MPM Properties (TH) Ltd and Thriplow Farms Ltd’s are promoting land off Lodge Road, Thriplow for residential development, and in our other representations has requested that the site is allocated in the emerging GCLP.

Thriplow is defined as a Group Village in the settlement hierarchy for South Cambridgeshire. MPM Properties (TH) Ltd and Thriplow Farms Ltd agrees with the status of the village because it contains a good range of services and facilities. While MPM Properties (TH) Ltd and Thriplow Farms Ltd agree that the Settlement Hierarchy needs to have a cascade arrangement which prioritises growth at the most sustainable locations, the emerging policies retention of the standardised dwelling limit of 8 dwellings (or 15 dwellings on previously developed sites) for all Group Villages is considered to be overly simplified and ineffective. If the needs of the local communities are to be satisfied the Settlement Hierarchy needs to be better informed by evidence and where justified, more flexible in its approach.

The inclusion of a dwelling threshold limit within the Settlement Hierarchy implies that there are available sites within the boundaries of Group Villages that can deliver developments of 8 or 15 dwellings. Given the settlement boundaries of most Group Villages have not changed in many years, there is, in reality, many cases where available and suitable sites able to accommodate meaningful development within village boundaries do not exist. Given the GCLP is not seeking to allocated sites within or on the edge of most villages, essential infrastructure such as the delivery of affordable housing is very unlikely to be delivered. The needs of local communities are as a result, unlikely to be met over the plan period.

To ensure the needs of local communities are known, understood, and positively planned for, MPM Properties (TH) Ltd and Thriplow Farms Ltd consider a capacity assessment should be undertaken of all Villages in South Cambridgeshire to determine which potential housing sites might be deliverable or developable during the plan period to 2041, and the number of dwellings that might be delivered from each of those sites. If it becomes evident that available and/or suitable sites do not exist within the settlement limits to meet local housing need, that information should be used to inform the need for additional allocations on the edge of the village boundary.

Once that capacity assessment has been undertaken, it is considered that a more flexible approach to the scale of development within Group Villages is then needed. Rather then adopting housing limits that cannot be exceeded, MPM Properties (TH) Ltd and Thriplow Farms Ltd consider that those limits should either be deleted or described as being “indicative limits” that can be exceeded where sustainable development can/will occur, and where justified by site specific/local considerations.

Requested Change

It is requested that a capacity assessment is undertaken of all villages in South Cambridgeshire to determine which potential housing sites might be deliverable or developable during the plan period to 2041, and the number of dwellings that might be delivered from each of those sites. That evidence should then be used to identify if additional sites need to be located within or on the edge of villages.

It is also requested that the site size limit for each category of village are either deleted or marked as being indicative so that where opportunities exist to deliver sustainable forms of growth, the policy is sufficiently flexible to enable that to happen.