Objection is raised to the Settlement Hierarchy approach set out in the South Cambridgeshire Local Plan. The restriction on housing numbers for smaller settlements, such as group villages which limits development to 8 to 15 homes, reduces the scope for the recycling of underutilised sites and buildings and predicates the amount of development that could be achieved through windfall development. As a result, not being able to utilise such sites will lead to the needless release of undeveloped greenfield land, some of which is Green Belt.

It is therefore recommended that the proposed limit of housing for settlements identified in the hierarchy should be reviewed with a view to increasing the development threshold, and should not be a mandatory requirement but instead serve as a guide, with the relative sustainability of the site/settlement providing a basis for increasing the development threshold of a site. Such an approach would place sustainability at the heart of decision taking and ensure that development opportunities are not needlessly inhibited by a negatively conceived blanket policy approach.

Meldreth is an example of a settlement which will suffer as a result of the Settlement Hierarchy approach advocated. It is classed as a group village, which means that the draft Local Plan imposes a maximum scheme size of 8 dwellings, or 15 dwellings if the site represents the best use of a brownfield site. However, the settlement contains farm buildings such as Bury Farm that are within/contiguous with the settlement and boasts excellent public transport infrastructure and connectivity to major employment. In this regard, the settlement has exceptional access bus services and railway services, which provides access to Cambridge in 17 minutes, or London St Pancras in approx. 60 minutes. Additionally, a large existing commercial site neighbours the settlement which means sustainable living and travel patterns can be enhanced with commensurate housing to align with the jobs and infrastructure that already exist.