Agenda and minutes

 

Name	Item	Interest
Councillor Blackhurst	13/32/DPSSC	Personal: Member of Trumpington Resident’s Association.
Councillor Blencowe	13/32/DPSSC	Personal: Chair of YMCA Football Club.
Councillor Price	13/32/DPSSC	Personal: Member of RSPB and Wlidlife Trust.
Councillors Price & Ward	13/32/DPSSC	Personal: Member of Conservators of the River Cam.
Councillors Reid & Saunders	13/32/DPSSC	Personal: Member of Cambridge Past, Present & Future.
Councillors Saunders	13/32/DPSSC	Personal: Member of Cambridge Cycling Campaign.

 

The Cambridge Local Plan – Towards 2031 Appendix documents are too large to attach to the agenda in hard copy format. All documents are published on the Council’s website:

 

(i)       Main report and Appendices B, C & D are attached to the agenda document.

 

(ii)      Appendices A, E & F are accessible via the following hyperlink (please copy all lines as the address is split over several):

 

https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/public/ldf/localplan2031/may2013dpssc/part2/

Matter for Decision

The Officer’s report concerned the full composite version of the new Cambridge Local Plan to be known as the Cambridge Local Plan 2014.

 

Development Plan Scrutiny Sub-Committee has on various occasions considered and commented on individual draft sections of the new Plan,  and  the  final  sections  to  be considered  appear  earlier  on  the agenda for this meeting.

 

The report presented the complete version of the Plan for consideration at this meeting, prior to Environment Scrutiny Committee on 11 June, and thereafter, to Full Council.

 

If  Full  Council  approves  the  Plan,  it  will  be  published  for  a  form  of public  consultation  in  which  anybody  may  lodge  formal representations. Environment Scrutiny Committee and Full Council will  consider  those  representations  in  early  2014  and  it will  then  be submitted  to  the  Secretary  of  State  for  public  examination  by  an independent planning inspector. 

 

Decision of Executive Councillor for Planning and Climate Change

       i.          Agreed  the  composite  version  of  the  full Cambridge  Local Plan subject  to  any  changes  recommended  by  the  Development  Plan Scrutiny Sub-Committee, for consideration by Environment Scrutiny Committee on 11 June and Full Council on 27 June  (including  the endorsement  of  the  Cambridgeshire  and  Peterborough Memorandum of Co-operation).

     ii.          Recommended  to  Environment  Scrutiny  Committee  and  Full Council  that  the Plan  is  approved  for  the  purposes  of  publication under Regulations  19  and  20  of  the  Town  and Country  Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012.

   iii.          Agreed  that any amendments and editing  changes  that need  to be made to the Local Plan (and associated Sustainability Appraisal and  other  appendices)  versions  put  to  Environment  Scrutiny Committee and Full Council be agreed by the Executive Councillor in consultation with the Chair and Spokesperson.

 

Reason for the Decision

As set out in the Officer’s report.

 

Any Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

Not applicable.

 

Scrutiny Considerations

The Committee received a report from the Head of Planning Services regarding the Cambridge Local Plan.

 

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

 

1.       Mr Mead’s representations covered the following issues:

 

      i.          The green belt to the south of Cambridge had lost a high percentage of some flora and fauna since 1945.

    ii.          The green belt needed to be protected to protect the habitat of birds, animals and insects, particularly important ones.

 iii.          Birds nested away from housing. Moving housing (ie building more) would push birds further away.

  iv.          The development of the green belt set a bad precedent that should only occur in exceptional circumstances.

 

The Head of Planning Services said the biodiversity of Worts Causeway had been considered in Officer recommendations. She referred to local Plan Section 3.

 

In response to Members’ questions the Executive Councillor for Planning and Climate Change, Head of Planning Services, Head of Strategic Housing, Principal Planning Policy Officer, Senior Planning Policy Officer and Planning Policy & Economic Development Officer said the following:

 

       i.          Since the last DPSSC, Dixon Searle Consultants had undertaken research that showed developments of under ten properties could viably provide affordable housing and meet their likely obligations under the Community Infrastructure Levy. Further research was required and would be brought back to DPSSC at a future date. This should set out the threshold for seeking affordable housing and identifying those circumstances when a commuted sum would be acceptable.

     ii.          The Council was exploring flexibility regarding occupiers’ right to buy with Central Government.

   iii.          Housing Co-operatives were not specifically mentioned in the Local Plan, but were in the Affordable Housing Supplementary Planning Document.

   iv.          The Senior Planning Policy Officer undertook to do a health check of planning issues and what policies should apply.

 

Section 5

    v.          Policy 44 would be revisited to prevent unintended loss of housing.

   vi.          Policy needs to be objective, rather than being too prescriptive. It should refer to quantifiable facts such as scale and mass, rather than subjective areas such as fusing old buildings with new.

 

Section 6

 vii.          Houses that fell outside of sui generis usage needed to be licensed as homes in multiple occupation (HMOs).

viii.          Applications for HMOs would be judged on their merits, taking environmental health comments into account.

   ix.          Space requirements were in-line with other authorities.

    x.          Referred to amendment sheet page 3.

 

Section 7

   xi.          Letter boxes required under this policy would have to be accessible from the street.

 

Section 8

 xii.          Policy 73d-g is robust enough (with its supporting evidence base as set out in Appendix A of the Officer’s report) to demonstrate strategic leisure needs. Provision would be assessed as individual planning applications came forward. The Council had a Retail and Leisure Strategy.

xiii.          All sites were tested through the issues and options paper against criteria agreed by the members. Sites that did not meet the criteria were dropped, although they may have been listed as possible sites in the 2006 Local Plan and further stages of the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) process. For example, the Abbey Stadium.

xiv.          Previous planning policy referred to different grades of hotels, whereas new policy encouraged high quality hotels (ie not budget ones).

xv.          Reiterated planning policy was to provide general guidance, individual planning applications would reviewed on a case by case basis to judge viability.

 

Councillor Herbert formally proposed an amendment to the text of paragraph D of Policy 77: Development and Expansion of Hotels: To delete the words “suitably located”.

 

The Committee resolved unanimously to endorse the amendment.

 

Appendix F

xvi.          Officers undertook to check if Local Plan Policy 5 would aim to retain industrial areas on Kings Hedges Road for industrial use.

 

The Committee resolved by 3 votes to 0 to endorse the recommendations.

 

The Executive Councillor approved the recommendations.

 

Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Executive Councillor (and any Dispensations Granted)

No conflicts of interest were declared by the Executive Councillor.