Preferred route Bedfordshire to Cambridgeshire
The preferred corridor route for 17km Bedfordshire to Cambridge road has been unveiled by Highways England. The route will connect the Black Cat and Caxton Gibbet junctions and is designed to be complimentary to the development of the proposed Oxford to Cambridge Expressway.
Revisions to the NPPF
The Government published a revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), on 19th February 2019. The changes were first announced in October 2018 and can be summarised as follows:
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- Councils can use a justified alternative approach to the standard method of calculating housing need, in exceptional circumstances.
- Only the standard method should be used when calculating the five-year housing land supply.
- A revised definition of ‘deliverable’ sites to clarify that non-major sites with outline consent should be considered deliverable, unless there is evidence to the contrary.
- Revised wording to accommodate a landmark European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling (“People over Wind”) last year around Habitat Regulation Assessments, the NPPF’s presumption in favour of sustainable development is disapplied only where an appropriate assessment has concluded that there is no suitable mitigation in place.
Rosewell’s Review
Rosewell’s review makes recommendations to improve and speed up the planning appeal inquiries. The report looks at how the current process can be made more effective and efficient, ensuring that it is building on the core strengths: fairness, thorough examination of evidence and the quality of the inspectors’ reports. The areas for improvement were concluded to be as follows:
- Prior engagement by all parties;
- Greater certainty about timescales; and
- Joining technology to improve efficiency and transparency.
Should you wish to find out more about this or if you have an enquiry about a project, please get in touch.
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