Agenda item

To consider a report by the Head of Planning Services regarding the partnership working that has taken place between all the Cambridgeshire Authorities as part of the Regional Spatial Strategy Review.

Consideration was given to a report by the Head of Planning Services (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) on progress made by Cambridgeshire local authorities towards completing its response to the request by the East of England Regional Assembly (EERA) for information to inform the Regional Spatial Strategy Review.  Executive Councillors were acquainted with the background to the review and the contents of the draft Cambridgeshire submission.  Following recent discussions on the review by the Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Service Support), the Cabinet adopted a number of principles for responding to EERA, together with a suggestion for testing options for higher growth.

RESOLVED

(a)  that the positive partnership working that has taken place between all of the Cambridgeshire Authorities with regard to developing a co-ordinated response to these fundamentally important strategic planning issues be noted;

(b)  that the on-going assessment work that is being commissioned to consider in more detail the potential environmental capacity and implications of further strategic growth in Huntingdonshire be endorsed;

(c)   that the County Council Cabinet be requested to take appropriate account of the District Council’s statements of support and its stated concerns as set out in Paragraph 4.2 of the report now submitted and to amend the basis of its suggested advice to EERA;

(d)  that the submission of a suitably amended Cambridgeshire position to EERA in response to their request for initial strategic planning advice from the 4/4 Authorities be supported; and

(e)  that the following principles when responding to the EERA proposal be adopted -

  (i)  that the emerging ‘Cambridgeshire Growth Strategy’ is underpinned by a positive commitment to a highly sustainable approach that will both direct policy development and influence the proposed spatial pattern of development;

  (ii)  that the emerging ‘Cambridgeshire Growth Strategy’ principally reinforces and builds upon the established subsequential approach to the direction of further growth within Cambridgeshire;

  (iii)  that the emerging ‘Cambridgeshire Growth Strategy’ acknowledges that there is limited capacity for additional growth above the established RSS levels and therefore that any targets for growth up to 2031 must reflect the lower rather than the higher NHPAU scenarios;

  (iv)  that the emerging ‘Cambridgeshire Growth Strategy’ acknowledges the need to utilise the capacity of, and the opportunities created by, existing and committed transport and other infrastructure provision;

  (v)  that the emerging ‘Cambridgeshire Growth Strategy’ acknowledges the essential needs to co-locate homes with jobs.  As the economic models favour jobs growth in the south of the County and acknowledge the challenges associated with potential job creation in the north of the County, then that is where the majority of new homes need to be located;

(vi)  that the emerging ‘Cambridgeshire Growth Strategy’ recognises that whilst the market towns could sustainably accommodate some further growth, and indeed such growth could aid their regeneration, these market towns do have environmental capacities that need to be respected; and

(vii)  that EERA should test options for higher growth across the whole of Cambridgeshire rather than only in Huntingdonshire.