge City Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council, Cambridgeshire County Council and the University of Cambridge.
Although the Babraham Neighbourhood Plan is unlikely to be completed in time to influence it, the CSET Scheme development is likely to have a very significant effect on Babraham Parish in terms of its immediate environmental impact and potential future development. As such, the Neighbourhood Plan Working Group have actively engaged with Greater Cambridge Partnership and are making efforts to understand how Babraham residents feel about the Scheme, in order to strengthen our collective voice in consultations and meetings.
What is the CSET Scheme Phase 2?
The CSET Scheme Phase 2 involves a new travel 'hub' (a Park-and-Ride facility)
and a new public transport route from the travel hub to the Biomedical Campus via the outskirts of Sawston, Stapleford and Great Shelford
How have we engaged?
In 2018, GCP held a public consultation on options for the proposed travel route from the chosen Babraham travel hub, suggesting a 'Brown Route' and a 'Pink Route'. Following the consultation, GCP adopted the Brown Route as their preferred route.
However, the Neighbourhood Plan Working Group (a smaller informal group at the time) had very serious concerns about the potential environmental, social and visual impacts of the proposed Brown Route.
The Working Group invited direct engagement with GCP and suggested an alternative route - the 'Pink Variant Route' to mitigate the negative impacts.
On the Working Group's request, Mott MacDonald agreed to carry out a technical assessment comparing the two routes. The report (May 2021) can be found on our Resources page.
The assessment concluded that the Brown Route and Pink Variant Routes were sufficiently close in terms of likely visual impact, cost, value for money and environmental impacts that 'GCP could also take into account public/stakeholder opinion in reaching a decision on whether to consider the Pink Route Variant for adoption as the preferred route instead of the current Brown Route'.
