Agenda item

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 28 January 2015 as a correct record. 

The Northstowe Joint Development Control Committee authorised the Chairman to sign, as a correct record, the Minutes of the meeting held on 28 January 2015, subject to the following:

Minute 5 - Northsstowe Phase 2 Consultation responses

Delete, from the fourth paragraph, the passage:

“…Gill Ashby referred to the duty of care that Longstanton felt towards Northstowe. During the first few years, Northstowe residents would be paying a precept to Longstanton Parish Council, which would be responsible for providing those community facilities not catered for in the Phase 1 Legal Agreement under Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.  Northstowe Phase 1 would double the number of people reliant on “outdated” facilities in Longstanton, and money should be made available to the Parish Council so that it could improve them.  In response to a question, Gill Ashby said that the facilities needing improvement were all in Longstanton, there being no equivalent facilities envisaged as part of Northstowe Phase 1, Lessons must be learnt from the development of previous New Settlements. Gill Ashby undertook to identify the kind of facilities needed and to liaise with Council officers.”

And substitute the following:

“…Gill Ashby made the following statement:

“Having looked at the Phase 2 plans and given our feedback we would like to draw the Committees  attention to the following which we feel is a serious problem.

Longstanton Parish Council take very seriously our  duty of care to Northstowe as it is in our Parish and will continue to be in our Parish. We certainly want the best for Northstowe and to see it become an amazing place to live.

Residents will be paying their precept to Longstanton and we are sure will be expecting something for that money.  The District Councillor and County Councillor for Longstanton will also be the Councillors for Northstowe as it is in Longstanton Parish.

So it was with interest this morning when listening to the Chair on Radio Cambridgeshire that you said, “Throughout the build out of Northstowe we are committed to providing enough facilities to meet the needs of the growing population”

Because we noted that in the Phase 1 section 106 agreement there was nothing included that could help Longstanton provide any community facilities for Northstowe. Phase 1 will have small community facilities within the primary school but these have already been allocated to health services and a possible mother and baby group and are a temporary measure as they will be taken back when the school needs them for its growth. There is no other community facility planned that we can see.  The Sports Centre is also not a social hub  it would appear to be changing rooms, showers and toilets for the sports areas  and is not expected to be built until the final stages.

The needs of Northstowe are much more than this. A community space where people can meet, facilities for older children, teenagers young adults. Older parents, single people, the elderly. What are they all going to be doing? How are they going to build a Community?

Longstanton has very outdated facilities that will also not be able to cope or provide these things. We are looking to upgrade these so we can provide a social centre with facilities for Longstanton residents and also Northstowe residents as they are in our Parish and therefore  should there not be something in the Phase 2 106 agreement to help here.

We note that in the Trumpington Meadows 106 agreement the multi use flexible community centre was made available for the residents of Trumpington and Haslingfield as it sits in those two Parishes. So we feel that money should be made available for Longstanton to provide its duty of care to its new residents.

The numbers of Phase 1 will double our current population of Longstanton and not taking into account the early stages of 3500 houses of Phase 2. Longstanton has approx. 1300 houses.

So Councillors and Officers, if you are to build an amazing New Town we really should be looking at what we think we are providing.

By taking into account what previous new builds have not provided from the outset.  We can learn from this published data and advice from the people who worked on and live in these developments.”