The planning inspector considering East Cambs District Council’s local plan announced a couple of months ago that the plan didn’t demonstrate enough housing being built in the next five years. In fact, the council’s proposals fell short by 320 homes in that period.
Tomorrow the council holds a special meeting, to propose revisions to its draft plan. All these revisions involve bringing forward extra house building around the outskirts of Soham, in areas that were pencilled in for later in the local plan period, which extends to the year 2031.
This would mean 51o homes to be built by 2019 on five sites around Soham, which would more than cover the shortfall.
The council needs to resolve this matter not only swiftly, but also to the satisfaction of the planning inspector – because until it does, without a five year housing land supply, the National Planning Policy Framework states that there is a presumption in favour of approving planning applications, unless the adverse impacts significantly outweigh the benefits. In this period, all sorts of unsuitable planning applications could get the go-ahead – and in that situation, the only people with a smile on their faces will be the developers.
I would ask them to ensure that due consideration is given to acoustics i.e the layout of buildings is better in rows rather than clumps and culdesacs for limiting noise issues from neighbours etc. Make sure the walls are thick and the windows wont vibrate especially if next to a busy road. If they cant install the homes like this put aircon and triple glazing in because when people find out how awful it is trying to sleep at night in summer they rent them out and the area becomes a fast turnover doss pit.