Question 1. How do you think we should involve our communities and stakeholders in developing the Plan?

By having local consultation events. The on line system is convoluted, confusing, difficult to use and inaccurate.

Publishing updates on submitted proposals and next steps followed by regular meetings similar to the Local Plan Debate in Feb 2020 seems reasonable as well as online feedback from those who can't make it to the meetings.

The EA welcomes and supports the approach taken. The web site is clear, and we commend the 'Big Debate' event on 18 February where it was clear what is important to communities, the public and NGOs. As stakeholder the EA welcomes the approach to the Water evidence base, from early input to breadth of stakeholders. We hope to see this continuing.

The Council should involve a wide range of stakeholders in the preparation of the plan. That should include significant involvement of the development industry to ensure that the plan is deliverable and responsive to a rapidly changing world. We would recommend the establishment of a developers sounding board as a means for engaging with the development industry. That could be based on an existing group, such as the Cambridgeshire Developers Forum. Such a group could advise on implementation of and drafting of policy to ensure that the plan is deliverable.

Bring developers and big financiers/land owners together with community groups and in particular young people. Give the latter the opportunity to scrutinise the former. Create that open space so that wealthy interests cannot hide and can be called to account for the decisions they take that affect our city.

From the outset consult with the residents, that means getting their input. These are the people who live in the communities and know how they work. Getting involved from the beginning makes it a bottom up approach, not imposing ideas but letting them help create them

Huntingdonshire District Council welcome the consultation on the Greater Cambridge Issues and Options document. Joint working on key areas such as the Strategic Housing Market Assessment and the Gypsies and Travellers Need Assessment is currently underway. The Council would like to be kept informed and be consulted on any topic areas that may have cross-border implications for the Huntingdonshire district including: • Distribution, location and amount of growth: housing and employment. • Potential implications of growth on the Great River Ouse and the Ouse Washes, the Fens, and flooding. • Green Infrastructure priorities, including promotion of tourism and recreational facilities in countryside locations such as Fen Drayton Lakes. • Transport impact of new developments on commuter flows from beyond Greater Cambridge into central employment locations. The Council looks forward to further discussion in the near future.

Please take careful consideration of the contributions from local groups such as Camcycle, Cambridge Past Present and Future and local residents' associations and include them in ongoing development on the Local Plan. Continue to reach out to communities through a diverse range of events and social media, but make sure that contributions can be received in a range of ways, from comments at events to social media comments to (perhaps through social media polls). There are a LOT of barriers to responding to this consultation and a lot more ways communities could be involved - how about workshops at schools or drop-ins to groups for families or older people? Not everyone has the time or ability to make their way to Milton Tesco or the Library for example. You also need to make sure that those with English as a second language or lower levels of literacy can also contribute. Note that barriers to confidence are also an issue - many people feel disenpowered from getting involved in a consultation like this.

Please consult all relevant local sustainable transport bodies - eg Cambridge Cycle Campaign, Sustrans, Ramblers etc. Plan must give priority to walking, cycling, not cars

Please take careful consideration of the contributions from Camcycle and include them in ongoing development on the Local Plan.

Grosvenor supports the innovative and extensive approach the Councils have taken to the Local Plan consultation and use of alternative tools and methods for gathering responses and engaging local stakeholders. Grosvenor has a successful record of working with the Councils and local employers. Furthermore, as part of its Corporate Responsibility principles, Grosvenor has been exploring ways to encourage broader and deeper engagement on its development proposals.

Start with much less bureaucratic and unwieldy consultations, with fewer, shorter documents in plain English. Creating a communication culture of jargon, long documents, jumbled contents, appears designed to exclude responses.

I thought the Big Debate was an excellent idea. A very enjoyable and informative evening. I saw a similar event in Northampton recently where the audience could vote electronically using an app on their mobile phones..... might be worth considering something like that in future?

After initial collection of results from this first consultation, send a summary to all Residents' Associations for distribution and hold a special RA Forum to discuss the results and next steps. Keep RAs informed throughout the process of formulating the Local Plan.

Listen to organisations such as Camcycle, specifically in regards to transport, but also more generally in regards to place-making and liveable neighbourhoods. Need to engage with youth organisations (community groups, or just schools) to make sure young people have an input. They will have very different ideas to the usual set of respondents.

Local people should be involved in the design of new and existing open spaces throughout the consultation process – there should be greater outreach e.g. through social media, emails and a range of events for communities to participate in rather than depending on the neighbourhood forums and stereotypically the older / retired groups to engage.

It would be positive to provide opportunities to respond to an emerging draft of the plan - including illustrative area-based material and evolving strategies, in advance of the publication of a draft.

This is a highly complex exercise, based on much outdated and/or inaccurate and/or still-to-be-ascertained data, the whole amounting to one giant moveable planning feast of information, the implications of which are very far-reaching but almost impossible for anyone other than professionals to grasp. To allow non-professionals any chance of getting up to speed with the structure of local governance and the complexity of the Plan, the conversation "involving our communities" needs to be conducted at Ward level workshops that allow sufficient time for an effective two-way flow of information and ideas. Anything less is merely paying lip service to effective consultation. Regrettably, this online method of consultation is far from user-friendly.

By going to community group meetings, particularly disability groups

The HCT welcomes this consultation. As an important stakeholder in the environmental and historical fabric of Greater Cambridge we would expect to remain engaged with the process of drawing up the Greater Cambridge Local Plan. To this end we would expect consultation on matters concerning our interests by e-mail and, if thought helpful, by meetings and site visits.

In addition to widespread consultation, hosting workshops on specific topics, and bringing in expertise from the local community regarding matters such as cycle parking design would be valuable.

This kind of consultation is very laudable but a 50 item questionnaire with open answers is frankly an unrealistic way of actually engaging people. It needs to be shorter and pithier, perhaps with some 1…10 questions .The website is clunky and not flexible, (I had registered ID: 45083), hence this Word submission on the questions. It could have done with some more rigorous editing as it repeats itself on several occasions – see where I‘ve referred to other / previous answers.

You need to make this experience easier and user friendly …..This site is not user friendly …ie having to fill in a separate response form for each question answered makes the whole thing protracted and puts people off. I nearly didn't bother when I saw this. and nowI have to startall over again with a new form to answer the second question……how ridiculous!

• Please take careful consideration of the contributions from Camcycle and include them in ongoing development on the Local Plan.

Involving communities and stakeholders in developing the plan is key yet most challenging. Armies of developers and special interest groups are standing by to convince the planners that massive amounts of development are needed to reduce inequality, improve health and well-being, or provide accommodation for those drawn in by the plethora of jobs that will be created in this vibrant region. Small wonder that many of those who live here, their children who want to raise families here or those who want to downsize so as to continue living here despite lower incomes in retirement or after personal loss. The loudest voices are often least reliable in this respect; truly representative Parish Councils can be invaluable (and should be formed in the City).

Please ensure you consult directly and specifically with older people, reaching out to the places where they live and socialise, and making it easier for them to give responses to the issues directly affecting them than wading through 50 questions.

Please take careful consideration of the contributions from Camcycle and include them in ongoing development on the Local Plan.

At all levels and more actively seeking involvement rather than waiting for responses as you will only get certain people doing this.

You need to involve local people and organisations far more in helping solicit feedback, using a simpler set of questions enabling everyone who lives and works in Cambridge to respond at this crucial initial stage. The current website form is serious and comprehensive and demonstrates a great deal of work on the officers’ part. But if we are going to secure significant engagement from non-activists, people who are willing and able to plough through the questionnaire and give considered answers (and, of course, are online), the material needs to be more digestible and straightforward — and more widely circulated. The card that was produced for the pop-up events would be a good starting-place, as it seeks input on the ‘big themes’; most people would be able to complete it. The Council could then enlist the help of local people who, through their RAs, businesses, clubs, local organisations, churches etc., could help solicit feedback. This simple step would be a big improvement and would gather much more feedback and engage far more people, instead of the usual voices from the confident few who are already engaged. This initial step could be followed up with more complex questions, again working through these local people and organisations.

We are extremely lucky to live in an area with a lot of engaged and engaging experts, such as Camcycle. Please listen to what they say! How about another Citizens' Assembly?