Rangeford Villages: South Cambridgeshire – retirement care village
Background
Cavendish provided a full public consultation, post-submission political engagement and strategic counsel for Rangeford Villages on their RMA for a 150-unit retirement care village near Stapleford in South Cambridgeshire.
Strategy
Cavendish carried out two rounds of public consultation in Summer 2023. The first round comprised a virtual exhibition hosted on a dedicated project website and promoted to around 1,600 local properties.
To communicate changes made to the plans, we subsequently held a further round of consultation with an in-person information event attended by 136 people. We also organised a meeting for the project team with the local parish council.
During the post-submission period, we provided strategic advice to the client on committee strategy. We carried out detailed research into South Cambs DC’s Planning Committee and its track record with the original outline scheme and more recent planning applications.
We also carried out specific research into the attitudes of councillors towards the proposed Cambridge South East Transport busway scheme, which would neighbour the site.
Ahead of committee, we produced a 4-page committee brief for members, articulating the key benefits of the scheme and highlighting support from officers and key consultees. This was complemented by a round of calls to planning committee members, including discussion with the committee vice-chair – also the site’s ward councillor – to answer outstanding queries.
The
results.
The committee vice-chair ended up recusing himself from the committee to speak in support of the application.
The RMA was approved unanimously by South Cambridgeshire DC’s Planning Committee in February 2023.
