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The site contains few landscape features, with just hedgerows along some of the boundaries and a young tree belt to the north. The current change from countyside to urban areas is quite abrupt, and the Cambridgeshire Landscape Guidelines recommend that this could be improved by more woodland planting.
A full landscape and visual impact assessment of the development has been carried out in accordance with the guidelines of the Landscape Institute and the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment 2002 and the Countryside Agency and Scottish National Heritage 2002.
The site is not located on protected land and development would not affect any National Parks, Greenbelt or Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The development will provide the opportunity to enhance the landscape and improve the general appearance of the area.
The design of the development will include a varied mosaic of woodland, grassland and wetland. This will also create a smoother transition between urban and rural areas. As the new planting matures, the development will actually bring benefits to the landscape.
The assessment shows that NorthBridge would be visible to relatively few residential areas. The development would be seen from Great Stukeley and Stukeley Meadows against a background of existing housing and Ermine Business Park, and the overall visual impacts would be minimal. As with the changes to the landscape, as planting matures the visual impacts will reduce and screen any views of the development. Future visual impacts of NorthBridge have been assessed as likely to be ‘slight adverse’.
The proposed foot bridge in the south eastern corner of the development will have a high quality design and create an interesting visual focus for the development.
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