Greater Cambridge Local Plan: Proposed Submission

This is the response from Whittlesford Parish Council to the Greater Cambridge Local Plan Regulation 19 Consultation. As per our previous comments, the Parish Council supports the overall ambition to plan for growth but considers that the scale and phasing of development proposed in Rural Southern Cluster area is not currently aligned with deliverable infrastructure, particularly transport, water supply and community facilities. As such, the Parish Council is not satisfied that the draft Plan meets the test of soundness in that respect.
The proposed plans will have detrimental impact on both the existing and new communities.
Whittlesford Parish Council urges the Greater Cambridge Planning Service to strengthen the Local Plan by aligning development scale and phasing with deliverable transport and water infrastructure, addressing cumulative impacts across the Rural Southern Cluster, ensuring that Whittlesford Parkway Station is properly planned as a strategic transport hub, and securing tangible public benefits through site-specific policies.

The Parish Council remains concerned about the cumulative impact of multiple large-scale allocations within the Rural Southern Cluster. Taken together, these proposals will place significant pressure on strategic roads, village streets, health services and water resources.

The Plan’s objective to reduce reliance on the private car must be grounded in realistic alternatives and infrastructure delivered in advance of development. Water availability should be treated as a fundamental constraint on growth rather than an assumed future solution. Again, the Parish Council feels that the Draft Plan is not sound in its approach to the Rural Southern Cluster.

Whittlesford Parish Council urges the Greater Cambridge Planning Service to strengthen the Local Plan by aligning development scale and phasing with deliverable transport and water infrastructure, addressing cumulative impacts across the Rural Southern Cluster, ensuring that
Whittlesford Parkway Station is properly planned as a strategic transport hub, and securing tangible public benefits through site-specific policies.

This is the response from Whittlesford Parish Council to the Greater Cambridge Local Plan Regulation 19 Consultation. As per our previous comments, the Parish Council supports the overall ambition to plan for growth but considers that the scale and phasing of development proposed in Rural Southern Cluster area is not currently aligned with deliverable infrastructure, particularly transport, water supply and community facilities. As such, the Parish Council is not satisfied that the draft Plan meets the test of soundness in that respect.

The proposed plans will have detrimental impact on both the existing and new communities.

The proposed allocation of a new settlement of approximately 4,500 homes represents development on an unprecedented scale in the southern area of the District. As the Council noted in its response to the Regulation 18 consultation, the proposed settlement would create by far the largest settlement in the area and would have profound impacts on the A505 corridor and surrounding villages, including Whittlesford. Although the number of homes in the proposed settlement have been reduced, the Parish Council still feels that inadequate safeguards in respect of transport mitigations are included in the Plan.
The A505 already experiences severe congestion, with peak-hour queuing extending to M11 slip roads. The draft Plan does not demonstrate how this additional traffic can be accommodated or include a policy requirement for improvements to the A505 sufficient to cope with the increased volume of traffic that a new settlement would create. While the Cambridge South East Transport (CSET) scheme may improve access to the Biomedical Campus, it does not address west–east movements, through-traffic or access to the wider strategic road network from the development, notably the M11. The assumption that private car use can be significantly reduced from the outset of a rural settlement of this size is unrealistic and risks significantly increasing congestion with no mitigation.
The Parish Council still considers that major highway infrastructure must be treated as a prerequisite to development. This should include a substantial upgrade of the A505 and the delivery of M11 Junction 9 as a full all-ways junction. These interventions must be secured and substantially delivered before, or at the very earliest stages of, development and crucially secured through policy requirements in order for the plan to meet the test of soundness.

The Council is also concerned that the policy does not adequately address water supply and wastewater capacity. This part of the region is already seriously water stressed, and no clear, deliverable strategy is set out to demonstrate how growth at this scale can be supported within realistic infrastructure timescales.

Whittlesford Parish Council urges the Greater Cambridge Planning Service to strengthen the Local Plan by aligning development scale and phasing with deliverable transport and water infrastructure, addressing cumulative impacts across the Rural Southern Cluster, ensuring that Whittlesford Parkway Station is properly planned as a strategic transport hub, and securing tangible public benefits through site-specific policies.

This is the response from Whittlesford Parish Council to the Greater Cambridge Local Plan Regulation 19 Consultation. As per our previous comments, the Parish Council supports the overall ambition to plan for growth but considers that the scale and phasing of development proposed in Rural Southern Cluster area is not currently aligned with deliverable infrastructure, particularly transport, water supply and community facilities. As such, the Parish Council is not satisfied that the draft Plan meets the test of soundness in that respect.
The proposed plans will have detrimental impact on both the existing and new communities.

We appreciate the amendments made from the draft Local Plan following the Regulation 18 consultation however they do not go far enough.
Whittlesford Parkway is a mainline station serving Cambridge, London and Stansted and is a key transport asset for the Rural Southern Cluster. The Parish Council supports the designation of a policy area but considers that the policy significantly underestimates future demand and, as currently drafted, failed to recognize the reality of the policy area.
Passenger through the station numbers will increase as a result of growth across the Cluster, the opening of Cambridge South Station (with no car parking), nearby employment development and future East–West Rail services. Despite this, the station lacks step-free access between platforms, lifts or ramps, and suffers from periodic flooding affecting access.
Parking pressure already impacts Station Road East, which is both a residential road and the location of industrial units. The policy does not provide a clear strategy for managing increased parking demand or for addressing constrained access at Station Road East, West Royston Road and Moorfield Road. It is important that the policy recognized the residential element of Station Road East and that vehicular access to houses for residents is maintained and resident parking facilities.
The Parish Council notes that step-free access to the station now forms part of the draft policy. The Council requests that improved platform connectivity via a lift, enhanced cycle links to local villages, a deliverable commitment to increasing public transport links to the station and village, a clear parking and access strategy that protects residential amenity, and measures to address flooding and highway safety are included.
Whittlesford Parish Council urges the Greater Cambridge Planning Service to strengthen the Local Plan by aligning development scale and phasing with deliverable transport and water infrastructure, addressing cumulative impacts across the Rural Southern Cluster, ensuring that
Whittlesford Parkway Station is properly planned as a strategic transport hub, and securing tangible public benefits through site-specific policies.

This is the response from Whittlesford Parish Council to the Greater Cambridge Local Plan Regulation 19 Consultation. As per our previous comments, the Parish Council supports the overall ambition to plan for growth but considers that the scale and phasing of development proposed in Rural Southern Cluster area is not currently aligned with deliverable infrastructure, particularly transport, water supply and community facilities. As such, the Parish Council is not satisfied that the draft Plan meets the test of soundness in that respect.
The proposed plans will have detrimental impact on both the existing and new communities.

The Parish Council supports the principle of a policy framework for the Former Spicers Site but considers that it should be strengthened to deliver clear public benefits and to reflect the site’s relationship with Whittlesford, Sawston and Shelford.
The policy refers to access to the A1301 but does not adequately address access to Whittlesford Road.
The Council strongly supports the inclusion of high-quality walking and cycling infrastructure as a core requirement of this policy. The policy should explicitly require safe and direct routes connecting the site to Whittlesford village, Whittlesford Parkway Station, and a dedicated cycleway along Shelford-Whittlesford Roads, connecting the site to Little Shelford and improving active travel connectivity between Whittlesford and Shelford.
In addition, the policy should encourage public access across the wider site for walking, cycling and informal recreation, where compatible with development, to ensure that the site is integrated with surrounding communities rather than functioning as an isolated enclave.
Whittlesford Parish Council urges the Greater Cambridge Planning Service to strengthen the Local Plan by aligning development scale and phasing with deliverable transport and water infrastructure, addressing cumulative impacts across the Rural Southern Cluster, ensuring that Whittlesford Parkway Station is properly planned as a strategic transport hub, and securing tangible public benefits through site-specific policies.

This is the response from Whittlesford Parish Council to the Greater Cambridge Local Plan Regulation 19 Consultation. As per our previous comments, the Parish Council supports the overall ambition to plan for growth but considers that the scale and phasing of development proposed in Rural Southern Cluster area is not currently aligned with deliverable infrastructure, particularly transport, water supply and community facilities. As such, the Parish Council is not satisfied that the draft Plan meets the test of soundness in that respect.
The proposed plans will have detrimental impact on both the existing and new communities.

The Parish Council notes the draft plan policy that 40% of housing on larger sites, where viable, should be ‘affordable’. The Council also notes that the majority of affordable homes are for social or affordable rented tenure under existing and planned policy. The Parish Council supports the aspiration for affordable housing as defined in planning terms.
However, there is a need to develop effective strategies to tackle the root cause of housing unaffordability which is the high price of housing for sale. Policies to promote affordable housing in the sense of affordable market sale, particularly through the increased provision of one and two bed starter homes for market sale, would begin to tackle the fundamental problem with housing affordability in our area.

In this context it is notable that the viability study supporting the draft plan envisages that only 35% of new market -sale homes will be one or two bedrooms, compared to 55% of modelled new affordable housing.

Whittlesford Parish Council urges the Greater Cambridge Planning Service to strengthen the Local Plan by aligning development scale and phasing with deliverable transport and water infrastructure, addressing cumulative impacts across the Rural Southern Cluster, ensuring that
Whittlesford Parkway Station is properly planned as a strategic transport hub, and securing tangible public benefits through site-specific policies.