Agenda, decisions and minutes

To receive any declarations of interest from Members on matters arising in this agenda.

Councillor SGM Kindersley declared a personal interest as the County Council Representative for Trumpington West.

Councillor SM Edwards declared a personal interest as a resident of Oakington.

Councillor RMA Manning declared a personal interest as a resident and landowner of Willingham.

Councillor A Riley declared a personal interest as a resident of Longstanton and as the Chairman of Longstanton Parish Council, as the Parish Council manages a small field on the B1050 as Trustees of a Charity.

Councillor MJ Mason declared a personal interest as a member of three land drainage boards.

Councillor Dr DR Bard declared a personal interest, as his pension provider was the University Superannuation Scheme, one of the joint funders of the Monsanto Site.

Councillor Mrs CAED Murfitt declared a personal interest, as her pension provider was the University Superannuation Scheme, one of the joint funders of the Monsanto Site, and as a resident of Guilden Morden.       

To confirm the minutes of the second round of Special Council Local Development Framework meetings as correct records:

15 March 2005 – Core Strategy and Rural Centres Draft DPD

23 March 2005 – Northstowe Draft AAP

15 April 2005 – Cambridge East Draft AAP

21 April 2005 – Cambridge Southern Fringe Draft AAP

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 15 March 2005 were accepted as a correct record subject to the following amendments:

Item 2 First Paragraph. Amend ‘Steeple Morden’ to read Guilden Morden and add

‘ and as her pension provider was the University Superannuation Scheme, one of the joint funders of the Monsanto Site’.

Item 3. Strategy. Rural Strategy. Amend last sentence to read ‘In recognition of the more limited service base, larger scale development was contingent on contribution towards development or improvement of the service base’.

Item 3. Housing. Second Paragraph. First sentence; insert ‘housing’ to read ‘It was understood a definition of key worker housing would be provided..’   

Third paragraph. Second paragraph – insert ‘were’ to read ‘Officers were asked to consider..’

The Minutes of the meeting held on 23 March 2005 were accepted as a correct record subject to the following amendments:

D12: Land Drainage, Water Conservation, Foul Drainage and Sewage Disposal.

First paragraph. Last sentence. Delete ‘international’ and insert ‘internal’.

D14: An Exemplar in Sustainability.  Final bullet point. Delete the last word (‘and’).

In response to a request for clarification of the issue of site size in regard to secondary school provision, the Planning Policy Manager advised that this was one of a number of factors that Members had taken into account in determining the preferred site for Northstowe at the meeting of Council on 1 February 2005.  He stated that the County Council would need to carry out a full consultation on Secondary School provision for Northstowe.  The consultation would also address the secondary school requirements of Oakington and Longstanton.

Members noted that they had received a letter from the Fairfield Partnership.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 15 April 2005 were accepted as a correct record subject to the following amendment:

Item 3 Paragraph 7. Delete the first ‘needed to’.  Amend ‘agreed’ to read ‘agree’.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 21 April 2005 were accepted as a correct record, subject to the following amendments:

D3. Employment (CSF/8) Fourth Paragraph. Amend ‘Policy EM/1’ to read ‘Policy ET/1’.

D5 Transport.  First paragraph, last sentence.  Insert ‘and’ to read ‘transport capacity must be adequate and relevant to.. ‘

To agree the changes in the draft Development Plan Documents enclosed as Appendices A, B, C and D and authorise their publication for the purpose of public participation.  Further details are given in the attached report from the Development Services Director.

Please note that the Consultants’ Sustainability Appraisal Reports, which will be Appendices A/1, B/1, C/1 and D/1, are not yet available and will be sent to Members at the earliest opportunity.

In addition to extra changes agreed at the meeting and noted in the minutes, Council also considered the recommendations of the report entitled South Cambridgeshire LDF: Approval of Draft Documents for Publication for pre-Submission Participation and:

(i)                 AGREED the proposed changes highlighted in the draft Development Plan Documents as set out in Appendices A, B, C and D to the report;

(ii)                Noted the results of the Sustainability Appraisal   

(iii)              Authorised the draft Development Plan Documents attached in Appendices A, B, C and D for the purpose of public participation

(iv)              Delegated to the Planning Portfolio Holder any material changes resultant from further information and to the Director of Development Services authority to approve any minor editing changes.

The Planning Policy Manager informed the Meeting that as a further round of public consultation was required before the documents could be submitted to the Secretary of State, the timetable had been reviewed as follows:

·                      Submission of Documents to the Secretary of State would be 6^th January 2006.

·                      Four additional Council meetings would be required to report on representations and review the need for changes to the Plans. These would be considered at a single meeting for each document.  Additional Council Meetings were planned for 15th November, 18th November, 22^nd November and 25^th November 2005.

·                      A final meeting of Council on 9^th December 2005 would be needed to agree the plans for submission to the Secretary of State.

·                      The Public Examination would commence on 7^th July 2006 and was due to complete on 22^nd October 2006.  The Examination would break during August.

·                      The Inspectors report was expected in mid February 2007 and the Plan expected to be adopted around March 2007.

Councillor Mrs DSK Spink stated that whilst the report in the Cambridge Evening News (CEN) had reported accurately the reasons why additional public consultation had been required, the CEN Leader had been misleading. She stressed that no blame whatsoever had been apportioned to Council Officers or Council Members. The additional public consultation had been brought about by misinformation from the Government regional office ‘GO-East’.

Members were asked to retain the draft plans before them for agreement and the background studies previously issued.  Anything else could be disposed of if required.  Measures would be taken to ensure the reports content/pagination remained the same as the current versions, to avoid confusion during the public consultation.

It was confirmed that electronic representations for each stage of consultation would be retained on the web site.

Members were reminded that the purpose of the meeting was to debate the highlighted changes made to each Plan since the last meeting.  The Policies content had otherwise already been agreed.

It was AGREED that details of minor typographical errors within the documents would be passed separately to Officers for amendment, and not highlighted during the meeting.

The following amendments, comments and decisions were made in relation to Appendix A:

Page 11.  It was AGREED that the wording of paragraph ST/e be amended to read as follows: ‘To protect the varied character of the villages of South Cambridgeshire by ensuring that the scale, location and type of development in each village is in keeping with its size and character and function and that the buildings and open spaces which create their character are maintained and where possible enhanced.’   

Page 15. Paragraph 2.16. (site of Addenbrooke’s Hospital expansion).  Councillor NJ Scarr wished to record his opposition to the expansion of Addenbrooke’s Hospital as development of the site would result in serious implications for traffic and affordable staff housing. Councillors Mrs SA Hatton and Mrs DSK Spink endorsed his comments; Councillor Mrs DSK Spink adding that South Cambridgeshire District Council should tackle the expansion through opposition to the proposed move of Papworth Hospital to the Addenbrooke’s site. 

Page 20. Policy ST/5 Group Villages.

It was noted that the status for most villages was as contained in the Local Plan, which had been adopted previously by the Council.

Councillor Dr JPR Orme proposed and Councillor Mrs GJ Smith seconded that Babraham be removed from the list of Group Villages and added to the list of Infill Villages on the grounds that village character precluded any development of a group of houses.  By 15 votes to ten, with three abstentions the proposal was ACCEPTED.

Page 64. Policy ET/1. Paragraph 4. It was confirmed that definitions of use classes B2 and B8 would be added to the glossary of terms at Appendix F.

Page 151. Policy SP/21.

It was AGREED to amend paragraph 1, third sentence as follows:

‘The Green Separation will have a high degree of public access where appropriate to character and amenity, having particular regard to the character of conservation areas’.

The change to the policy as above would also be incorporated into the Northstowe Area Action Plan.

The Principal Planning Policy Officer (Transport) reported that he had written to the Parish Councils of Cottenham, Longstanton, Over, Rampton and Willingham informing them of the proposed extension to the Green Belt around Northstowe as far out as their villages and the boundaries proposed.  Whilst most were in agreement, Willingham had requested more time to consider the boundaries. The Principal Planning Policy Officer (Transport) advised that Willingham Parish Council would have an opportunity to respond to the Council during the forthcoming round of public consultation.

Members noted that they had each received a letter from Smith Stuart Reynolds on behalf of their client D J Harradine, regarding the Northstowe Area Action Plan.  It was AGREED that it was not appropriate to consider the letter at this meeting and that Councillor Dr DR Bard (Planning and Economic Portfolio Holder) would respond on behalf of all Members.

Page 9 Paragraph C1.11, first bullet point.  It was AGREED that a further amplification of this statement here or at another appropriate place in the Area Action Plan would make it clear that open uses associated with the town could be located on the edge of the town to supplement the Green Separation with the villages.

Page 13 Policy NS/5 Paragraph (i). Last sentence.  Add Bar Hill to read ‘..more distant neighbours at Rampton, Willingham, Over and Bar Hill;’

Page 15 Policy NS/6.   Council RESOLVED to extend the Green Separation between Northstowe and Oakington to include additional land to protect the Conservation Area at Westwick so that the site for Northstowe was at least 200m from the edge of the conservation area.   

Page 21 Paragraph D1.13.  It was AGREED that the following sentence should be added to the end of the paragraph: ‘Design and traffic management measures will facilitate movement by pedestrians, cyclists and equestrians and ensure no motorised vehicular traffic, other than that for essential access, can use this route.’

Page 49.  It was AGREED that the wording of ‘Emergency Access Paragraph f) should be replaced as follows:

‘An emergency access into Northstowe will be provided from the direction of Cottenham.’

Page 50 Paragraph D7.6 Local Road Access.  It was AGREED that the paragraph should be replaced ‘to indicate that there is a need for emergency vehicles to gain access into Northstowe from the Cottenham Fire Station.  This could be achieved in a number of ways.  Access could be from Station Road, Oakington or Cottenham Road, Westwick or Longstanton Road, Oakington.  For the first two of these options, use may be able to be made of the maintenance track of the Guided Busway, linking into the town via the dedicated busway within the town.  The route of this access would be determined through Masterplanning.  If it made use of Longstanton Road, Oakington, design and traffic management measures would facilitate movement by pedestrians, cyclists and equestrians and ensure that no motorised vehicular traffic, other than that for essential access could use this route.  Any solution would need to pay particular regard to the need to ensure that Green Separation between Oakington and Northstowe is not fragmented or otherwise adversely affected’.    

Page 50. POLICY NS/14 Alternative Modes.  Section b) Public Transport.

Councillor M J Mason proposed an amendment to this section, to state that the occupation of the development in the new town would be linked to the provision of a new guided bus route from Huntingdon (Hinchingbrooke) via Northstowe to Trumpington and Addenbrookes Hospital.  This was seconded by Councillor SM Edwards.

An amendment to this proposal stating the route of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3b

Page 60 A 14 Access.  The Cambridge City Council’s Environment Scrutiny Committee (CCCESC) had proposed that a new sentence be added to CE13/paragraph 2 as follows:

‘Such improvements and satisfactory access arrangements will not include junction improvements to the Fen Ditton junction to improve its capacity’.  It was noted that this had been proposed following a recommendation from the Cambridge East Member Reference Group (CEMRG).  Council had rejected this recommendation at the meeting of 15 April 2005. 

It was proposed by Councillor Mrs DSK Spink and seconded by Councillor SM Edwards that, as a CEMRG recommendation, the statement should be included in CE13.  Council voted as follows: For – 20, Against – 4.  Therefore the proposal was ACCEPTED.

Page 72.  Policy CSF/23.  It was AGREED that the policies relating to the Countryside Enhancement Strategy and the Biodiversity Strategy needed to be compatible with the proposals map.  This would be actioned by officers.  

This was AGREED, subject to amendments agreed earlier. 

This was AGREED, subject to amendments agreed earlier.

Conclusion

Council was informed that when the draft LDF documents were published for public consultation, a monitoring strategy would also be published for consultation.  This would be agreed by the Portfolio Holder.

In addition to extra changes agreed at the meeting and noted above, Council also considered the recommendations of the report entitled South Cambridgeshire LDF: Approval of Draft Documents for Publication for pre-Submission Participation and

i.                     AGREED the proposed changes highlighted in the draft Development Plan Documents as set out in Appendices A, B, C and D to the report;

ii.                   Noted the results of the Sustainability Appraisal   

iii.                  Authorised the draft Development Plan Documents attached in Appendices A, B, C and D for the purpose of public participation

iv.                 Delegated to the Planning Portfolio Holder any material changes resultant from further information and to the Director of Development Services authority to approve any minor editing changes.