2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (Hannah Brown)
Cambridge City Council is currently working with South Cambridgeshire District Council to create a new joint local plan to guide future development across the area. Sign up to our free email newsletter to receive the latest breaking news and daily roundups More Newsletters Subscribe Please enter a valid email Something went wrong, please try again later. More Newsletters We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you.
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This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. More info × Group 28 Thank you for subscribing! We have more newsletters Show Me No thanks, close See our Privacy Notice Concern has been shared that the new local plan to guide future building in Cambridge could be “brushed aside” by the government created development company. Cambridge City Council is currently in the process of creating a new joint local plan with South Cambridgeshire District Council , which sets out to guide development across the area for the coming years.
Questions were raised about whether this work should still be going ahead when it could be overtaken by the government’s plans for growth in and around the city. In its Autumn Statement last month the government announced it would be providing £10million of funding to the Cambridge Growth Company to “develop an ambitious plan for the housing, transport, water, and wider infrastructure Cambridge needs to realise its full potential”. Peter Freeman, chair of Homes England, has been appointed chair of the company, which has been given the aim of “enabling and accelerating key development in and around Cambridge”.
At a meeting of the city council’s planning and transport scrutiny committee this week (November 4), Councillor Dave Baigent ( Labour ) said he was concerned that the city council was spending time and money working on a new local plan, when it might get “brushed aside” by the Cambridge Growth Company’s plans. Read more: What Cambridge area with 'failing' homes could look like after redevelopment Read more: Residents 'in limbo' as East West Rail leg to Cambridge left out of Budget He said: “We are working on a local plan, a great deal of time and effort is going into that, yet it is clear the Cambridge Growth Company is going to overtake that. What is the common sense here? Are these two groups working in silos, are they working together, should we still be working on a local plan?” Officers said they were receiving “different messages” from government, but said they had been encouraged to continue progressing with the local plan.
However, they said the engagement with the development company had “not been in depth to date” and said they hoped there would be “more detailed clarity in the future” about what the government wants “precisely” to do through the Cambridge Growth Company. They added that the work being done on the local plan and the evidence being gathered should form the basis for any future planning in the area. Councillor Katie Thornburrow (Labour), executive councillor for planning, building control and infrastructure, added that Councillor Mike Davey (Labour), leader of the city council, had met with Peter Freeman and suggested it might be appropriate for him to answer some of the questions that had been raised.
Councillor Tim Bick, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said planning was something that should be led by the council and added that he did not think they should “surrender” that role. He said he felt the right thing to do was to be as “proactive as possible”. Story Saved You can find this story in My Bookmarks.
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