We are delighted to report that our villages’ Neighbourhood Plan has today been submitted to the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning team.
Neighbourhood planning gives communities a role in the development and future of their local area. The Stapleford and Great Shelford Neighbourhood Plan does this for the whole of our combined parish area over the period to 2041. Its 21 planning policies have been created on behalf of Stapleford and Great Shelford Parish Councils by a volunteer group of residents and parish councillors and shaped by three periods of community and stakeholder engagement from 2022-24. Thank you to the hundreds of residents who have provided input and encouragement along the way.
Our Plan’s policies span multiple topics which you told us are important to you: housing; climate change and biodiversity; our rural setting and landscape; community amenities and infrastructure; active travel; traffic movements; and countryside access.
This isn’t about stopping development; it’s about saying what we want and need from development. It’s about this community having a say in its future. And since big plans are afoot for our wider area, it really could not be more timely.
Greater Cambridge Shared Planning will shortly organise a final consultation on the Plan. Comments from this will be sent with the Neighbourhood Plan to an independent examiner early next year. If the Plan passes examination, it will return to residents for a yes/no referendum. A majority of ‘yes’ votes will see it given equal weight to the Local Plan and National Planning Policy Framework when decisions are made about all planning applications – big and small – coming forward in our parishes.
You can find out more about our Neighbourhood Plan at www.greatshelfordparishcouncil.gov.uk/SGSNPlan and catch up with progress bulletins at www.greatshelfordparishcouncil.gov.uk/sgsnplan/sgsnplan-latest-news/.
