2.6 Rest of Rural Area (P122)

The Plan states that ‘We want our rural villages to continue to thrive and sustain their local services, but we don’t want to encourage lots of new homes in places where car travel is the easiest or only way to get around.’

As per the above, in terms of ensuring that rural villages ‘thrive’ we consider that the plan should be proactive in allocating some of the anticipated growth in the region to these village locations. Where development is considered important to contribute to the vitality of a village location, it is important that is it assessed against a series of criteria. Transportation will be an important factor in any such consideration obviously but in terms of sustainability this should not be the sole consideration. Equally, it should be recognised that village locations do still have access to bus facilities and this should be factored in consideration of any site. Indeed one key reason for managed growth in village locations is to further support and safeguard existing bus services.

Recommendation: The Plan must acknowledge the benefits of allowing a proportion of the plan period growth in rural areas and should proactively promote sites such as Long Lane, Fowlmere as appropriate locations for future development well placed to benefit from existing bus services and support the local community.