Today the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service published the results of the Call for sites and the outcome of the First Conversation Issues & Options Consultation that took place earlier this year
The “Call for sites”is the first stage in the statutory process of creating a local plan. Publishing it to the public ensures the plan making process is transparent and helps identify as many potential opportunities as possible.
Landowners submitted around 600+ sites of varying sizes across the district last year and also earlier this year. For the first time in the history of the district, the council also made a Call for Green Sites. These sites have not yet been assessed or filtered in any way, and therefore have NO PLANNING STATUS.
The Call for sites list is a wish list of potential sites that may be used in the plan making process. Landowners and promoters have literally thrown in everything they have and the kitchen sink, in the hope that something will pass the test. It is akin to throwing a pot of spaghetti at the wall and hoping something will stick.
This Call for sites is a process government expects local planning authorities to follow in preparing local plans. It also expects councils to publish the list in the interest of transparency and keeping residents informed. The release of sites was done at this stage of the last local plan back in 2011 and so is not new.
Following on from the feedback and comments received from the public during the Issues & Options First Conversation which took place in January and February this year, there will now be a democratic process between the district council and local people of working out and deciding which of the spatial strategies will be selected for providing jobs and homes affordable for people in the district whilst meeting our zero carbon and sustainable living objectives.
This is another point where we will be deviating from the way in which the current local plan was created. There will be this interim step of deciding the preferred spatial strategies with local people before deciding on a draft local plan
However please note that as in previous plan where only a small number, less than 10% of the 400+ sites submitted for that Call for sites were selected, we envisage that only a very small number of sites on this list will be used in the plan. Meanwhile, the Council is gathering evidence on transport, jobs, housing numbers, water availability, zero carbon and biodiversity implications.
There will be further consultations with the public later in the process to present and discuss the preferred spatial options. Until then, absolutely none of these sites has any planning status.
You will find the information and explanations on the council website at https://www.scambs.gov.uk/responses-published-to-the-emerging-local-plan-first-conversation/