“An Attack on Local Democracy”

The Labour Government has been accused of waging an attack on local democracy, as South Cambs District Council debated new national planning rules being imposed by Whitehall.

Councillors debated the new rules, called the “National Scheme of Delegation”, at the meeting of South Cambridgeshire District Council on Thursday afternoon (08 October 2026). The new rules mean ward councillors and parish councils will no longer be able to request for sensitive or contentious  planning applications to be determined by the Planning Committee, made up of elected councillors.

All “minor” applications - which among other things include developments of up to nine houses - will be decided by officers, with no ability for them to be brought before Councillors. Similarly, “major” applications which can be thousands of houses will be decided by officers, unless they meet stringent requirements.

This comes on the back of Government plans to completely strip South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge City of planning powers on all major sites and give them to the centrally-led Greater Cambridge Development Corporation.

Cllr Bridget Smith (Liberal Democrat, Gamlingay Ward), Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council said: “People elect local councillors to represent them and make decisions on behalf of their community - but the Government seems determined on making that impossible. Labour are picking up where the Tories left off - running roughshod over local communities and centralising power. This is the opposite of devolution, this is an attack on local democracy.”

Cllr Henry Batchelor (Liberal Democrat, Linton Ward), Lead Cabinet Member for Planning said: “We have an incredible, award winning planning service, full of hard working, dedicated officers. But however good at their jobs they are, planning officers are not elected and don’t have a democratic mandate. This is a really disappointing move for our local communities who deserve to know who is making important decisions about their communities and deserve to be able to scrutinise and influence those decisions - in a transparent, public committee meeting.

“The Government wants to deliver growth, but Planning Committees are not the problem. We have over 37,000 homes with planning permission granted in Greater Cambridge, but waiting to be built.”

Councillors were required to adopt the new rules before 31 October 2026. Councillors were advised that not adopting the new rules would risk all future planning decisions being open to legal challenge (judicial review) from developers.