Plans for a new travel hub on green belt land outside Cambridge have progressed to the next stage.

The Cambridge South West travel hub will provide up to 2,150 car parking spaces, with 108 Blue Badge spaces and 108 electric vehicle charging bay and 326 cycle spaces.

The Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) scheme aims to encourage more people to get out of their cars and cycle, walk, or use public transport.

Engineering firm Atkins has been appointed to work up detailed designs following formal approval by the secretary of state last summer.

Once the detailed designs are complete a procurement process will be carried out to appoint a contractor to construct the scheme.

Construction is planned for early 2025.

Anna Chylinska-Derkowska, project manager for the GCP, said: “This is the next step in the South West Travel Hub project which, when complete, will help to take thousands of cars off the road.

“This will help to cut congestion on the roads, improve air quality and give people the opportunity to walk, cycle or take the bus in and out of the city.”

The GCP has also committed to enhancing the habitat of the area by planting trees and plants to improve the biodiversity of the area.

The travel hub will also have 12 parking spaces for coaches and an off-road public transport link between the hub and the A10 Hauxton Road/Addenbrooke’s Road junction.

Solar panels will be incorporated as part of the project to support sustainable transport initiatives.

The GCP was provisionally granted approval to construct the travel hub on a site to the west of the M11 junction 11 by Cambridgeshire County Council in June 2022 before it was passed to the secretary of state for final approval later that summer.

The application first came before the council in July 2021, but was deferred amid a number of concerns.

It returned to the council again in February 2022, where councillors could not agree to refuse or approve the plans, and ultimately decided to defer the decision once again before it was approved in June of that year.

Concerns were raised at the county council meeting about whether the plans to build a “giant car park” were the right thing to do when the authority had declared a climate emergency.

© Eastern Echo (powered by ukpropertyforums.com).

Sign up to receive our weekly free journal, The Forum here.