Greater Cambridge Local Plan Consultation Statement
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Greater Cambridge Local Plan Consultation Statement First Proposals (preferred options stage) September 2021 Contents 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................ 3 2. Consultation undertaken to date.......................................................................... 4 3. What happens next? ........................................................................................... 9 Appendix A: Report on workshops held in summer 2019 ....................................... 12 Appendix B: Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report – Statutory Consultee Comments ........................................................................................................... 89 Appendix C: Report on the First Conversation consultation 2020 ......................... 105 Appendix D: Report on Autumn 2020 stakeholder workshops .............................. 897 Page | 2 1: Introduction This Consultation Statement sets out how Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council have undertaken consultation, and propose to undertake consultation, in preparing the Greater Cambridge Local Plan. This Statement of Consultation complies with the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 (as amended) and the Councils’ jointly adopted Statement of Community Involvement 2019, which can be viewed here: Statement of Community Involvement. The Statement of Community Involvement sets out how and when we will involve the community and key stakeholders in preparing, altering and reviewing our plans and guidance to guide future development in the city. It also explains how we will involve the community in planning applications. At each stage of the plan-making process we check to ensure that our consultation approach meets the standards set out in the Statement of Community Involvement. The Consultation Statement is updated and re-published at each stage of plan- making. This revision supports the First Proposals (Preferred Options) stage. The diagram below sets out future programmed stages in the plan-making process, as set out in the Greater Cambridge Local Development Scheme 2018 (as updated 2019). At each stage we will check that the process is moving forward positively towards a new Local Plan and, if necessary, we will adjust the timetable. Note about Duty to Cooperate The duty to cooperate is a legal test that requires cooperation between local planning authorities and other public bodies to maximise the effectiveness of policies for strategic matters in Local Plans. The councils have published a separate Greater Cambridge Local Plan Duty to Cooperate Statement of Common Ground is to set out the main areas of common and uncommon ground with relevant partners on strategic cross-boundary matters. This can be found on the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service website. Page | 3 2. Consultation undertaken to date 2.1 Consultation and engagement during 2019, prior to the First Conversation (Issues and Options) consultation 2.1.1 Workshops in summer – autumn 2019 In summer and autumn of 2019, we held a series of Local Plan workshops across both districts of South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge. The purpose of these events was to involve various stakeholder groups to inform preparation of the Local Plan via open and explorative engagement in line with Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Statement of Community Involvement (2019). These workshops provided an opportunity to explain what a Local Plan was, describe the Local Plan process and understand key aspirations for each interest group through identification of challenges and opportunities. The workshops also encouraged attendees to give feedback on previous Local Plan processes. Each workshop involved different interest groups from Greater Cambridge to enable a wide variety of thoughts and ideas to be heard: • Workshop 1 and 2 consisted of elected members from both Councils • Workshop 3 brought together statutory consultees, service providers and other interest groups • Workshop 4 was attended by landowners, developers and agents • Workshop 5 involved representatives from Residents’ Associations and Parish Councils • Workshop 6 was attended by internal officers from both councils • Workshop 7 was a re-run of the Members workshops 1 and 2 • Workshop 8 was attended by Businesses A further workshop was organised by Cambridge Past Present and Future in conjunction with Greater Cambridge Shared Planning, called Keeping Cambridge Special. This followed a different structure to the other workshops and asked different questions, while also outlining the processes, timeframes and key issues of the Greater Cambridge Local Plan. The workshops identified a number of important issues to be considered in the development of the Local Plan, and directly influenced the structure of the First Conversation consultation around seven themes. While the comments showed some consensus as to the key challenges facing the area, diverging views were shared on a number of potential solutions and the implications of different priorities. In particular, issues around the growth and strategy choices highlighted the need to discuss many issues in greater detail as the plan progresses. Many of the points raised in the workshop discussions were incorporated into the First Conversation consultation material. Page | 4 Reflections on the previous Local Plan processes have helped, and will continue to help, inform the preparation of the plan as it progresses, both in terms of plan content and plan process. The Greater Cambridge Local Plan Lessons Learned & Good Practice document cross-refers to the notes of the workshop to inform and reinforce conclusions made within it. Feedback on the workshops has helped to inform how future workshops and other engagement events are run, and the topics which are chosen. A full report on the workshops can be found at Appendix A: Full report on workshops held in summer 2019. 2.1.2 Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report – consultation with statutory consultees prior to the First Conversation (Issues and Options) consultation. In order to meet the requirements of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Regulations, the views of the three statutory consultees (Environment Agency, Historic England and Natural England) were sought in relation to the scope and level of detail to be included in the Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report. The comments received can be found in Appendix B: Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report – Statutory Consultee Comments, and are reported and responded to the in the Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report itself. 2.2 Call for Sites 2019 A Call for Sites is a way for landowners, developers, individuals and other interested parties to suggest sites for development, and to let us know when they may be available for development. This is a normal part of plan making. Government planning guidance advises that, ‘if the process to identify land is to be transparent and identify as many potential opportunities as possible, it is important to issue a call for sites and broad locations for development’. We need to ensure that the sites eventually allocated within the Plan are deliverable which means, among other factors, that the landowner is open to developing it within the required timescales, so a Call for Sites is an important part of finding out what land may be available. An initial Call for Sites was held in 2019 and was publicised via our database of people, organisations and agents who have registered for updates about the Local Plan, in addition to notifying consultees. We also issued a public notice, and publicised via the Councils webpages. We also asked for further sites to be submitted for consideration as part of the First Conversation (Issues and Options) consultation, and for the purposes of this report, all the feedback received from the calls for sites has been collated into the First Conversation reporting. 2.3 First Conversation (Issues and Options) Consultation 2020 The First Conversation formed part of the regulation 18 consultation stage (Issues and Options) under the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012. The purpose of the consultation is to invite broad Page | 5 responses about what should be in the Local Plan, from residents and businesses as well as stakeholders and other organisations. The First Conversation consultation was open for six weeks from 9am on Monday 13 January 2020 to 5pm on Monday 24 February 2020. It invited comments on the main First Conversation (Issues and Options) ‘document’ which was published in a digital format as well as a static pdf and print format. This included the Call for Sites and Call for Green Sites questions. We also consulted on the following supporting documents during the consultation period: • The Sustainability Appraisal of the First Conversation document • The Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report • The Habitats Regulations Assessment Scoping Report The First Conversation consultation used a wide range of methods to publicise and engage communities and stakeholders who had an interest in the Local Plan. The full report on the First Conversation consultation, setting out who was consulted, how, and an analysis of the results, can be found at Appendix C: Full report on the First Conversation consultation The feedback from the First Conversation consultation has directly influenced the development of the First Proposals (preferred options stage) Plan published