In the proposed settlement hierarchy policy (S/SH), Steeple Morden is classified as a ‘Group Village’, with the definition retained from the previous South Cambridgeshire Local Plan as below.
“Group villages are generally less sustainable locations for new development than Rural Centres and Minor Rural Centres, having fewer services and facilities allowing only some of the basic day-to-day requirements of their residents to be met without the need to travel outside the village. All Group Villages have at least a primary school and limited development will help maintain remaining services and facilities and provide for affordable housing to meet local needs.”
Given the above definition of a Group Village, it is agreed that this is the correct place within the hierarchy for Steeple Morden to be located. However, the settlement does have a good provision of services and facilities within the bounds of the settlement, removing some of the requirement for residents to leave the settlement and providing a range of businesses and facilities that are well-placed to meet day-to-day needs.
Steeple Morden can be considered a fairly sustainable settlement within Greater Cambridgeshire, and as such is capable of facilitating a portion of the housing need. The current wording of the policy restricts the amount of development in Group Villages to 8 dwellings, but in exceptional cases up to 15 dwellings. Capping the amount of development permitted in a settlement without providing an assessment on an individual basis of the sites, could be severely limiting to the enhancing or maintaining the vitality of rural communities as is set out in Paragraph 79 of the Framework.
The PPG reiterates that a wide range of settlements, such as those with the characteristics illustrated at Steeple Morden, can play a role in delivering sustainable development in rural areas. The blanket policies seeking to restrict (through strictly defining arbitrary levels of acceptability in terms of scheme size) housing development in some types of settlement as those advocated by the ‘First Proposals’ consultation proposals are not supported by robust evidence of their appropriateness as required by the PPG (ID: 67-009-20190722).
This is furthered as policies should look to identify opportunities to allow villages to thrive and grow. Limiting this to the provision of 8 dwellings per scheme in the case of Group Villages could prevent additional facilities being provided and arbitrarily limits the potential social and economic benefits of new residents’ utilisation of existing services and businesses. The policy would also not comply with Paragraph 78 of the Framework, which requires policies to be responsive to local needs. For example, given the threshold to seeking contributions towards affordable housing from major development only this means that over the course of the plan period Group Villages will not provide any affordable housing.
Removing the limit of how many dwellings a site in a Group Village may suitably provide would enable each site to be considered on its own merits. This would enable an objective assessment of the contribution of the scheme to the needs of the settlement and as appropriate enable its sustainable growth and vitality.