South Cambs District Councillor (SCDC) Bill Handley’s Report

Over Residents, April 2025

Greater Cambridge Housing Trajectory and Housing Land Supply Report 2025 (5 Year Land Supply)

The Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Team has published a new report with a revised housing trajectory and our latest housing land supply calculations. This shows that in the five years from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2030, a total of 13,383 homes are anticipated to be built in Greater Cambridge, giving a housing land supply of 5.5 years. This means that planning applications will again be assessed against all the councils’ local policies – which include a clear plan for where homes should be built – as well as those set nationally – and our villages will once again enjoy the full protection against unplanned and inappropriate development. The government’s revised (and significantly higher) housebuilding requirements meant that our 5-year figure briefly dipped below 5 years, so this is good news indeed.

Over Community Centre Goes Greener

Over Community Centre has just installed two fast EV charging points and four in the Centre’s car park. The funding for this work came from SCDC’s Zero Carbon Communities Grant Scheme.

The Community Centre is also to receive £30,039 from SCDC’s Net Zero Villages Grant fund to install solar panels on its roof. The renewable energy generated will reduce the running costs of the building as well as reducing its carbon footprint.

Grant funding for Over Sports FC

Over Sports FC have just secured a grant of £2,000 from SCDC’s Community Chest Scheme. The grant will help replace damaged football goals, ensuring the club can continue providing opportunities for local players aged 16 and over. The new goals will also be accessible to other local teams and the community centre.

New SCDC Website Launches

SCDC’s new website is now operating, which has a more user-friendly look and feel and is optimised for both desktop and mobile devices so that it’s easier for residents to find critical information and services. It which allows residents to get personalised, local information at a glance. By entering their postcode, residents can get information on bin collection dates for their street, local street cleansing schedules, nearby planning applications, District Councillor details and local events of interest.  Try it on the new homepage.

Update on Local Government Reorganisation (LGR)

The LGR remains a fast-moving project for the government, and it now seems almost inevitable that SCDC will cease to exist in a couple of years (as will most of the current local authorities). SCDC has just published an FAQ-style webpage for residents in an attempt to answer common questions and you can view the page on the new website. SCDC will keep this page updated as the weeks and months go by.

Four-day Week Consultation

The consultation on the four-day week has now closed and the submissions have been sent for  independent analyses. Once the data have been collated a report will be presented to full Council for debate and for a vote on whether or not the four-day week should be made permanent.  

Contact information for Over’s MP, Ian Sollom

Email: Ian.Sollom.MP@parliament.uk  Ian is active across the constituency. He encourages constituents to contact him with problems and his office staff answer emails as soon as they possibly can.

Bill Handley

District Councillor for Over and Willingham

Phone: 01954 200287 (leave a message). Email: cllr.handley@scambs.gov.uk