I strongly support the increase in green infrastructure, which seems wholly beneficial, especially in terms of creating wildlife and walking corridors. All the items on the list in the policy outline are of interest.
However, there are questions around how this will be embedded and upheld within the planning process. For example, current plans for the Northeast Cambridge development fall short of Natural England’s Accessible Natural Greenspace Standards, which suggest provision of 100 hectares of green space for a development of this size, even if current plans meet Cambridge Local Plan Standards.
The decision NOT to “restrict development within respective green infrastructure strategic initiative areas” is understandable, but it seems to leave a lot of ‘wiggle room’ for allowing development which could overwhelm creation of this new green infrastructure. How will the councils “ensure that design development in these initiative areas contributes to delivering long-term priorities”? This is very vague language in terms of what will be permitted and the ambition for these ‘priority initiatives.
As with policy BG/BG, the worry is that developers will opt to deliver off-site benefits. How can we be sure that contributions secured for off-site net gain will “allow us to invest in these projects and not somewhere further afield?