Purpose

1.   
Stapleford and Great Shelford Parish Councils are
preparing a Neighbourhood Plan and has reached the stage of
pre-submission consultation (Regulation 14 in the national
guidance).  At this stage it is the
responsibility of the parish councils to carry out a public
consultation on the neighbourhood plan for their area. We
congratulate the Neighbourhood Plan team and recognise the hard
work has been put into the preparation of this plan for Stapleford
and Great Shelford by the parish councils and local
community.
 

2.   
Officers have considered the contents of the
Stapleford and Great Shelford Neighbourhood Plan against the basic
condition tests that all neighbourhood plans are assessed against
by an independent examiner (these tests include such matters as
general conformity with national planning policy and the policies
of the adopted Local Plan).
 

3.   
Through this consideration several comments have
been identified.
 

4.   
Cabinet agreed on the 26th July 2018 that
the submission of such comments be delegated to officers at this
stage of plan preparation.
 

5.   
The proposed comments include both general and
specific matters and are attached at Appendix A. 
 

6.   
The comments are intended to enable the group taking
forward the Neighbourhood Plan to consider the need to amend it to
improve the likelihood that an Independent Examiner would be able
to recommend that it proceed to referendum and to help ensure that
the plan is capable of effective implementation through the
development management process.
 

7.   
While there are several comments set out in Appendix
A, we hope that these comments are seen, not as unhelpful criticism
of the plan, but rather a genuine attempt by officers to support
the Neighbourhood Plan team by identifying a number of areas where
the plan could be further refined so that it is successful at
examination. We wish the parish councils well for the next steps in
the plan making

Content

That
the Deputy Director for Planning having liaised with the Lead
Cabinet Member for Planning agrees the response to the pre-
submission consultation on the Stapleford and Great Shelford
Neighbourhood Plan by South Cambridgeshire District Council as set
out in Appendix A.

Reasons for the decision

The
Council has a duty to support parish councils preparing
neighbourhood plans and is keen to support these local communities
so that their plan is successful at examination.

Alternative options considered

The
Council could choose to not respond to the pre-submission
consultation, but the Council has a duty to support parish councils
in their plan-making. If no response is made the parish councils
would not be made aware of South Cambridgeshire District
Council’s view of how some of the policies should be amended
so that the Plan will be successful at examination.