Issue - meetings

To consider a report by the Head of Planning Services seeking approval to use the Cambridgeshire Green Infrastructure Strategy as supporting evidence for planning services.

Agreed to the adoption of the Cambridgeshire Green Infrastructure Strategy as supporting evidence for planning purposes.

By way of a report by the Head of Planning Services (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) the Cabinet was invited to consider the contents of the Cambridgeshire Green Infrastructure Strategy which would be used as supporting evidence for planning purposes. The Strategy had been considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Environmental Well-Being) whose comments were relayed to the Cabinet.

Members were advised that the document was an update of the first Green Infrastructure Strategy for the Cambridge sub-region developed in 2006. The new Strategy had been produced by Cambridgeshire Horizons to provide a robust evidence base for funding of green infrastructure through a community infrastructure levy and other sources of funding.  

In discussing the extent of the Strategy, Executive Councillors were disappointed that the Strategy did not refer to the local agricultural industry and concurred with the Panel that food security was of local, national and international concern and should be reflected to a greater extent in the Council’s policy.

Whereupon, it was

RESOLVED

  that the Cambridgeshire Green Infrastructure Strategy be adopted as supporting evidence for planning purposes.

To consider a report by the Head of Planning Services on the Cambridgeshire Green Infrastructure Strategy.

(Councillor N J Guyatt, Deputy Leader and Executive Councillor for Strategic Planning and Housing, was in attendance for this item)

Councillor N J Guyatt introduced a report by the Head of Planning Services (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) informing Members of the terms of a revised Cambridgeshire Green Infrastructure Strategy which it was intended would be used as supporting evidence for planning purposes. The document was an update of the first Green Infrastructure Strategy for the Cambridge sub-region which was developed in 2006. The “Strategic Network” of green infrastructure had been divided into different geographical areas. The areas identified in Huntingdonshire were Huntingdonshire Fens and Woods (including the Great Fen) and Great Ouse. The Strategy would be part of the evidence base informing the Council’s future work on updating its development strategy for the period up to 2036.

The Strategy was supported by the Green Infrastructure Forum and, in light of the demise of Cambridgeshire Horizons, the Panel suggested that the accountability and reporting lines of the Green Infrastructure Forum should be clarified.

An important purpose of the Strategy would be to form a piece of evidence which could be used to help local communities identify local green spaces and to set realistic and meaningful objectives in neighbourhood plans. The Executive Councillor for Strategic Planning and Housing advised the Panel that this would be explained further at the April Council meeting.

The Chairman raised concerns over the Strategy’s lack of reference to the local agricultural industry. He suggested that food security was of local, national and international concern and as such ought to be given higher priority and be reflected to a greater extent in the Council’s policy framework. Having concurred with these views, the Panel

RESOLVED

that the Cabinet be recommended, bearing in mind the primacy of the agricultural sector and its importance to the local and national economy, to endorse the Cambridgeshire Green Infrastructure Strategy as supporting evidence for planning purposes.