30 April 2021
A planning application has been submitted for the majority of the remaining green areas, public spaces, roads, pedestrian and cycle routes within Key Phase 1 at Wintringham – completing the infrastructure proposals for the area between Cambridge Road to the north and Wintringham Brook to the south.
The plans for high-quality pedestrian and cycle links and key public spaces include a centrally located play area, community gardening space and ecologically focused areas around the surface water ponds alongside the Wintringham Brook. It will also enable the future build out of homes and connections for the next part of phase 1, and the development of the larger site coming forward in the next phase to the south of Wintringham Brook.
Two linear parks are proposed, delivering open space for recreation and leisure, including outdoor table tennis tables. Wayfinding boards are incorporated into the landscape design, containing facts and activities to promote learning and recreation as residents and visitors explore Wintringham. These green spaces will complete the network of leisure routes already delivered.
At the heart of the proposal are three key concepts that focus on Wintringham’s key themes about health, activity and nature. The plans include:
• A destination play area known as ‘The Fort’ or ‘Wintringham Fort’. It is inspired by the Iron Age roundhouses discovered during early excavations at Wintringham. The area will provide opportunities for natural play, alongside a tunnel, bridges, and a variety of other timber play equipment, together with picnic tables for families to relax and soak in the fun.
• ‘Eat Streets’. There is huge demand from residents to grow fruit and vegetables, and while formal allotments will be coming forward in the second phase, these interactive triangular spaces provide community gardening space with fruit trees, raised planting beds and other edible planting areas as well as picnic areas framed by wildflower, shrub and hedgerow planting.
• A new central pond to the north of Wintringham Brook, which completes a group of three ponds in this location that include walking routes around the water features. These ponds are anticipated to provide a haven for wildlife, with oak timber screens with slots to enable residents to immerse themselves in nature.
The trees, woodland, wetland, waterbodies, wildflower and species rich grasslands will provide habitats to support a range of wildlife including foraging bats and wetland birds such as reed bunting, heron and moorhen.
Joe Dawson from Urban&Civic, master developer for Wintringham, said: “We are committed to putting health at the heart of Wintringham, and the team has worked hard on these designs to ensure we create something really special: space for people to enjoy, space for nature, and space where people and nature can come together. We look forward to taking these plans forward and continuing to create a great place for people to call home.”
So far around 30 residents have moved into the development, in homes bought forward by CALA and Morris Homes, and later this year Durkan will be launching homes around the new Primary School.
The planning application for the rest of the Phase 1 infrastructure works will be considered by Huntingdonshire District Council over the coming weeks. You can view the plans through the Planning Portal at www.huntingdonshire.gov.uk/planning/.
Subject to planning approval, the proposed green areas, public spaces, roads, pedestrian and cycle routes within Key Phase 1 will be delivered in stages over the next three to five years, as additional housing parcels come forward.
