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How a New Town in Cambridgeshire reached for the skies in its provision for cycling and walking

- Laura Laker

It didn’t look like much – acres of empty field with a few solitary men in hi-vis roaming about – but in a village on the outskirts of Cambridge, a revolution was taking place. One cold January morning I set off, with a handful of other kerb nerds, from Waterbeach station to the flat fields beyond the (for now) small village. New cycle paths lay marooned between temporary fences, and we followed them across the flat landscape to the first completed corner of what will be a groundbreaking new town.

Almost-finished houses appeared in front of us, on brand-new streets, all empty of residents. Manmade lakes (built by the Royal Engineers – this is a former military barracks site) awaited dog walkers, and mini-woodlands were ready for children to play among them. Bike lanes, separate from roads, awaited cyclists. Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) appeared as generous wooded areas. Next to the front doors of the stylish town houses were doors marked ‘bike shed’, while next to the lake was a ‘Sustainable Travel Hub’ – a grand title for a car park with a cycle hire docking point and, promised for the future, a shuttle bus to the station plus ‘carpool options’.