In an interview with BBC Look East this week Cllr David Jenkins called for specific action on two fronts relating to the Arbury Park development. Firstly he asked that the county and district councils and other agencies seriously address the learning coming from this development before embarking on the others planned in the County. And secondly he challenged the County Council, through its position as lead partner on the Crime and Disorder Reduction partnership, to ensure that the community does not suffer as a result of the slow down in building because of the credit crunch.

We have a record of poorly designed and managed developments in Cambridgeshire starting with Bar Hill and continuing through Cambourne to Arbury Park. It is essential that we prove our ability to learn and improve especially with so many new developments planned for the next few years, in the northern and southern fringes and Northstowe. We cannot honour a commitment to sustainable communities if we do not design and build them right in the first place.

And unfortunately the credit crunch is resulting in developers and builders, for perfectly legitimate reasons, pausing in their activities. This results at best in incomplete developments and at worst in ones that are an unhappy mix of building sight and houses. The latter can so easily become a magnet for anti-social behaviour and low level crime. That’s why Cllr Jenkins has called on the CDRP to address the situation and ensure that such an outcome can be avoided.

It’s not all bad news however. The properties on Arbury park are well built an to a high spec and surveys indicate a high level of resident satisfaction. There’s an excellent local primary school and the play are at Topper Street is well equipped and popular.