Greater Cambridge Local Plan Issues & Options 2020

Response to Question 2 2.1 Land south of Barley Road is considered suitable, available and deliverable for residential development, to be best delivered through an allocation within the emerging Greater Cambridgeshire Local Plan. The Site has been previously submitted to the Greater Cambridgeshire Call for Sites consultation process (2019), with no material changes in the Site to effect its appropriateness for residential allocation since. The Call for Sites representation is appended to this representation at Appendix B. 2.2 The Site is located south of Barley Road on the western edge of Great Chishill, and extends approximately 1.5 hectares and comprises arable farm land. The Site is bordered by hedgerow on all boundaries, and a small narrow strip of the site borders the adjacent properties to the east, off Barley road. 2.3 The existing access is taken off Barley Road from a strip of land in between the existing settlements on Barley Road, at the eastern edge of the Site. The existing access point could be used or alternative access could be taken off Barley Road toward the western edge of the Site. 2.4 The Site sits outside of, but adjacent to, both the settlement boundary of Great Chishill and the Great Chishill Conservation Area. 2.5 The rural village of Great Chishill is located in South Cambridgeshire and is surrounded by agricultural land. It is a small village but with amenities including The Pheasant Pub, Great Chishill Nursery and St Swithun’s Church. 2.6 Saffron Walden is situated 8 miles east of Great Chishill, and Royston is 5 miles west. Royston has a train station with connections to Cambridge and London Kings Cross. The village also benefits from bus links to Cambridge, Newport and Saffron Walden, all of which stop directly outside the Site. 2.7 The Site is available for development, as confirmed through the landowner’s intent to bring forward the site for residential development in the short term in the early years of the plan period. A letter from the Chelmsford Diocesan Board of Finance – Appendix C of this Report – confirms the Site is vacant and wish for Strutt & Parker to promote the Site through the emerging Greater Cambridgeshire Local Plan. 2.8 The Site is considered suitable for development as is subject to minimal constraints, or if wish can be appropriately mitigated. 2.9 The Site falls within Flood Zone 1 and is therefore has the lowest probability of tidal or fluvial flooding and is therefore suitable for all types of development from a flood risk perspective. 2.10 The Site falls just outside of the Great Chishill Conservation Area, and there are several designated heritage assets within 1km of the Site. The size of the Site presents a good opportunity to provide lower density development with areas of open space and landscaping integrated. This provides opportunity to ensure the setting of any heritage assets within the locality is protected. Such an approach can also be used to ensure there is no undue impact on the wider rural landscape. 2.11 Given the existing pattern of development, which is predominantly ribbon development, the Site lends itself to contribute to a logical extension to the existing frontage along Chishill Road to the north. The well-established boundaries of the Site provide a strong form of containment. 2.12 The Site represents a logical extension to the village to provide proportionate scale growth which will help sustain the vitality of this community over the plan period. 2.13 Where necessary technical evidence can be provided to support the Site’s deliverability as the Local Plan Review progresses. 2.14 The Site is also considered achievable, and is not subject to any known legal or ownership obstacles to its development.

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2.15 The Greater Cambridge Issues and Options consultation has prioritised four themes in order to best steer and deliver sustainable growth across Greater Cambridgeshire throughout the plan period. The key themes are:  Climate Change  Biodiversity & Green Spaces;  Wellbeing & Social Inclusion; and  Great Places. 2.16 The inclusion of ‘Climate Change’ as a key theme is supported, especially against the backdrop of increasing importance and weight attached to addressing climate change through the planning system, as supported by paragraph 148 of NPPF: “The planning system should support the transition to a low carbon future in a changing climate, taking full account of flood risk and coastal change. It should help to: shape places in ways that contribute to radical reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, minimise vulnerability and improve resilience; encourage the reuse of existing resources, including the conversion of existing buildings; and support renewable and low carbon energy and associated infrastructure.” 2.17 Paragraph 149 of the NPPF advises that plans should take a proactive approach to mitigating and adapting to climate change. Policies should support appropriate measures to ensure the resilience of communities and infrastructure to climate change impacts. Impacts such are intense and frequent extreme weather events such as floods, heatwaves and droughts are likely to become more frequent. 2.18 The inclusion of Climate Change as a theme at the Issues and Options stage is supported, where it should be carried forward as a key theme and policy principle through the emerging Local Plan process for Greater Cambridgeshire.

2.19 Ensuring a sustainable spatial strategy is critical to the soundness and deliverability of an emerging Local Plan, making sure suitable levels of growth are distributed appropriate throughout the administrative boundary, including more remote rural communities. 2.20 It is important that the spatial strategy does not steer disproportionate levels of growth towards towns and cities at the expense of established rural communities. Ensuring rural settlements do not become isolated, with increasing percentages of older people residents and dwindling services must be a focus of good growth. 2.21 It is pivotal that the existing communities are strengthened through the provision of new development and infrastructure to support them. Beyond that new settlements and communities should be provided to provide the required housing to meet surplus needs that cannot be met within existing settlements. By focussing new housing provision in existing settlements, where capacity permits, and simultaneously including the local community within discussions through various means of consultation and interaction, new development can introduce a wider mix of demographic populations to sustain the vitality of prosperous rural settlements.

2.22 Section 16 of the NPPF relates to conserving and enhancing the historic environment. Paragraph 185 particularly refers to plan-making and how plans should set out a positive strategy for the conservation and enjoyment of the historic environment, with a key consideration being the “desirability of new development making a positive contribution to local character and distinctiveness”. 2.23 Local Planning Authorities in the preparation of a new Local Plan should therefore consider closely the opportunities for new development to have a positive impact on the historic environment, and capitalise on opportunities to improve and enhance a settlement’s historic fabric. 2.24 There is an opportunity for the emerging Local Plan to allocate small to medium sites that can accommodate lower density development and higher quality build design that will relate positively to the historic environment whilst supporting sustainable growth in rural locations. More localised policies can then ensure these sites are appropriately designed through the Development management process. 2.25 A residential allocation at land to the south of Barley Road has the opportunity to deliver sympathetic development that compliments the historic fabric of Great Chishill through high quality, low density development with a focus on a high standard of design in accordance with the NPPF.

2.26 As per the NPPF, the Planning Practice Guidance and the Planning Inspector’s Report on the South Cambridgeshire Local Plan (2018), the Greater Cambridge Local Plan should meet housing needs through the development of small scale sites, such as those land south of Barley Road, as well as large strategic sites. 2.27 The NPPF concludes at paragraph 68 that “Small and medium sized sites can make an important contribution to meeting the housing requirement of an area, and are often builtout relatively quickly.” This can be achieved by ensuring allocation of a higher number of small to medium sized sites, and avoiding focusing solely on large strategic allocations, helping to speed up the delivery of homes. 2.28 Additionally, the Planning Practice Guidance identifies the need to consider a range of sites for development, including small scale sites in villages and towns. Indeed, the Planning Practice Guidance expressly calls for strategic planning policies to recognise the particular challenges faced by rural communities, including in respect of housing supply and housing affordability. It confirms that a wide range of settlements can play a role in delivering sustainable development, and cautions against blanket policies which restrict development in certain types of settlement. 2.29 As set out elsewhere in this representation, but to reiterate, it is important to ensure that new homes are provided to support all of the area’s communities, and that development is not solely focused on larger settlements.

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2.30 Paragraph 35 of the NPPF sets out that Local Plan should seek to meet the identified housing need as a minimum, with sufficient flexibility to be able to respond to rapid change (NPPF paragraph 11). 2.31 Therefore, whilst it is not a requirement to exceed the minimum identified housing need, planning for a higher number of homes over the plan period will help to ensure the emerging Local Plan has sufficient flexibility to respond to rapid change and provide additional housing to accommodate any surplus housing need resulting from the growing economy. 2.32 This is reflected within the Greater Cambridgeshire Issues and Options consultation under section 4.6.3 (The need for new homes). The standard method is said to indicate a need for 1,800 homes per year, or 40,900 homes over the plan period for Greater Cambridgeshire however this number could be far exceeded. The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Independent Economic Review (CPIER) suggests that if the projected job growth is achieved this would create an additional housing need of 1,100 homes a year (2,900 in total). This would equate to a new housing need of c. 66,700 homes over the plan period. 2.33 The need for additional housing to compensate for this surplus is clear: “Making the additional provision that would provide flexibility to support our potential economic growth suggests identifying sites for around an additional 30,000 homes in the next Local Plan.” (Greater Cambridgeshire Issues and Options 4.3.6 (6)) 2.34 Providing for additional housing growth can be easily captured through small to medium sites that can deliver modest levels of sustainable growth in the short term, and are therefore best placed to respond to rapid shifts at the macro level such as change in market signals and a rise in employment growth as a result of the planned infrastructure delivery over the plan period.

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2.35 There is a regional and national importance associated with the sustainable growth and development of Greater Cambridge’s economy and housing market, both to assist in meeting its own development needs over the plan period, but also its role as an integral part of key cross-boundary structures and initiatives such as the Oxford-Cambridge Arc; the London-Stanstead-Cambridge corridor; and the Cambridge-Norwich corridor. 2.36 With Greater Cambridgeshire playing a major role in delivering the homes needed to meet the ambitious target of building 1 million homes by 2050 between Oxford and Cambridge, and the critical mass and scale of infrastructure to be delivered in tandem, a large proportion of housing growth will be infrastructure led. 2.37 Whilst it is accepted that this scale of delivery is a longer term overarching strategy which will span over two plan periods (assuming the new greater Cambridgeshire Local Plan carries forward its suggested plan period up to 2040), over-reliance on larger scale development to meet the assessed need can lead to shortfalls of delivery in the short term. There is then a risk too much reliance is placed on the latter stages of the housing trajectory towards the later years of the plan period with few too homes being built in the short term. 2.38 It is therefore important to ensure there is sufficient flexibility within the spatial strategy to deliver sufficient housing numbers across all years of the plan period, and to ensure the sustainable growth of existing settlements where there is appropriate capacity. 2.39 Directing some growth towards the edge of sustainable villages is supported, and assists in balancing proportionate growth across Greater Cambridgeshire. The direction of a proportionate level of growth to smaller settlements is necessary to ensure the vitality of such communities is supported, and as such is an essential ingredient of a sustainable strategy. Villages such as Great Chishill are well placed to accommodate additional growth, capable of delivering small to medium (and larger) scale sites that can be built out contributing to more responsive delivery rates within the early years of the plan period. 2.40 It is key a balance is achieved between planning for larger scale, strategic infrastructure led growth of appropriate critical mass to meet the development needs of Greater Cambridgeshire over the plan period, with more immediate, short term growth on the edge of thriving rural villages helping to sustain their vitality.

2.46 We are supportive of growing the villages throughout Greater Cambridgeshire as an important part of the spatial strategy within the emerging Local Plan. Indeed, we do not consider that a strategy for growth could be considered sustainable without it supporting the proportionate growth of Greater Cambridgeshire’s villages. Furthermore, such an approach is necessary to ensure the Local Plan is consistent with national policy. 2.47 We agree and support with the advantages of spreading new homes and jobs out to the villages, as set out within the Issues and Options Consultation Document. These include helping to sustain existing facilities and infrastructure in the village; and helping to provide for a diversity of population in the village. 2.48 The Issues and Options document (5.3.5) sets out a number of challenges to growing villages:  Can result in increased commuting by car, and travel to access to services and facilities, particularly if the village is away from main transport corridors.  Small sites are unlikely to significantly contribute to improvements to infrastructure so services capacity within or accessible to a particular village is important.  Potential impact on village character needs to be considered.  Some of the larger better served villages are surrounded by the Green Belt. 2.49 Despite the above challenges, national policy clearly shows that there is a need to balance these with the need for sustainable growth in rural communities. There is an increasing acute housing need in rural communities, and it is fundamental that this is recognised and forms part of the spatial strategy for any new Local Plan. Ensuring the strategy captures the development needs, particularly housing need, across Greater Cambridgeshire is a key objective within the NPPF: “To support the Government’s objective of significantly boosting the supply of homes, it is important that a sufficient amount and variety of land can come forward where it is needed, that the needs of groups with specific housing requirements are addressed and that land with permission is developed without unnecessary delay.” (paragraph 59). 2.50 A key tranche of any housing need is in rural communities, with the NPPF recognising the fundamental role planning has in supporting and sustaining rural housing, in that for rural areas planning policies and decisions should be responsive to local circumstances and support new housing that is reflective of local need. 2.51 Paragraph 79 of the NPPF further emphasises this role: “To promote sustainable development in rural areas, housing should be located where it will enhance or maintain the vitality of rural communities. Planning policies should identify opportunities for villages to grow and thrive, especially where this will support local services. Where there are groups of smaller settlements, development in one village may support services in a village nearby.” 2.52 The NPPF also acknowledges the potential limitations of rural communities and areas not well served by public transport in delivering sustainable growth, and recognises that in order to meet community needs in more isolated rural settlements a balance needs to be struck between accessibility and rural vitality. 2.53 As referred to earlier in this representation, a careful approach to the proportion of larger scale strategic delivery against sustainable growth to existing villages and settlements is key, in order to achieve a blended approach to the spatial strategy. With this in mind sustainable growth in rural villages and communities forms an essential part of delivering a sound spatial strategy, with growth towards villages such as Great Chishill supported.

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2.41 The spatial strategy should take a balanced approach to the distribution of development, providing a blended approach to the location of growth between larger scale strategic priorities, and sustainable growth around the edges of villages and settlements. 2.42 This type of approach is supported as set out in the Cambridge & Peterborough Independent Economic Review (CPIER) (2018) which recommends a ‘blended spatial strategy’ built upon different scenarios for development. One of which includes ‘Dispersal’ which, according to CPIER, will help in: “Bringing new homes and jobs to towns and villages where populations are ageing could bring new life into them” (page 40). 2.43 It also sees the benefits of providing appropriate levels of ‘Fringe Growth’ and development around ‘Transport Corridors which promote the necessary expansion of thriving cities and maximising accessibility and employment opportunities for residents respectively. 2.44 It is therefore most appropriate that rather than use of a blunt approach to ranking development into a rigid hierarchy (by way of listing preferred locations of new development), that a spatial strategy and distribution of a new Local Plan best reflects the strategic objectives and pressures across Greater Cambridgeshire by providing a flexible blended approach to delivery. 2.45 With this in mind, particular emphasis should be on suitability and appropriateness of steering acceptable levels of growth towards existing villages, with villages such as Great Chishill well placed to accommodate new development. New development in these locations will also serve to support local businesses and services, helping to ensure they remain sustainable, attractive places to live