Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies.

No declarations of interest were made.

The notes of the meeting held on 10 March 2022 were noted by the Committee.

Representatives from the police team, Leigh Brown and Alice Bennett presented the Neighbourhood Profile for June 2022.

A member of the public asked a question about nuisance moped delivery drivers in the city centre.  Members of the committee raised issues of road safety, street begging, drug taking and large events on the central open spaces.

Following discussion on the issues raised the police noted the following areas for focus for the next period:

Anti-social behaviour on green spaces eg Jesus Green;

Road safety focussing on delivery mopeds and scooters, particularly in the city centre and central open spaces;

Street begging and;

Supporting the new (police campaign) expected on drugs with focus on frequent users and the night time economy

Officers from the Greater Cambridge Partnership will give a presentation on the consultation seeking views on how to best manage and mitigate impacts of the scheme on the landscape and environment.

Public consultation is open until 11 July 2022 www.greatercambridge.org.uk/c2c-eia

The Committee received a presentation on the GCP consultation.  A member of the public asked a question regarding the number of diesel buses that may use the C2C busway.  The officer replied that the buses would be at least of Euro 6 standard as a minimum which are able to be used in designated Clean Air Zones (eg. as London).  But it should be noted that an Environmental Impact Assessment would be undertaken as part of the statutory processes.

Discussion took place on how the junction with Grange Road and the (current access) road to the Rifle Range would work, noting a large tree would be required to be taken down.  The officer noted that the current plan was for between 6-10 buses an hour.

The committee thanked the officer for the presentation.

The committee received a presentation from the GCP.

Members asked the following:

What would be the next steps following the consultation?

Would an equalities impact assessment be undertaken?

The officer responded by stating that the GCP would consider the responses to the consultation in December 2022 and make recommendations to the County Council early in 2023.  There would then be a second round of consultation on the next steps and prioritisation for the network-overall the implementation would take many years to complete.  The County Council had taken on board lessons learnt during the closures approved during the pandemic and would ensure more significant and earlier engagement with local communities and siakeholders.

The GCP had commissioned Access for All a charity to audit the proposals, in addition to an EQIA which would be produced.

Cllr Nethsingha stated that the end result must not be that those who live on the major routes have a worse impact (to now) whilst others benefit disproportionally-and the impact assessment would be a key tool in helping to assess that.

The committee thanked the officers for the presentation.

Members of the public asked a number of questions, as set out below.

1.      A member of the public raised the following:

When will the draft South Newnham Neighbourhood Plan be reviewed by officers?

Cllr Holloway replied that the South Newnham Neighbourhood Forum had been working on a revised draft of their neighbourhood plan after a meeting with officers in October 2019 where an earlier draft was discussed, and comments sent to them.   The forum had now asked to meet with officers to discuss their latest plan.  From experience with other groups preparing neighbourhood plans the officers had found it invaluable to have an opportunity to read a draft plan before such a meeting and had asked the forum to share with officers their latest draft.  Officers had not yet received it but once received a meeting will be arranged to offer officer comments.   

When will the South Newnham Neighbourhood Forum be designated?

Cllr Holloway continued that the Council had received the application from the forum to be redesignated and were currently carrying out a six-week public consultation on the application as is required by the national regulations governing neighbourhood planning.  The consultation ends on 5pm on 21 June. Following this officers would prepare a report setting out the comments received during the consultation and whether the forum should be redesignated. The decision will be made by Cllr Katie Thornburrow as the Executive Councillor for Planning and Infrastructure. The national regulations require that this decision must be made within 13 weeks of the consultation beginning – 9 August 2022. It is anticipated that a decision would be made well before this date.

Shouldn’t large scale developments like Queens’ College Owlscroft be paused until the Forum can act as statutory consultee again in order not to undermine the draft Neighbourhood Plan?

Cllr Sweeney replied stating that a draft neighbourhood plan only begins to have weight in determining planning applications once it has been formally submitted to the Local Planning Authority. The South Newnham Plan has several stages to go before it can be submitted to Cambridge City Council. The draft Plan will have to have a Strategic Environmental Assessment and Habitats Regulation Assessment screening; a six-week public consultation will have to be carried out by the forum followed by a review of the policies in the Plan. It is only after these stages that the Plan can be submitted to Cambridge City Council along with other supporting documents.  The current draft Plan would not have any weight in determining the Queen’s College application. The role of the forum is to prepare a neighbourhood plan.