Agenda item

The Lead Cabinet Member for Planning and the Planning Policy Manager presented the new Local Development Scheme (LDS) for Greater Cambridge, which would be presented to Cabinet for adoption subject to the adoption of the South Cambridgeshire Local Plan.  The adoption of the LDS would guide the preparation of a new jointly prepared Local Plan for Greater Cambridge and a jointly prepared Cambridge Northern Fringe Area Action Plan.

The committee was informed that the Council was required to keep an up to date Local Development Scheme on the website at all times. Exact timing would become clear as work progressed.

The committee discussed the report and comments raised by Members included the following:

·         How the LDS fed into transport infrastructure with regards to Highways England’s plans was queried. The committee was informed that this would be an issue for when the new Local Plan was developed. It was anticipated that there would be a lot of engagement with members regarding this, which would provide the opportunity to discuss and explore issues. Officers highlighted that they were trying to give the Council the flexibility to create the plan it wanted to create.

·         The potential governance arrangements for developing the new Local Plan were discussed. The model that had been used and that had worked well to develop the previous Local Plan, would be used to develop the new Local Plan with separate governance arrangements. In response to some concern raised over the potential for the two councils to work in isolation while developing their aligned plans in parallel, officers provided assurance that the councils had worked well together in developing their previous plans and that separate governance arrangements had not been a contributing factor to how long it had taken to get the Local Plan approved. Decisions would be taken at key stages by full Council with officers meeting through a joint working group in the run up to key stages of decision making.

·         How the Combined Authority would feed into the new Local Plan development process depended on the governance arrangements that were agreed. Legislation did not make reference to how the Combined Authority could feed into governance arrangements.

·         Concern regarding the interdependencies of projects was raised. Reassurance was sought that some of the deliverables were pinned down along with trigger dates.

·         The committee was informed that in relation to the Northern Fringe Area Action Plan, the relocation of the water treatment works was a significant dependency for some of the development in the action plan. A bid to the Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) to relocate the water treatment works, had been successful at the first round. A final decision on this was expected around April 2019. The Northern Fringe Area Action Plan needed to have advanced significantly in order to help the success of the HIF bid.

·         The committee was informed that the development on the Northern Fringe was significant and additional to the assumptions that had already been made in the Local Plan. This would help to contribute to the longer term needs of the district.

The Scrutiny and Overview Committee recommended to Cabinet that following the adoption of the South Cambridgeshire Local Plan:

a)    The new Local Development Scheme for Greater Cambridge, prepared joint with Cambridge City Council, is adopted, which confirms the intention to prepare:

(i)    A joint Local Plan for Greater Cambridge, comprising the administrative area of both Councils,

(ii)   A joint Cambridge Northern Fringe Area Action Plan, for the area shown in the Local Development Scheme which when adopted, will form part of the development plan for Greater Cambridge; both prepared under Section 28 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act with separate democratic processes to agree both plans, informed by a joint member advisory group;

b)    The Joint Director of Planning and Economic Development is granted delegated authority, in liaison with the Deputy Leader, to make any editing changes identified prior to publication.