The introductory text to this section sets out that Greater Cambridgeshire “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.” However, by severely limiting the amount of development in rural areas this risks having the opposite effect with business not able to thrive without the additional influx of new residents. There is a balance to be struck which enables more services to be provisioned in Group Villages that would mean that both future and existing residents are not required to travel elsewhere which would create a more sustainable community that is less car reliant. This can only sustainably be achieved whilst retaining the rural identity of the area by not unduly restricting the amount of development in these localities.
Within this context Paragraph 105 of the Framework sets out that “opportunities to maximise sustainable transport solutions will vary between urban and rural areas”. As such a presumption against development on the sole premise of lack of access to sustainable modes of transport is not in accordance with the Framework.