Issue - meetings

The Planning Portfolio Holder approved the Memorandum of Understanding between Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council as attached as Appendix 1 to the report from the Planning and New Communities Director.

The Planning Portfolio Holder considered a report seeking his agreement to a Memorandum of Understanding with Cambridge City Council that, as part of the two Local Plan examinations, the housing trajectories for the two areas should be considered together as a joint trajectory for the purposes of housing supply, including 5-year land supply.

The Planning Policy Manager said that such a document would promote a joint strategy focusing on when development was going to take place, rather than where. Such an arrangement would help both Cambridge City Council, whose Local Plan envisaged more development in the early part of the Local Plan period, and South Cambridgeshire District Council, where development was expected to be concentrated in the later years. The effect of a joint trajectory would be to balance out the numbers of new dwellings throughout the Local Plan period, and thus make sure that both Councils were able to demonstrate a five-year housing land supply.

The Planning Policy Manager reported that the Joint Strategic Transport and Spatial Planning Group had recommended that the Memorandum of Understanding be adopted.

The Planning Portfolio Holder welcomed the fact that the same Planning Inspector would be examining the draft Local Plans of Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council, and said that it was important to be able to send out a clear message to developers. He added that there was a definite benefit for both Councils to work together in this instance and that, in the meantime, speculative applications would still have to go through a rigorous process, despite the District Council’s policies having been deemed “out of date” by virtue of it not being able, for the time being, to demonstrate a five-year land supply.

The Planning and New Communities Director reported that officers had sought Counsel’s Advice, and been informed that such a Memorandum of Understanding, though never tried before, was unlikely to be dismissed by an Inspector. Counsel had also endorsed the Council’s decision not to challenge the two recent Appeal decisions in Waterbeach.

Councillor David Bard was hopeful that the Memorandum of Understanding would succeed, given the relatively high number of major developments currently taking place and in the pipeline.

The Planning Policy Manager explained that the Memorandum would be reviewed every five years to make sure the joint approach remained robust and realistic, and announced that the ‘City Deal’ committed Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council to developing a joint Local Plan from 2019 onwards.

The Planning Portfolio Holder approved the Memorandum of Understanding between Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council as attached as Appendix 1 to the report from the Planning and New Communities Director.