Who Decides Cambridge’s Future

Who Will Plan Cambridge’s Future?

James Littlewood, Chief Executive of Cambridge Past, Present & Future

Will it be locally elected politicians? Or regionally elected politicians? Or unelected ‘experts’? And will you have any say at all about what happens to the place where you live?

Under government proposals, the system for planning and developing greater Cambridge is set to change radically. From one in which locally elected politicians make the decisions, informed by the views of local people and expert officers. To one in which decisions will largely be made by unelected experts and distant politicians with little say given to local people. From one in which a local plan sets out what’s best for Cambridge, to a one-size fits all national approach. The government believes this will speed things up. It’s questionable whether it will, but even if that proved to be the case, will the resulting development be what the people of Cambridge want or need?

There are several moving parts, and its not clear they are all moving in the same direction, so bear with me:

Firstly, our three local councils will be abolished and turned into a large new one. This is much needed and will simplify things and bring all planning powers into one organisation, making planning speedier. The new council will start in 2 year’s time. There is currently a consultation running until 26 March asking for your views on which councils are merged and the area it will cover. www.gov.uk/government/consultations/local-government-reorganisation-in-cambridgeshire-and-peterborough

Secondly, the government is making changes to national planning policy. Amongst the myriads of changes, you might want to know that this will mean:

• more planning decisions made by officers rather than your elected representatives.
• less say for you on planning decisions, the government would like that you only had a say at a very early and strategic stage in the planning process (by the way, that’s the stage that most people miss).
• strategic planning powers will be given to regional mayors (in our case that’s currently Paul Bristow) and they will decide the amount of development that will be planned for.
• one-size fits all national policies. For example, our councils are currently setting high standards for water efficiency, energy efficiency and biodiversity but these would be replaced by lower national standards meaning we would get worse development (genius!).

There is currently a consultation running until 10 March. Any right-minded citizen ought to object on the grounds that it is reducing their ability to influence the development of the place where they live and is unlikely to result in better outcomes for greater Cambridge. We have written an article on the proposed changes with help and advice on how you can respond – click here.

Thirdly, the government is proposing to take control of most of the planning of greater Cambridge, in the national economic interest, and to set up a new organisation to do this (the Greater Cambridge Development Corporation). Not only will this mean unelected experts making the decisions, but it would mean we would have three planning authorities (the council, a development corporation and a mayor). Hang-on a minute, I hear you say, isn’t the first change supposed to mean having fewer layers of local government, not simply abolishing some and replacing them with others? Exactly. Could it be that the left arm of government doesn’t know what the right arm is doing? There is a consultation running until 1 April asking for your views on the government taking control of Cambridge’s planning. If you don’t think that’s a good idea, let them know at www.gov.uk/government/consultations/establishing-a-development-corporation-in-greater-cambridge

Each of these three proposals is complex and the implications of some of them are not spelt out in the consultation material. For example, the Greater Cambridge Development Corporation would lead to a two-tier planning system in which the lower tier had been robbed of its resources by the corporation, resulting in a worse planning service for Cambridge’s smaller developments, many of which will impact things like our world class heritage or changes to your property. You won’t find any mention of that in the consultation.

I would strongly encourage you to respond to the three consultations, and/or write to your MP.

If you are not sure what to say about the Development Corporation will will be writing an article on this by 20 March.