Supplementary Sunlight Addendum and revised Design Code
You can be forgiven for not spending your December reading through 540 planning documents in search of the Daylight and Sunlight addendum and revised Design Code for the Beehive site ahead of its submission to Planning Committee on 12th Feb.
We did!
And below, you can read our report which was sent to the planning officer on 13th January.
Better Beehive Group Cambridge
BBCG Supplementary Comment 13 January 2025 made following submission of revised planning application documents uploaded on 4 December 2024 on the GCSP planning webpage.
We concern ourselves with the revised Daylight and Sunlight Addendum and its Appendix and how the information in that report relates to Cambridge Local Plan policies; in particular to Policy 60: Tall buildings and the skyline in Cambridge and Appendix F as well as Policies 55 : Responding to Context and 56 : Creating Successful Places. We also look at the revised Design Code.
A supplementary assessment has been submitted to reveal how the Beehive proposals will potentially affect the daylight and sunlight levels on neighbouring dwellings and gardens. The report focuses on St. Matthews Gardens and Silverwood Close, but other neighbours will potentially be affected by a degree of overlooking and/or overshadowing.
The assessment considers both the maximum parameter building envelopes as well as the illustrative scheme. With regard to the modelling of the maximum parameter envelope plots, there are numerous properties in St. Matthews Gardens and Silverwood Close that fail to comply with the BRE guideline levels for daylight and sunlight. See Table 1 of the Addendum.
We appreciate that the modelling of the illustrative scheme shows an improvement to the BRE light levels from the maximum scheme (compare Tables 1 and 2 of the Addendum), but the assessment still shows many properties with rooms that will remain non-compliant with the BRE guidelines.
We noted that the overshadowing of neighbouring gardens, as opposed to dwellings, was considered in the previous Daylight and Sunlight Report, August 2024. It concluded that one property in Silverwood Close would receive less than 2hrs of sun on 21st March and therefore fail BRE guidelines. However, as a direct result of positioning a multi-storey car park and large office buildings near neighbours’ boundaries, there will be overshadowing of many more gardens. It will be of no surprise to understand the any degree of overshadowing, and overlooking, is unacceptable to neighbours.
Turning to the Design Code, we note that the revised version has kicked the problem of overshadowing/overlooking down the road by adding the following instruction when addressing Plots 1, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 “Consideration of daylighting and amenity for neighbouring properties must be demonstrated at reserved matters application stage.”
Instead of fixing the problems of overshadowing at the outline application stage by further reducing the height and mass of the buildings, this clause allows this very real issue to be decided at Reserve Matters stage.
Our concern is that this approach simply sets up future opportunities for too much flexibility, together with too little concern for neighbours, and the continued pushing for as much floor space as possible, especially as the BRE standards for sunlight and daylight is a document for guidance only. We can quite see that the height and massing will remain as shown in the outline parameter plans and the overshadowing of neighbouring houses and gardens will become reality in a few years.
We would reason that there remains a fundamental flaw in the overall design and layout of the Beehive site contrary to Cambridge Local Plan policies, i.e. the site continues to be over developed, with too numerous, overly large buildings, far too close together and too close to domestic dwellings.
We’ve also been told, informally, that the plans for The Beehive* will be going to planning committee for their consideration on 12th February 2025. We’re waiting for official notice on this but at the pre-planning presentation for the Retail Park on Newmarket Road, that seemed to be the case. Two members of BBCG went to the presentation and a recording will be made available online.
Have you registered your concerns? Your words matter so please do this!
How to view the planning application.
Full details of the planning application and supporting documents are accessible via the public access portal Simple Search at View and comment on planning applications using the reference 23/03204/OUT. Here’s the link to view.
You must quote the planning reference 23/03204/OUT
by post - Greater Cambridge Shared Planning, South Cambridgeshire Hall Cambourne Business Park Cambourne Cambridge CB23 6EA
What can I write? There are a lot of documents, help!
Our summary of planning application objections may help you. Download a sample letter that we’ve written as a guide.
*The Beehive is now referred to as The Beehive Innovation Neighbourhood in the Retail Park plans, which is interesting as most of the neighbourhood feel underwhelmed and very not innovated by the proposed overdevelopment on the site, particularly when our request for a Residents Visual Amenity Assessment was refused!