Arbury Court Redevelopment

 

1. The first clue is in the name – Arbury Court. We, and many others we have spoken to, firmly believe that it is the paved courtyard layout that gives the shopping centre its distinctive character. It offers people a circulation space creating opportunities for social interaction, events, and a sense of community in a way that a linear design just doesn’t do.

​

The proposal presented by the council does the exact opposite. It abandons the concept of an Arbury shopping court and loses the relationship between shops and shopkeepers at the same time.

​

2. The second clue lies with recognising that Budgens (along with the Post Office) is the key anchor store that draws people in and helps to bring in trade for the smaller independent shops. It is vital that Budgens will be enabled to carry on business unhindered during any building works with customer access preserved to and from the other shops. Despite general assurances that have been given we found that officers and representatives from Hill were unable to demonstrate that the council’s layout for the shops could deliver this. One officer stated that how to move Budgens to the proposed new location was “an unresolved issue”

.

3. A third clue has been provided by the mass objections raised to the existing play-park being built upon and ‘re-provided’ to a new location. We have found only one comment in the feedback published to the North Cambridge Framework engagement exercise stating that the Arbury Court play-park is ‘under-used’, although some such comments were made more generally about open spaces elsewhere in North Cambridge.

 

Our experience is that the park is well used by a variety of age groups and it is normally safe. People value having a contiguous protected open space – they are sceptical about smaller pockets of alternative green space being aggregated in a calculation to justify an equivalence which doesn’t really exist.

​

4. A fourth and vital element is the need for supporting infrastructure to enable

the increase in homes to be sustained, from today’s 31 units to 213. An increase in population of more than 500 people on the site will surely have a major impact on education, health services and transport provision, but that is barely mentioned in the council’s proposal.Indeed the proposed layout envisages a new entry/exit road via the shops that would connect Alex Wood Road to Arbury Road – creating a potentially dangerous rat-run as an alternative to Mansel Way.

 

We wonder about the impact the development will have on traffic flows on Arbury Road which is notoriously congested at its eastern end. Some serious joined-up thinking is required to model the impact and to implement mitigation measures before any development is commenced.

 

The same goes for car parking. It’s all very well to encourage active travel by limiting parking facilities but that needs to be backed up with first-class public transport, safe cycle routes and covered cycle storage. The lack of sufficient on-site parking for the shops, residents and their visitors is going to cause problems. We foresee that drivers will be cruising around adjacent streets looking for on-street spaces and causing stress and conflict for other local residents. There are some customers of the Arbury Court shops who have no alternative but to use their cars. If they can no longer find convenient parking their custom will be lost, and they will be forced to drive longer distances out of the area.

​

Here's what we would like to see from the next round of consultations before proceeding to a planning application:

 

A. The existing layout concept abandoned

B. New layout options which incorporate the following:

i. A shopping plaza laid out as a court, similar to what we have now but enhanced with more planting and seating with an opportunity for a community café

ii. A clearly worked-up phased building and transition plan for all the

shops including Budgens and the Post Office

iii. Retention of the existing play-park including its trees and eastern boundary hedge, with improved access and overlooking from residential units to be located on the west side.

iv. An impact assessment of the number of proposed residential units on the provision of local nursery and school places, GP, pharmacy, and dental services, and on infrastructure including traffic management, public transport, bus stop location and on-street parking

v. Adequate provision of on-site parking and covered cycle storage

vi. Based on IV and V, consideration of whether the number of new homes currently envisaged constitutes a sustainable development

vii. A statement of building heights required relative to their locations that will be needed to accommodate the new homes

 

Michael Page, Chair

on behalf of Hurst Park Estate Residents’ Association

Submitted as part of the North Cambridge Framework Consultation, 15/12/25

​

​

​