Agenda item

City Deal Urban and Environmental Design Guidance

To consider the attached report.

Decision:

The Executive Board:

 

a)         REQUESTED the improvement of the City Deal Urban and Environmental Design Guidance document.

 

(b)        REQUIRED that the document is proactively used and reference by project managers during the development of relevant City Deal transport projects.

 

(c)        REQUESTED that the document is updated periodically to reflect any significant changes in highway and planning design policy.

 

(d)        REQUESTED that officers investigate the process of all future City Deal schemes being considered by the Cambridgeshire Quality Design Panel.

 

(e)        REQUESTED that officers investigate the introduction of a facility that invites members of the public to provide photographs of aspirational ideas and ideas to be avoided for a website-based montage.

 

Minutes:

Councillor Lewis Herbert, Chairman of the Executive Board, opened the item by inviting those members of the public who had given notice to put forward questions to the Board.  The following statement was noted:

 

Statement by Lucy Price

 

Lucy Price asked the Executive Board to consider the use of more creative infrastructure to encourage people to walk and cycle through the city, citing examples of schemes already in place.  She felt that low level lighting or safely positioned sculpture or cycle counters could really enhance the space and, more importantly, encourage people to get out of their cars and improve the experience for all travelling through Cambridge.

 

Councillor Roger Hickford, Chairman of the Joint Assembly, reported that the Assembly had considered this report at its meeting on 2 June 2016.  Members of the Joint Assembly had expressed their concerns due to a lack of detail in the document,  a lack of reference to heritage and a general feeling that the document was not aspirational enough.  The Joint Assembly had supported the amendment of recommendation (a) so that it read ‘requests the improvement of the City Deal Urban and Environmental Design Guidance document’ rather than endorsing the document as it stood.  The Assembly also supported the following additional recommendations:

 

‘(d)       The Executive Board requests that officers investigate the process of all future City Deal schemes being considered by the Cambridgeshire Quality Design Panel.’

 

‘(e)       The Executive Board requests that officers investigate the introduction of a facility that invites members of the public to provide photographs of aspirational ideas and ideas to be avoided for a website-based montage.’

 

The Joint Assembly therefore unanimously recommended to the Board approval of the officer recommendations contained within the report, subject to the inclusion of the above amendments.

 

Stuart Walmsley, Director of Major Infrastructure Delivery at Cambridgeshire County Council, in presenting the report said that the document set out the principles to be followed and guidance that should be taken into account during the development of City Deal transport infrastructure projects on the major roads into Cambridge and city centre access routes.  It intended to capture as much good practice as it could and had been commissioned to be a conceptual design document, reflecting characteristics of Cambridge and the objectives of the City Deal programme.

 

During discussion the Board was content with the Joint Assembly’s recommendation, noting however the key role that the Local Liaison Forum would play in terms of understanding local expectations.  Councillor Burkitt welcomed a design guide but said that he would be more interested in what local people had to say about proposals as they were developed, adding that he would rather be guided by them.

 

Councillor Herbert requested that all Members of the Executive Board and Joint Assembly, as part of the further work that would be undertaken to improve the document, be asked their views as to what elements were missing in order that they could help shape the revised version.

 

The Executive Board unanimously:

 

(a)        REQUESTED the improvement of the City Deal Urban and Environmental Design Guidance document.

 

(b)        REQUIRED that the document is proactively used and reference by project managers during the development of relevant City Deal transport projects.

 

(c)        REQUESTED that the document is updated periodically to reflect any significant changes in highway and planning design policy.

 

(d)        REQUESTED that officers investigate the process of all future City Deal schemes being considered by the Cambridgeshire Quality Design Panel.

 

(e)        REQUESTED that officers investigate the introduction of a facility that invites members of the public to provide photographs of aspirational ideas and ideas to be avoided for a website-based montage.

 

Supporting documents: