Enjoy the great outdoors on your doorstep
Over a third of the town is designed as publicly accessible open space, with new habitats, including lakes, created throughout the town to attract wildlife and create tranquillity.
Residents and visitors enjoy the physical and mental health benefits of contact with nature. There are miles of cycleways, footpaths, and bridleways connecting the town to explore at your leisure, with many more planned to provide even better access to the surrounding countryside.
Spaces are designed to make it easy to socialise whether you’re sitting on a bench or taking part in an activity.
Incidental play areas are threaded through the town for children to enjoy. Outdoor gyms and playing fields also provide plenty of options for getting active.
If you want to grow your own fruit and veg then there are allotments available. The community orchard and allotments are managed by Northstowe Horticultural Association. Email them for details.
"I moved into this area because of the space. The openness of skies. I'd been commuting to London, it was nice to breathe." Chloe, resident
Take a break and enjoy time for you
Making it easy to stay active for life
Northstowe is designed to be an inspiring example of a sustainable, healthy living town that supports your wellbeing through:
Healthy lifestyle choices and promoting active lifestyles
The wellbeing of older people encouraging healthy ageing.
A key part of this is making it easy to walk or cycle around Northstowe. Clear routes to serve people with different interests and activity levels will be created.
Measures to promote inclusive design for the benefit of older people and people with physical impairment will be put in place so it’s easy for everyone to get around and make use of facilities.
Healthy Living and Youth & Play Strategy
As part of efforts to encourage all residents to lead active, healthy lifestyles, Northstowe is being built in a way that makes it easy to walk or cycle to where you need to go.
Destination play areas, an urban park, formal greenways, and pocket parks or village greens are among the amenities being proposed for the second phase of the town’s development so you can enjoy being outdoors, whether on your own, or with friends and family. One of the goals of its Youth and Play Strategy is for Northstowe to become one of the happiest, contented and healthiest communities in Cambridgeshire.
The Northstowe Phase Two Healthy Living and Youth & Play Strategy is available to download. It also includes measures to create a low-pollution environment and adapt to climate change.
Habitat creation
Along with creating homes for people, we are using this once-in-a-generation opportunity to create outdoor spaces which are teeming with life. All developments are required to provide an improvement to natural habitats and wildlife numbers once they have been completed. These ‘biodiversity net gain’ rules require a 10 per cent improvement in biodiversity pre and post-development; at Northstowe we are committed to exceeding this target achieving 15% on later phases of development.
We have ambitions to go beyond this and ensure the development of Northstowe Town benefits plants, animals and people – all creatures great and small. A major part of the net gain plan will be delivered a short distance away at Smithy Fen where hectares of land are being managed for farmland birds.
The most recognisable part of the on-site strategy is the new lakes and associated planting which attract a variety of birds, insects and aquatic life to the town.
Three large ponds dominate the park with fluctuating water tables and permanent water expected to be present throughout the year. Graded pond edges are shaped to create access for recreation as well as providing a rich ecological environment of wetland, riverside and aquatic vegetation.
Visitors and residents will be familiar with the bird and bat boxes dotted around the area and many birds have taken up residence in the town.
The town’s sustainable drainage system is used to manage surface water through a series of ponds, open swales, alongside roads and within green spaces, protecting the town from major flood events – well above the normal development standard. These ponds and swales run along greenways and form another part of the open space network that provides fantastic leisure routes and trails for all to enjoy.
Sustainable design
The buildings which will make the town are subject to agreed design codes which help guide the individual developments. These will design in landscaped areas using existing and new trees to create pleasant neighbourhoods.
Other buildings in the town will incorporate sustainable materials and approaches to achieve energy efficiency and reduce carbon. For example, plans for the permanent community centre building features green roofs, flowers, plants & hedges, solar panels, integrated bird / bat boxes, deadwood features and a bee house.