Greater Cambridge Local Plan and call for sites – what happens next?
Sponsored feature | Katy Klingopulos, legal director, BDB Pitmans
Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council have combined forces to develop the Greater Cambridge Local Plan. The Local Plan is a strategy which shapes how land should be used to provide homes and places of work, and how the planning system can support this, over the next 20 years.
As part of the consultation, the councils issued a ‘call for sites’. This was an invitation to landowners, developers and promoters to make the councils aware of sites which might be suitable for development. Over 650 sites have now been submitted across the area (details can be viewed at greatercambridgeplanning.org ) which could provide up to 200,000 homes and nearly six million square metres of offices, logistics, retail and other space.
It is important to note that out of these sites, not all will be suitable for development and the councils will now look at each site in more detail to assess whether it might be included within the Local Plan. As part of this investigation they will consider a number of factors, such as ecology, transport access and landscape impact, and they will also be considering where land should be protected as green space.
The councils will consult further on any sites they propose to include within the Local Plan and none of these sites have preferable planning treatment purely as a result of having been submitted.
This is the first time the two councils have worked together to produce a joint Local Plan to cover the larger area and this should be welcomed. A joined-up plan is important to be able to create a coherent strategy to show where housing should be built and how people can move sustainably between where they live and where they work. It is also important to show how the Greater Cambridge area can contribute to the Cambridge-Oxford Corridor and this Local Plan will be vital to this contribution.
Katy Klingopulos is a legal director in the commercial real estate team at BDB Pitmans based in Cambridge. Contact katyklingopulos@bdbpitmans.com or visit bdbpitmans.com .
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