The Local Plan for East Cambridgeshire has commenced its final stage of consultation. This is following approval from October’s Full Council meeting to progress the Local Plan without the inclusion of a 720 home site on the edge of Witchford.

The Proposed Submission Local Plan, which has previously been consulted on twice in its draft versions, has moved into its final round of consultation and then be submitted to the Secretary of State for independent examination.

The consultation will run for six weeks and can be viewed on the East Cambridgeshire District Council website as well as reception at the Grange and libraries across the district.

Councillor Coralie Green, Service Delivery Champion for Strategic Planning at East Cambridgeshire District Council, said: “Over the past year we have been able to progress the Local Plan to its final stages. This is credit to the residents that have actively got involved, the members for their time and commitment, and the officers for all their hard work. This is the final phase of consultation before we submit the plan to the Secretary of State and we want to make sure that residents understand the differences this consultation period will have compared to those undertaken before.”

Unlike previous stages of consultation, all comments received in this round are not subsequently reviewed by officers or the Council, but instead are considered by an independent Inspector.

The consultation is open to everybody, including those who have not made any representations to date, but any objections at this stage must be based on one of the ‘tests of soundness’ within the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). This means that an objector must state why the plan is ‘unsound’ and what needs to be done to address the matter. Any objections made at earlier consultation stages are not carried forward to the next stage in the process, so if a resident remains unsatisfied with the Local Plan, they must repeat their objection to be reconsidered.

After the consultation has ended, officers will upload all comments onto the East Cambridgeshire District Council’s consultation portal, publish all evidence base material and submit the Local Plan and associated material to the Secretary of State and Planning Inspectorate. This is scheduled to happen by the end of February 2018

For more information visit https://www.eastcambs.gov.uk/consultations/current-consultations