Up to 6,500 new homes are to be built on a former airfield and barracks site in Cambridgeshire.

Developer Urban&Civic and the Secretary of State for Defence, Michael Fallon, have submitted plans to build the development at Waterbeach Barracks to the north of Cambridge.

The homes will be spread across a 715-acre site which will also feature a range of leisure, retail and infrastructure features.

Key plans include:

• Up to 6,500 homes, including up to 600 units of residential institution (care home) use

• Three primary schools, incorporating pre-school provision, and a secondary school

• Community facilities, (up to 9,000 sq m in total) including: multi-purpose community centres, health care, nurseries, library use, places of worship and museum  

• Sports and fitness centres (up to 7,000 sq m) including gyms and other cultural and recreational uses

• Up to 16,500sqm of retail uses in total, with no single outlet will be larger than 4,000sq m.

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• Employment space comprising offices, research and development and light industrial units (up to 15,000 sq m) to support existing local business parks.

• A lake-side hotel (up to 4,000 sq m)

• A range of supporting infrastructure improvements and investments in energy centres, waste management facilities, upgrade and services, drainage works and sustainable urban drainage systems.

In addition, a range of open spaces will be developed as well as landscaped areas, which will draw on the legacy of the former military site. Other features include extensive woodland areas; wildlife habitat areas and grassland, including on the former golf course and around the runway area; and the runway itself.

A series of parkland spaces will echo the alignment of the main runway, and the existing lake and smaller ponds will be incorporated into new recreation and wildlife areas.

The application also contains plans to create two new access points onto the A10, as well as a new Park and Ride facility.

Urban&Civic is committing nearly £15m of investment to early cycle and bus connections and to support improvements to the local rail station, ahead of a significant contribution towards the final Milton Interchange/A14/A10 ‎strategic improvements.

Urban&Civic Chief Executive Nigel Hugill said: "Outside London, Waterbeach is the best brownfield site in the country. Three miles from the Cambridge Science Park with some of the most dynamic employment in the world, Waterbeach can help meet a demonstrable shortage of accessible accommodation in the north of the city, both from an expanding workforce and local residents who have lived here for generations.

"Courtesy of the Royal Engineers, the barracks and airfield are already marvellously landscaped, with a 23 acre lake and tree lined environment that has been forty years in the making, and is already part of a popular and dynamic village."

(LM/MH)