Decision details

Waterbeach Parish Council is preparing a Neighbourhood Plan and has reached the stage of pre-submission consultation.  Officers have considered the contents of the plan against the basic conditions that all neighbourhood plans are assessed against (these conditions include such matters as general conformity with national planning policy and the policies of the adopted Local Plan).

Through this consideration several comments have been identified.

Cabinet agreed on the 26^th July 2018 that the submission of such comments be delegated to officers at this stage of plan preparation.

The proposed comments include both general and specific matters and are attached at Appendix A.  They include such matters as

• Plan clarity
• Comments on the policies and proposals of the plan itself

The comments are intended to enable the group taking forward the Neighbourhood Plan to consider the need to amend it to improve the likelihood that a NP examiner would be able to recommend that it proceed to referendum and to help ensure that the plan is capable of effective implementation through the development management process.

While there are several comments set out in Appendix A this should not be taken as unhelpful criticism of the plan but rather that officers have identified a number of areas where it could be further refined so that it is successful at examination.

That the Joint Director for Planning and Economic, having liaised with the Planning Lead Member agrees the response to the pre- submission consultation on the Waterbeach Neighbourhood Plan by South Cambridgeshire District Council as set out in Appendix A.

The Council has a duty to support parish councils preparing neighbourhood plans and is keen to support these local communities so that their plan is successful at examination.

The Council could choose to not respond to the pre-submission consultation, but the Council has a duty to support parish councils in their plan-making. If no response is made the parish council would not be made aware of the Council’s view of how some of the policies should be amended so that the Plan will be successful at examination.