After howls of protest from villagers north east of Cambridge over the plan to move the Cambridge Waste Water Treatment Works to Honey Hill (i.e. well downwind of Milton) the County Council are now backpedalling somewhat.

In their
press release they are now saying that the works will only move if a feasibility study shows that proposals to redevelop the works for housing can be made viable.

How seriously one should take this is unclear. The strategic planning for the Cambridge area calls for the Cowley Road P&R site, Chesterton sidings and the sewage works to be redeveloped as a new community currently labelled, rather prosaically, “Cambridge Northern Fringe (East)” aka CNF(E). It’s on this basis that the Cowley Road P&R site is currently being moved out onto the fields to the west of Milton at great expense.

If the sewage works isn’t moved one has to wonder whether the remaining land is either sufficiently large to create a viable community or whether anyone will really want to buy a home right next to Cambridge Waste Water Treatment Works.

The press release suggests that retaining the zoning of CNF(E) for business use may be the solution and I suspect this may be the way we’re heading on this.