Faith and community groups invited to create a new facility at Northstowe

Faith and community groups are invited to bid for a parcel of land to realise their ambition for a new community facility in the growing new community of Northstowe.

The one-year bidding window opens today (23 January 2025) and will close on 23 January 2026 to give faith groups time to prepare their applications for consideration.

Applicants must demonstrate they will serve the needs of the Northstowe community, have an association to the town and prove there is sufficient public support for their plans.

Faith groups must be registered charities with a sound financial track record and the ability to provide a realistic and deliverable project to a timescale.

Representatives of the faith groups active in Northstowe have been working as part of the Northstowe Faith Strategy Group alongside the District, Town and County councils since 2019, to help inform and guide a fair process for all applications.

The bidding window opens today and once over, all applications will be carefully assessed using an agreed point scoring system. Then, local people will be invited to feedback on the bids submitted which will be considered within the overall assessment. Ultimately, South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Cabinet will take a decision on which group is to receive the land at no cost.

Cllr Henry Batchelor, Lead Cabinet Member for Communities for the District Council, said: "Northstowe is growing into a thriving new town, with around 1,520 homes already lived in and a growing vibrant and diverse community. It’s exciting to see how much this place has already flourished. As part of the plans for Phase 1, land was set aside for faith and community use, and now we’re pleased to take the next step - welcoming faith and community groups to bid for award of the land. This is an important milestone in shaping the heart of the town, and I can’t wait to see how it adds to the sense of connection and belonging here."

As part of its planning obligations for Northstowe, South Cambridgeshire District Council secured a 0.25-hectare plot of land for development to meet community needs within Phase 1 of the new town as part of the Section 106 agreement.

Further land will be made available to faith and community groups in later phases of development.

This first parcel of land, located off Stirling Road and situated close to Bughunter Waters, is set to be transferred to the Council at no cost, by developers Urban&Civic around Spring 2026.

The mechanism for distributing land to eligible faith/community groups was agreed in a meeting of the District’s Cabinet in March 2020, when it adopted the Allocation Policy for Northstowe. It was agreed at the time that this policy would also be used at other new developments in the district.

Cllr Natalie Warren-Green, a district councillor for Northstowe, said: “‘The launch of this bidding process is really good news. Having worked with different faith groups in the community networkers group, and at events in Northstowe over the past two years, I know how important it is for the groups to see this next step coming through. The faith groups in Northstowe work together and with other community groups, using venues such as schools, the pavilion, the cabin, and open spaces near the lakes and on the green, to ensure that residents have access to them, places of praise, and events to take part in, and have told me that being able to start working on plans for facilities on designated land will support them to continue to grow their respective faith communities.’

Cllr Tom Bygott, a district councillor for Northstowe, said: "Providing a place to worship is one of the things that makes a housing development into a community. I'm very pleased to see that we have allocated land for faith groups to use. I am hopeful that we as a council will be able to support more residents in this way in future with additional land and other spaces to worship.”

The Council’s role is solely to ensure a proper process is conducted to transfer the land to a qualifying faith or community group, associated with Northstowe.

• The successful faith group will be expected to bear all costs of developing, managing and maintaining the land and any property subsequently built on it. The transfer of land does not imply any ongoing financial assistance from the Council.
• If the organisation to which the land is transferred is wound up or liquidated the lease will enable the Council to regain possession of the asset for use by other eligible groups.
• The Council will undertake annual monitoring to ensure that the asset continues to be used for the benefit of the community.

To find out more visit our webpage.