The councils' 2026 site check rated the Milton Park business park land red overall: landscape harm they say cannot be mitigated, and 97% Grade 2 farmland.
A developer wants to build a business park of up to 646,000 sq ft on farmland beside Milton Park and Ride. The land is owned by the Diocese of Ely. The councils’ own planners have already given the site an overall red for suitability.
Turnstone Estates, a Cambridge developer, announced on 16 September that it had signed a promotion and option agreement with the Ely Diocesan Board of Finance. It calls the plan a £200m scheme. (Turnstone Estates press release, 16 September 2026)
The site is not one of the employment sites in the new Greater Cambridge Local Plan. Comments on that plan close at 5pm today, Friday 25 September.
What Turnstone is proposing
The land is on the west side of the A10 at Milton, reached from the A10 and Butt Lane through the Park and Ride. It is about half a mile from junction 33 of the A14. (Turnstone Estates, Milton Park project page)
The plan comes in two phases:
- Phase one: about 350,000 sq ft of employment space on roughly 25.9 acres, wrapped around the new South Cambridgeshire police station.
- Phase two: a further 296,000 sq ft on the Park and Ride itself. This would only happen if the 800-space car park was judged surplus once a new park and ride opens at Waterbeach, which Turnstone expects in 2031.
- Who it is for: advanced manufacturing, “mid-tech” firms, trade counters and final-mile delivery depots, plus Cambridge businesses being pushed off city sites earmarked for housing.
Turnstone’s project page gives phase two as “a further 300,000 sq ft”; the press release says 296,000. The release gives no breakdown of the £200m figure and no estimate of jobs.
The Diocese said in the release that it “has long been keen” for the land “to be used for the benefit of the people of Cambridge”. It said an operator is building an electric vehicle charging station on another part of the site.
What the councils’ own assessments say
Turnstone had already put the land forward for the Local Plan as site 40365, “Land off Butt Lane”. The councils assessed it for 60,000 square metres of employment space. That is about the same size as Turnstone’s two phases together.
The 2026 land availability assessment gave it an overall suitability score of red. (Greater Cambridge HELAA 2026, Appendix 1, Part 27: Milton and Waterbeach)
| Test | 2026 rating | What the officers said |
|---|---|---|
| Landscape | Red | “Irreversible loss of rural character, which would not be possible to mitigate” |
| Transport and roads | Amber | A “detrimental impact on the surrounding highway network, particularly at the A14 interchange” |
| Air quality | Amber | Potential harm from the amount of development proposed |
| Flood risk | Amber | Wholly in Flood Zone 1; 3% at risk in a 1-in-100-year surface water event |
| Heritage and archaeology | Green | Roman remains survive south and west of the police station; can be handled by condition |
The same document records that 97.2% of the site is Grade 2 agricultural land, among the best and most versatile farmland.
The landscape officers answered the developer’s main argument directly. The developer’s study said the police station and the charging point had already compromised the rural character. The officers said those features had made the landscape “increasingly sensitive to further development”, not less.
The Green Belt question has moved
On the Green Belt, the developer has had more success.
The councils’ consultants first rated this whole parcel “very high” for harm if released. The main reason was that building here would breach the strong boundary the A10 and its tree belt form along the west side of Milton.
A July 2026 review changed that because of the police station, approved since the first study. The land around the Park and Ride and the police station is now rated “moderate-high” for harm. Only the land north of Butt Lane stays “very high”. (LUC, Greater Cambridge Green Belt Assessment review, July 2026)
As a result, the consultants say the site is now “provisionally considered to lie within grey belt”. (Green Belt Assessment, response to comments, 2026) The councils’ Green Belt considerations paper lists site 40365 as “Wholly Grey Belt”. (Development Strategy Topic Paper, Appendix 4)
Turnstone’s project page says it is “confident the site represents ‘Grey Belt’”. Grey belt status matters because national policy treats some development on it more leniently. It is not a planning permission, and the councils’ own landscape verdict still stands against the site.
How big is it?
The Proposed Submission Local Plan says Greater Cambridge needs 317,000 square metres of industrial and warehouse space between 2024 and 2045, including a flexibility margin. (Proposed Submission Local Plan, Policy S/JH, paragraph 2.12)
The 60,000 square metres assessed at Milton would be about 19% of that. Phase one alone, about 32,500 square metres once converted from square feet, would be about 10%.
The comparison is approximate. Turnstone’s mix includes trade counters and some uses that may not fall in the plan’s industrial and warehouse classes.
The land is not among the plan’s site allocations. It is also not one of the eleven “Established Employment Areas in the countryside” that the plan’s employment policy lists, which run from Buckingway Business Park at Swavesey to the TTP campus at Melbourn. (Proposed Submission Local Plan, Policy J/NE)
What it means for you
- To comment on the Local Plan, you have until 5pm today. The councils will not accept late comments. Our guide to the consultation explains how to take part.
- No planning application has been announced. Turnstone says it will “seek planning permission” for phase one. When an application is made it will appear on the Greater Cambridge planning register, and we will report it. Our planning news page tracks major schemes.
- The Park and Ride is not closing now. Phase two depends on a new 1,600-space park and ride at Waterbeach, which Turnstone expects in 2031, and on the Milton site then being judged surplus.
- The A14 junction is the pressure point. The councils’ transport officers flagged junction 33 as where the impact would fall. Drivers who use the Milton interchange should watch for the transport assessment with any application.
The police station on the site is almost finished. The Diocese said on 16 September that it is “due to open shortly”.
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