Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council are working together to create a joint Local Plan for their combined districts – the Greater Cambridge Local Plan.
Public consultation on the First Proposals for the Plan is now open and will run until 5pm on 13 December 2021. We are all invited to respond.
The local plan outlines what will be some very significant changes for Cambridge in the long term with the population of the area almost doubling. The HPERA committee and FECRA have grave reservations about this. Most local councillors are supporting this growth on the grounds that it will help the housing crisis, but the reality is that is is about growth and profit. The number of new jobs, and thus new people, will increase by more than the amount of affordable new housing so it will make the housing crisis much worse. Bear in mind that 50,000 new jobs could mean 100,000 new people as many employees will have families and children who will not be employed.
There is a lot of rhetoric about new developments being 'high quality', 'green' and 'sustainable', but these words are often worthless. The sort of development we are seeing right now in North East Cambridge is none of these things. There are grounds for scepticism that the facilities, green space and transport infrastructure will materialise on the scale which is needed for both new and existing residents. Our view is that councillors really need to get a grip on the situation by controlling developers more assertively and not volunteering for even more growth than the government is asking for.
Please visit the Local Plan webpage to find out how to explore the proposals and how to comment. Paper copies of the First Proposals can also be consulted at some Council offices and libraries around the area. There will be a number of online and in-person events during the consultation period, where planning officers will be available to answer questions, starting with an introductory event on 4 November 12pm-1pm. Join via Zoom, passcode 164536.
As your Residents' Association, we will be attending the quarterly Forum meetings and will be able to raise issues there too.