Cambridge’s Mayor calls for single plans

The Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough has called for a single planning strategy for the county.

Under the devolution deal for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, the elected mayor was not given powers to draw up a spatial framework unlike in other areas like Greater Manchester. However, Mayor James Palmer, who was elected to the post two years ago, told delegates at the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority that there is a ‘common understanding’ that the county’s local planning system is ‘not fit for purpose’.

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He said: “It’s easier for developers if there is a single environment strategy across the areas. We should make it as easy as possible to develop with a single set of rules.”

On plans for an east to west rail line to Oxford, the Mayor described the Government’s belief that it can relieve South Cambridgeshire’s transport problems as ‘naive’.

The Combined Authority’s proposal to run the route of its mooted metro system from St Neots to Cambridge along the A428 would deliver more stops and opportunities for growth than the planned east-west rail link from Soham to the city, he said: “It would be far more expensive and I very much doubt that it would lead to more growth.”

And Cambridgeshire’s businesses must contribute more to get much needed infrastructure off the ground: “If we are going to put new stations at the bio-medical campus and science park, we would expect the business community to put their hands in their pockets. Schemes we are proposing in the south of the county totally change the way business operates and the way people move around. If we don’t invest in transport by 2030 the county’s economy will start to move backwards.”

Besides greater political alignment, there is a need for more investment from the business community, he said: “We can’t have a situated where people expect things to be built without putting in some of the pain.”

And new housing could not be delivered without putting in infrastructure in advance, he said: “The current policy of bolting on housing estates to existing towns and villages has only increased the infrastructure problems that we have. Cambourne has not been an unmitigated success and hasn’t done everything that it’s set out to do. It has delivered good quality housing but getting from Camborne to Cambridge’s science parks is a long process.”

As an example of infrastructure-led planning, he pointed to Peterborough’s development: “It has grown significantly since the 1970s on the back of a high-quality road system. Driving into Peterborough is not a problem, 80,000 more people live in Peterborough than Cambridge but it doesn’t feel like it because it has been designed for growth.”
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