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Category Archives: Planning

Cottenham Parish Council – Public Meeting Tuesday 1st September

Cottenham Parish Council will be holding a public meeting on Tuesday 1st September at 7.30pm in the Main Hall at Cottenham Village College for residents to attend and comment on the outline planning application by Gladman Development for 225 houses + 70 care homes on land off Rampton Road, Cottenham. The proposal may have a direct impact on neighbouring parishes from the amount of extra traffic generated in peak times. They are keen for residents from other parishes to attend and comment on the proposals.

There will be a brief introduction by the Parish Council along with a Q&A session for residents to put forward their views.

The application can be viewed by clicking on the reference number S/1818/15/OL

 

Darwin Green Development

The local plan examination is underway including this new development south of the A14 set to provide some 3,000 homes.

An article appeared in yesterday’s News regarding feared traffic disruptions for residents in Histon & Impington from this and other significant developments in our area.   The News carries quotes from one of our representatives at the local plan examination, Councillor Brian Ing:

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/New-Waitrose-Cambridge-Supermarket-admits-store/story-26412085-detail/story.html

The Parish Council continues to input on matters of concern to our residents, including highways and drainage issues

 

Neighbourhood plan consultation

We have applied to South Cambridgeshire District Council  to designate the ‘Histon and Impington Neighbourhood Area’ with a view to developing a Neighbourhood Plan.

South Cambs have since responded:

‘Public consultation on this application begins on 4 July 2014. The usual 6 week period has been extended to take account of the holiday period.

The poster shows a map of the proposed neighbourhood area and explains what a neighbourhood plan is. This poster will be displayed in the local area at key locations.

The application by Histon and Impington Parish Council can be viewed on our website on the Neighbourhood Planning page – https://www.scambs.gov.uk/neighbourhood-planning . This link also has more general information about neighbourhood planning.

A copy of the application can also be viewed at South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne or at The Parish Office, Histon and Impington Recreation Ground, New Road, Impington, Cambridge, CB24 9LU.

If you wish to make comments on the area to be designated you can use the online consultation system (http://scambs.jdi-consult.net/ldf/).  You can also write to us by email to neighbourhood.planning@scambs.gov.uk .  If you do not have access to a computer, you can post your comments to the address shown on the poster. Please include your name, address and telephone number so we can keep you informed of the progress of the neighbourhood plan.

Comments must be received by the Council no later than 5pm on 12 September 2014.’

Click here to download a pdf of the poster.

 

Bishop’s site: good news so far

At the South Cambs Planning Committee this morning the Mitre planning application for the development of the Bishop’s site was comprehensively rejected. There was one vote in favour of acceptance and 10 votes against. One member of the committee had left the meeting.

It was a long morning. We were there at 1000 but didn’t get our chance until 1230.  First up was the proposed Cambridge City football ground in Sawston. Officers had recommended rejection because the development would be in the green belt but the committee disagreed and voted for it. Shortly thereafter the committee approved the development brief for the Fulbourn and Ida Darwin Hospitals site in Fulbourn before rejecting, again against officer advice, the outline planning application for the Ida Darwin site.

Then we were on. First Steve Temple spoke on behalf of objectors. Second is usually a speaker from the developer but Mitre declined to participate although it was present in the upstairs gallery. I spoke on behalf of the parish council. Click here to see what I had planned to say. Actually I mistimed it and had to trim the last few paragraphs. Finally Edd Stonham and Neil Davies spoke as ‘local councillors’.

There was then a short debate with interesting comments:

Cllr Kindersley: ‘it seems that this is a development that nobody likes, neither the local community, its councillors nor the parish councillors. It seems that even the developer doesn’t like it because it declined to appear before the Design Review Panel.’

Cllr Clarke: ‘… a tsunami of objection …’

Cllr Hartford: ‘ (another ground for rejection) lack of compliance with the emerging South Cambs Local Plan’.

We were fortunate to be able to refer to such overwhelming local support for rejection and to be able to table two critiques of the design put together for us by local architects Nigel Walter of Archangel (click here) and Jonathan Polley of JPA (click here). I guess this would have been what the plan would have got from the Design Review Panel so it’s not surprising that Mitre declined to appear before it.

It’s not over yet. Mitre has called for an inquiry on the grounds of non-determination and we need to work with South Cambs to ensure that Mitre does not win this round.

 

Histon Station building

There was an article in the Cambridge News last week about the guided bus. A county council officer was quoted in the article implying that the community had lost interest in the station building.

This is not true. As residents will be aware the station building and the adjacent plot are a key part of the input which the Parish Council made to South Cambs in connection with South Cambs’ Local Plan. This area is now ‘zoned’ for mixed commercial/residential development.

The Parish Council is maintaining close contacts with the owners of both plots and relationships with them are good. We will not be surprised by an unwelcome development proposal as we were by Mitre with its plans for the Bishop’s site.

The officer who was quoted has apologised. In a longish email to me he said ‘I was aware of your ongoing interest in the building’s future and your work with the parish council both through our direct contacts and through updates I received from our property section.  I’m happy to acknowledge that and also to make it clear that my reference to Save our Station was not a reference to either you or the parish council.’

 

Bishop’s site: latest …

We last posted about the Bishop’s site after the South Cambs planning meeting of 2 Apr 14. Click here for the news then.

As you can see the expectation was that the Miter proposal would go to the Design Panel in relatively short order. However it did not and it seems that it declined to do so but that it would instead appeal on the grounds of ‘non-determination’. Click here for an explanation of what that means.

However the process must continue and South Cambs is now asking that the application comes back to its Planning Committee at next week’s meeting (Wednesday, 4 Jun 14 at 1000). The Parish council will again be there and will again make the case for South Cambs rejecting the application.

You might think that Mitre’s refusal to attend the Design Panel is:

  • evidence that they think that its design would be thrown out by the experts; and
  • disrespectful of South Cambs and its process.

As I said last time the mood of the meeting seemed to be supportive of the Parish Council and the above must surely reinforce that. However we are not taking anthing for granted and have asked local architects to advise us.

Further supportive comments to this post would be much appreciated.

 

Bishop’s site: decision deferred

It was the Planning Committee at South Cambs today and item number 2 was the Mitre proposal for the Bishop’s site.

There has been considerable community opposition to the proposal and the community was well represented by speakers at the committee. Local resident and windmill owner Steve Temple was followed by Brian Ing on behalf of the Parish Council and then district councillors Neil Davies and Jonathan Chatfield. The third district councillor, Edd Stonham, sent an input by email.

All argued strenuously that the proposal be rejected on the grounds of:

  • an inappropriate design
  • inadequate parking provision
  • inadequate provision of social housing
  • incompatibility with the recently approved Local Plan
  • considerable local opposition.

The mood of the meeting appeared to be moving towards rejection until the idea of running it by a newly constituted design review panel was suggested. This was approved (by about 10 votes to 4) and will result in the proposal coming back to the Committee probably in May.

This is is not terribly good news but it’s not totally bad either. We now need to marshal our arguments for the panel which, by the way, is new, has never met, has no terms of reference and not even any members!

The Parish Council will continue to fight this development, not development on this site per se, just this particular proposal, and to support it in this it would be useful if:

  • as many people as possible could reaffirm their opposition to the Mitre proposal by commenting to this post; and
  • local architects/town planners could come forward to help the Council to build its case.

Click here to go to the file for the Mitre application on South Cambs’ web-site.

 

Our community, our future, our plan

We held the first meeting to get community support  for the proposed Neighbourhood Plan for Histon & Impington last night. Maybe 40 or 50 people turned out on a miserable evening, they shared lots of good ideas and several strong themes.

The idea of a Neighbourhood Plan comes from the Localism Act which gives local groups (including parish councils) a number of rights including that of neighbourhood planning. When we have a neighbourhood plan we will have a roadmap for the future of the village and we will have a statuary planning document against which new development proposals will be tested.

It’s fundamental that a good neighbourhood plan should be developed by the community. The parish council may lead it but most of the input for it must come from the people of Histon & Impington.

Here’s a copy of the presentation which was used to set the scene. Click here for a pdf.


There’s more information about Histon & Impington’s Neighbourhood Plan, Our Plan, at www.hiplan.net

 

Our community, our plan, our future

There will be an open meeting next Thursday, 6 Feb 14, at 1930 in the Community Room at the Rec. We’ll be talking about the Community’s development of a Neighbourhood Plan.

There’s so much happening including South Cambs’ Local Plan and the City Deal that if we don’t step up and take some degree of control we will see the character of our community degraded. The development of a Neighbourhood Plan is the right way to do this.

The meeting will include a short presentation followed by workshop sessions and a final wrap-up. It should run until about 2100.

There’s more information at www.hiplan.net.

 

New website

INCREASING BIODIVERSITY IN THE VILLAGES

Tree across footpath behind Manor Park

Storm Eunice

Christmas Tree Chipping event Saturday 8th January 2021