Object

Representation ID: 9509

Received: 27/07/2022

Respondent: Colmworth Parish Council

Agent: Troy Planning + Design

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

1.1. CPC considers Policy DS3(S) Amount and timing of housing growth to be unsound as it is unjustified and ineffective as set out below.
Oxford-Cambridge ‘Joint Declaration’
1.2. Policy DS3(S) states that the Local Plan will make provision for a ‘minimum of 27,100 dwellings’ between 2020 and 2040. This equates to an average of 1,355 dwellings over the plan period. This is an increase of 385 dwellings on average per annum (a 40% increase) compared with the adopted Local Plan 2030 which has a requirement of 14,550 dwellings between 2015-2030 (970 dwellings per annum average).
1.3. Whilst paragraph 4.7 of the Local Plan explains that the housing requirement is a result of the Council following Government policy and guidance on housing requirements namely the Standard Method, the Council first states in the Local Plan that the 40% increase in housing is a result of the ‘Oxford-Cambridge Joint Declaration’1:
“…the Council will make provision for significantly more homes as described in the Arc joint declaration. It will do this as a result of government’s new standard method for calculating housing need, which it will deliver in full, and which results in an uplift of 40% when compared to the locally-calculated housing growth planned for in the Local Plan 2030, and by allocating sites that will continue to build out beyond the 2040 plan end date.”
1.4. However, there have been a number of rumours that the Arc may no longer be going ahead. This could also be evidenced by its absence in the Levelling Up and Regeneration White Paper2 and the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill.
1.5. There are a number of local media and trade press stories on this including an article in the Cambridge Independent (27th April 2022)4 which states:
1 The Oxford-Cambridge Arc – Government ambition and joint declaration between Government and local
partners (2019)
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/799993/O
xCam_Arc_Ambition.pdf
2 Levelling Up and Regeneration White Paper (February 2022)
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/levelling-up-the-united-kingdom
3 Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill (11th May 2022) https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/58-
03/0006/220006.pdf
4Oxford-Cambridge Arc confusion: Has the project really been ‘flushed down the toilet’? Cambridge Independent
(27th April 2022) https://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/news/oxford-cambridge-arc-confusion-has-theproject-
really-been-9251669/

“One of the partners in the Arc’s development, Robbie Owen, head of infrastructure planning and government affairs and Pinsent Masons, said his understanding was that the spatial framework would no longer be going ahead.”
“Cllr Herbert (Cambridge City Council) also said East West Rail could be at risk, but said he hoped the different partners in the Arc discussions would continue to
work together.”
1.6. For BBC to base its housing requirement figure on a Joint Declaration for a project that appears to be in serious doubt could result in a Local Plan with an increase of 40% housing without the accompanying strategic infrastructure required to support the housing.