New housing developments in St Ives should be focused on brownfield land within the built-up area of the town, the proposed Neighbourhood Plan states. 

Concerns have been raised by people in the town that St Ives has “reached a natural limit” and that new development was “not appropriate”. 

The draft plan aims to address some of these concerns by influencing where new homes will be built as well as promoting other things that can help to improve the town for people living there. 

A consultation is currently being run by St Ives Town Council to give people the opportunity to share their views on the draft plan. 

If adopted, the Neighbourhood Plan will be used to help determine planning applications in the area up to May 2036. 

Nick Dibben, chair of the St Ives Neighbourhood Plan working group, said people in the town had raised concerns that the town had reached a “natural limit”. 

He said people had also highlighted the wish to protect the town’s heritage and enhance the local environment. 

The draft plan sets out a new vision for the future of St Ives to make the town “more attractive to residents and visitors by celebrating [its] history and townscape; diversifying the town centre economy; doubling nature and addressing the climate emergency; and encouraging more walking and cycling”. 

One of the policies in the draft Neighbourhood Plan sets out that new development should be focused on reusing brownfield land within the built-up area of the town, to try and remove the need to extend further into the open countryside. 

The plan highlighted that the cattle market site to the east of the town centre has already been identified within the Huntingdonshire District Council vision for the town. The draft plan also said that it was likely more brownfield land would become available for development. 

It said: “The policy requires that proper attention is given to prioritising and realising such opportunities as they arise, rather than extending the built-up area of the town into precious open countryside. 

“Not only is this approach more efficient in terms of using scarce land resource, but it will avoid creating unsustainable patterns of growth, poorly located from the established town centre and other infrastructure and therefore car dependent.” 

‘Town centre should have a healthy mix of businesses and shops’ 

The draft plan also states that the town centre should have a “healthy mix of commercial, business, and service uses”. 

The policy looks to protect the town centre by stating that plans which could cause the town centre to lose an active business that faces onto the street would not be supported. 

The plan explains that proposals to turn the upper floors of town centre shops into homes could be supported if the conversion does not compromise the ground floor business, and that the planned homes would offer “satisfactory residential amenities”. 

Policies to support the creation of certain businesses – such as a convenience food shop, a cafe, indoor sport facility, medical centre, nursery, or community centre – in areas identified as ‘walkable neighbourhoods’ are also proposed. 

The plan said: “There is generally a good coverage of services and facilities across St Ives and the policy therefore identifies broad locations within the town’s suburban areas to protect established everyday/convenience and community uses from loss to other uses and to support the provision of new uses.” 

The draft plan also includes policies to support nature recovery and to reverse the decline in biodiversity, as well as looking at how development can improve people’s ability to walk and cycle around the town. 

Climate change is another issue the draft Neighbourhood Plan looks to try and address, with a proposed policy requiring all new development to be “zero carbon ready”, by minimising the amount of energy needed to heat and cool buildings. 

The plan said considering this at the outset of a development avoids the need to eventually retrofit the buildings. 

The draft Neighbourhood Plan also includes a policy to ensure a certain amount of tree coverage in new developments outside of the town centre, and also asks for developments in the town centre to “maximise the opportunities” available for canopy cover. 

A policy is included in the draft plan setting out that flood risk assessment of new developments needs to take into account climate change, and that the new developments should achieve a water efficient standard of 110 litres per person per day. 

The draft plan also looks to require developers to discuss the design proposals of a new development with the St Ives Design Panel from early on in the process. 

The full draft Neighbourhood Plan can be viewed on the town council’s website, and people have until December 1, to share their thoughts on the plan, either online through the town council website, by email at np@stivestowncouncil.gov.uk, or by post to the Town Hall.