Local Development Framework News (February 2012)

Lists opportunities for you to get involved in future plan making in South Cambridgeshire and reports progress on past consultations.

Local Development Scheme

An updated timetable for preparing the South Cambridgeshire Local Plan was agreed by the Northstowe & New Communities Portfolio Holder at his meeting on 25 January 2012 (This link will open in a new window) (subject to the decision not being called in). The new Local Development Scheme shows the planned key stages for preparing the new South Cambridgeshire Local Plan. The Plan will incorporate a review of the Core Strategy Development Plan Document (DPD), Site Specific Policies DPD and the Development Control Policies DPD. The Local Plan will also include policies and proposals for Gypsy and Traveller accommodation, rather than preparing a separate Gypsy and Traveller DPD as had previously been intended.

South Cambridgeshire Local Plan

We will be carrying out public consultation on the Issues and Options stage of the Local Plan between July and September 2012.

Residents, stakeholders and businesses will be asked their views on options for where new homes and businesses should be built over the next 20 years to make sure they are the right ones for South Cambridgeshire, and to ensure the environment and unique character of the district is not adversely affected.

Plans for any new homes will consider whether they are in locations where jobs exist and there are good transport links, to make sure that people will have the choice to live close to where they will be working and not have to rely on using a car for all of their journeys.

In previous plans for South Cambridgeshire, the new town of Northstowe, as well as sites on the edge of Cambridge have been proposed to provide new homes for residents rather than smaller developments across the district.

During the review of our existing adopted planning policies we will be reviewing specific policies in the adopted Area Action Plans as necessary. For example, we will need to reconsider the approach for Cambridge Airport in light of the fact that Marshalls are not likely to move in the near future.

Landowners and developers have already been invited to put forward sites they would like to be considered by the Council for development. Land that could accommodate up to 300,000 new homes was put forward for consideration so only a fraction of the land will be built on. The Council is currently assessing the sites put forward as part of the preparation of a Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA), and the results will inform the Issues and Options consultation.

Residents will be consulted at each stage as we create the strategy up to 2031 over the next 3 years.

Annual Monitoring Report

The Northstowe & New Communities Portfolio Holder agreed the Annual Monitoring Report 2010-2011 on 25 January 2012 (subject to the decision not being called in). The Annual Monitoring Report reviews the performance of the Council's adopted planning policies and also progress on the implementation of the Local Development Scheme.

The key message from this year's AMR is the prolonged impact of the downturn in the economy on the rate of development, confirming the need for a policy review to put in place a strategy for the recovery. It also identifies some specific policy areas for review through the new Local Plan, and these will be explored in the Issues & Options public consultation.

Planning Policy Monthly Update

The Planning Policy Monthly Update highlights news items relevant to planning policy at national, regional, county and local levels.