Archive for category: News

Greater Cambridge Local Plan – First Proposals

For those interested in what planners are thinking about in the coming years, there is a website being set up to explain the detail of the Greater Cambridge Local Plan. Go and have a look! Below is the introduction:

Greater Cambridge has a strong and nationally important economy. Over recent years, jobs have been created faster than new homes have been built, and this has contributed to higher house prices and increased commuting into the area. Our new development strategy aims to meet our increased need for new homes in a way that minimises our environmental impacts and improves the wellbeing of our communities.

We anticipate than an average of 1,771 homes per year will be built in our area during the Plan period. Our evidence shows that we need to plan for about 550 more homes per year in order to meet our need for housing. Our strategy proposes 19 additional sites for development, along with sites already in our adopted 2018 Local Plans, in order to meet this housing need. Alongside this we will plan for the business space, supporting community facilities, green spaces and infrastructure to meet the needs of our growing communities.

We propose to direct development to where it has the least climate impact, where active and public transport is the natural choice, where green infrastructure can be delivered alongside new development, and where jobs, services and facilities can be located near to where people live.

Our vision is for the well known characteristics of the historic core of Cambridge to be complemented by active, compact neighbourhoods – new and old. This means providing opportunities to regenerate areas that aren’t yet reaching their potential, and creating new city neighbourhoods which have the critical mass of homes, jobs and services to create thriving communities, making best use of brownfield and safeguarded land.

Alongside this, we want our new towns to mature into great places to live and work, making the most of their existing and planned public transport links to Cambridge and other centres. In the case of Cambourne, East-West Rail means that it will be one of the best-connected places in our region, and whilst things like the location of the new station are yet to be resolved, we do think it can develop into a more substantial town with a more fully developed and lively centre.

We want our rural villages to continue to thrive and sustain their local services, but we don’t want to encourage lots of new homes in places where car travel is the easiest or only way to get around. We therefore propose some development in and around larger villages that have good transport links and services, and to support important employment clusters. In smaller villages, we’ll continue to support infill development and affordable housing on suitable sites, but we do not propose lots of village growth.

Last week police in Cambridgeshire  arrested 22 people and seized drugs, cash and weapons as part of a crack down on county lines drug dealing and exploitation.

The national intensification week took place between 11 and 18 October and saw officers execute 12 warrants and intercept vehicles potentially involved in county lines activity.

Four drug dealing lines were also dismantled using funding from the National County Lines Co-Ordination Centre.

County lines is the means of transporting illegal drugs from major cities like London and Birmingham into other areas, like Cambridge and Peterborough. Children and vulnerable adults are often used to transport them, often at great risk to their own safety.

As a result of investigations carried out by Cambridgeshire Police across Cambridge, St Ives, St Neots, Peterborough and Wisbech, 17 people were arrested for drugs-related offences and a further five went on to be charged.

Class A drugs including crack cocaine and heroin were seized as well as cannabis, cash and mobile phones. Weapons including knives and a taser torch were also seized.

A number of potential cuckooed addresses, where drug dealers take over the home of a vulnerable person in order to use it as a base for dealing, were also visited.

Throughout the week officers were also speaking to hotel, bank, taxi and bus staff about spotting the signs of people being exploited by county lines. Neighbourhood officers also held talks at local schools to discuss the issue with young people.

You can read more about the week of action here.

Detective Chief Inspector Chris O’Brien
County Lines force lead

Tara Dundon (Police, Comms officer, Corp comms)

Parish News

Reminder that the Annual Parish Meeting is Thursday evening 21st October at the Village Hall. 7:00 pm for 7:30 pm start. Agenda is posted on both the notice boards and the web. All welcome.

Apologies for the late notice, the Parish Council has just been notified of the OxCam Arc spatial framework consultation process. The government is currently consulting on “Creating a vision for the Oxford-Cambridge Arc”. This government initiative has the potential to affect any parish within Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

For information, the link to the Vision consultation is here: Creating a vision for the Oxford-Cambridge Arc – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

This consultation period  closes at 11:45pm on 12 October 2021.

Barton’s Big Litter Pick

A huge thank you to all the volunteers who gave their time over the weekend to help with the ‘Big Litter Pick’.

Over the course of the weekend, we had good turnout of volunteers; a mixture of young and old (and their pets) giving their time to clean up the village. In total 8 bags of rubbish were collected by the end of the weekend including crates, polystyrene boxes, bottles, cans, gloves and disposable face masks. It was great to see so many people out and about caring for our environment.

We would like to give special thanks to South Cambridge District Council who provided the loan of all the equipment and arranged the collection of the waste bags on Monday morning.

See you again in the spring.