We are proposing a sustainable expansion of Peterborough at Great Haddon. Our current proposal includes:

• Up to 5,300 new homes, with a range of house styles, sizes and tenures. A proportion of homes – around 35% - will be affordable, either as socially rented, shared ownership or homes for specific sectors of the population.
• A range of strategic and smaller scale employment in the north of the area, providing local and strategic employment opportunities and reserving sites to support the emerging cluster of environmental industries in Peterborough.
• A district centre with new shops, cafes and restaurants, offices, workshops, health and community facilities.
• Three main residential neighbourhoods served by local facilities and primary schools.
• A new secondary school.
• Extensive sports facilities and sports pitches.
• An extensive open space network providing nature conservation and recreation opportunities.
• A Park and Ride facility to the south of the main development area to support bus services along the A15 into Peterborough.

The Great Haddon development site lies within Peterborough district.  The area was identified as one option for strategic development in a series of sub-regional studies undertaken in 2004. 

Great Haddon is identified as a sustainable urban extension in the most recent local planning document prepared by Peterborough City Council, the Peterborough Local Development Framework Core Strategy Preferred Options published for consultation in May 2008.

Great Haddon covers a large area and can comfortably accommodate the number of homes we are proposing as well as significant land for new employment development, parkland and woodland.  Allocating this number of homes in one location also makes it possible to properly support new facilities including a new secondary school.

Great Haddon will provide a variety of homes to meet a wide range of people’s aspirations and needs.  It will include executive homes, family homes, apartments, retirement homes and homes for those with disabilities as well as starter homes for young families.

A proportion of the new homes will be affordable housing.  The details of the number and type of affordable homes will be agreed with the relevant authorities once a planning application has been submitted.

In total, we estimate that over 9,000 new jobs will be created at Great Haddon.

There will be a mix of jobs at Great Haddon.  An area in the north of Great Haddon is proposed for strategic employment, building on the consent for distribution warehousing at Alwalton Hill, and making good use of the site’s location alongside the A1(M) and A605/A1139 junction.  This will provide office and manufacturing jobs as well as in warehousing and distribution.

Within the central area of Great Haddon, the district centre will include offices and small workshops, focusing on those wishing to start up their own businesses or move from working at home to small business premises.

In addition, the three local centres will have schools employing teachers, health centres employing health workers as well as employment opportunities in shops, pubs and restaurants.

The new district centre at Great Haddon will be designed to provide facilities which complement those at Yaxley, Hampton and Stilton, not compete with them.  People from the surrounding area will be encouraged to walk and cycle to new facilities at Great Haddon, and new residents of Great Haddon will be encouraged to extend their activities into the surrounding area to help support existing local facilities.

Great Haddon will include three new primary schools and a new secondary school, as well as pre-school facilities.  Although we will encourage children to attend their nearest school (to support walking and cycling to school), children from the surrounding area could attend Great Haddon schools if they wanted.

Great Haddon will retain important species and habitats and enhance existing habitats - for example, woodlands and watercourses - to encourage local biodiversity.  Landscape buffers will be provided to adjacent areas of interest – the Orton Pit Special Area of Conservation and the Norman Cross Scheduled Ancient Monument – with new habitats for wildlife created and linked within areas of natural greenspace.

Great Haddon will provide many opportunities for public access and recreation including new sports pitches, children’s play areas, amenity open space and new woodlands with public access.   The open spaces will be designed and managed for the benefit of both people and wildlife.

The A15 London Road was designated a “Primary Public Transport Corridor” by Peterborough City Council in its Local Transport Plan.  Considerable work has already been undertaken along the A15 into Peterborough – by the City Council and as part of new development at Hempsted and Hampton – to make sure that public transport (bus) has priority along this route into Peterborough.  For example, a bus priority link is currently being built through Hempsted, with car traffic being diverted into the development site allowing the bus to run directly along London Road into the city centre.

In order to encourage the maximum number of people to use a P&R facility, it needs to be located as close as possible to the strategic road network.  The site proposed is the first available opportunity after coming off the A1 at Peterborough to divert people from car to bus and then along a bus route into Peterborough which will be quicker than using the car.

An outline transport strategy for Great Haddon has been produced and will be developed further as part of the development process.  The strategy focuses on three principles: reducing the need to travel; maximising non-car travel; and making best use of existing and committed transportation infrastructure in the area.

There will be an increase in traffic on the local road network over the next 20 years with or without Great Haddon.  We are therefore looking at ways in which we can help reduce the effects of this extra traffic locally as part of the Great Haddon development: for example, by discouraging through traffic along the A15 through Yaxley; slowing traffic speeds from the A1 junction to Yaxley; and providing a choice of routes through Great Haddon which will avoid congestion at any single point. 

The junctions and roads in the area will also be improved, including a direct link from the development north to Fletton Parkway.  A comprehensive public transport service will also be provided at Great Haddon, providing fast direct links to Peterborough, Hampton, and other local employment/retail areas.

As more detailed work progresses, we will continue to communicate our ideas with those directly affected.  A Transport Assessment will be produced to accompany the outline planning application which will set out the transport strategy, the likely impact and mitigation.

An initial assessment of the potential for producing energy on-site has concluded that Great Haddon provides a valuable opportunity to incorporate sustainable energy as an integral part of development.  The scale of development proposed means that biomass for local heating, geothermal, wind and solar energy are all thought to be potentially viable, which in addition to designing the layout of development and balance of land uses to reduce energy use, could contribute to the construction of a flagship sustainable energy development.  Further feasibility studies are currently being undertaken to examine the potential for these sustainable energy options.

As part of the design process we will also seek to minimise the requirement for energy by making buildings as efficient as possible, and using exemplar buildings to test different technologies so we can learn as the development progresses.

The vast majority of the Great Haddon site is categorised by the Environment Agency as falling within ‘Flood Zone 1 - little or no risk of flooding’.   Nevertheless, a detailed Flood Risk Assessment and Surface Water Drainage Management Strategy will be produced and submitted in support of the planning application for the development.  This will accord with planning policy (PPS25) which sets out criteria and provides guidance for all development in respect of flood risk and necessary mitigation.

We intend to submit an outline planning application towards the end of 2008.   If we are successful and obtain outline planning approval, we will need to submit detailed plans for the first phases of development before work can start on site.  It is likely that work could start on site during 2010, and that the first house could be built towards the end of 2010.  From then on, it is estimated that around 500 homes per year could be built, which – together with building new employment premises and local facilities – would mean that Great Haddon would be completed around 2022.