Alconbury Weald
Alconbury Weald is located in Cambridgeshire
Alconbury Weald
Alconbury Weald
Location within Cambridgeshire
OS grid referenceTL2076
Civil parish
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townHuntingdon
Postcode districtPE28
Dialling code01480
PoliceCambridgeshire
FireCambridgeshire
AmbulanceEast of England
UK Parliament

Alconbury Weald is a new settlement in Cambridgeshire, England, lying to the north-west of the town of Huntingdon. The site was previously part of RAF Alconbury, with planning permission for the first phase of the new settlement being granted in 2014. Cambridgeshire County Council moved its headquarters from Cambridge to New Shire Hall at Alconbury Weald in 2021.

History

The Royal Air Force station at Alconbury opened in 1938, and was subsequently also used from 1942 by the United States Army Air Force, with operations continuing at the base after the Second World War had ended. By 2009 flying operations from the base had ceased, although the American air force continued to use part of the site. Most of the redundant land at RAF Alconbury, including the former runway, was sold to a development company, Urban and Civic, in 2009 for £27.5 million.[1]

The old airfield had straddled the civil parishes of Alconbury (after which it was named) and The Stukeleys, with many of the buildings on the site closely adjoining the village of Little Stukeley. The parish boundaries were redrawn in April 2010 to put the whole of the site into the parish of The Stukeleys.[2]

New Shire Hall, Alconbury Weald
New Shire Hall: headquarters of Cambridgeshire County Council

In 2011, the UK Government designated the Alconbury Enterprise Zone covering the site, to encourage development delivering new jobs and homes in the area.[3]

Planning permission was granted in October 2014 for up to 290,000 m² of employment floorspace and up to 5,000 homes, with supporting infrastructure and facilities, including shops, schools, health and leisure facilities and open spaces. The application also reserved a site for a possible new railway station on the Great Northern Railway, which skirts the eastern edge of the site.[4] Residents began occupying the first new homes on the site in 2016, with the first school on the site opening in September 2016.[5]

In 2018, Cambridgeshire County Council decided to vacate its former headquarters at Shire Hall, Cambridge and move to a new building at Alconbury Weald.[6] The new building was named "New Shire Hall", with the council's first committee meeting there being held in September 2021.[7]

External sites

Urban & Civic: Alconbury Weald

References

  1. ↑ "Locals divided on Alconbury sale". BBC News. 16 November 2009. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
  2. ↑ The Huntingdonshire (Parishes) Order 2009 (Statutory Instrument 2009 No. 2091) (PDF). London: Department for Communities and Local Government. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 January 2022. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
  3. ↑ Huntingdonshire Local Plan to 2036 (PDF). Huntingdon: Huntingdonshire District Council. 15 May 2019. p. 80. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
  4. ↑ Planning application 1201158OUT for Alconbury Airfield, Ermine Street, Little Stukeley, submitted by Urban & Civic to Huntingdonshire District Council 15 August 2012, granted 1 October 2014.
  5. ↑ Day, Sophie (21 September 2016). "New primary school in Alconbury welcomes first class". Hunts Post. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
  6. ↑ Makey, Julian (15 May 2018). "County council HQ will move to Alconbury Weald - decision". Hunts Post. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
  7. ↑ "Children and Young People Committee, 14 September 2021". Cambridgeshire County Council. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
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