Residents worried sewage works could be overwhelmed by thousands of planned homes

Plans for more than 24,000 homes near Huntingdon and St Ives have been branded a ‘new town without the infrastructure’

Huntingdonshire residents have warned ‘half’ of sewage works could be overwhelmed by plans for thousands of new homes. Huntingdonshire District Council’s Draft Local Plan for 2026 could see more than 24,000 homes built in the area around Huntingdon and St Ives.

Residents and parish councillors fear this could overwhelm infrastructure such as roads and doctors and over 30 parish councils and organisations have joined together to start the ‘Pause the Plan’ campaign.

Chris Stening, vice chair of the North Huntingdon and St Ives Cumulative Impact Group, said: “We were told, ‘don’t worry it will all work out’ – but we didn’t feel that was good enough.”

The 52-year-old told last Thursday’s meeting that the homes would create a “new town without investment in the infrastructure”.

He said: “As a parent – not a grandparent yet – I feel it falls on us all to leave a local plan that will leave Huntingdonshire a place we can be proud of, and that we want our children and grandchildren to grow up in.”

Lord Andrew Lansley, former health minister and leader of the house of commons, spoke of his experience with Cambourne while he was MP for South Cambridgeshire.

He said: “It has a relatively large amount of green and blue space – because they were intended to be spaces between villages.”

He said that having a plan in place means a new settlement can be “delivered more effectively” and that they have “learned from Cambourne.”

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Lord Lansley said: “Cambourne was never anticipated to have a significant public transport connection – that was a big mistake. It should be resolved when we get the East-West Railway. Infrastructure first is supposed to be what new towns are about.”

Paul Boothman, chair of the group, said the new homes will need an extra nine million litres of water every day. He also said that 14 water recycling centres, otherwise known as sewage works, would “be over capacity without significant investment” adding this is “literally half of them”.

The 66-year-old said: “We want a local plan but we’re in tilted balance – for over 18 months now, we’ve been in tilted balance, without in theory being able to say no to developers. Do we want any plan, or do we want a good plan?”

He said that Huntingdon is currently made up of 10,000 homes – less than half those that could be built nearby.

He said: “There’s questions about a democratic deficiency here – we as a public need to be involved in everything that happens with the local plan, it can’t be something planned without our involvement. When the plan was launched it was done in a very short space of time, it was done before Christmas and were we getting ahead of ourselves with a big growth agenda?

“I don’t get the sense that at that moment in time most of the community feel they are together on this journey – it feels one way.

Chris said: “We really want to work together constructively with everyone in this room and everyone in Huntingdonshire. Nobody wants to stop development but we want to make sure all the infrastructure is considered as part of this process.”

Paul said: “At the moment I don’t think people are going on the same journey – we’re all going in different directions.”

HDC will discuss the local plan and the readiness of local infrastructure at Wednesday’s (July 15) council meeting.

A spokesperson for HDC said: “We are progressing the Local Plan in line with current government legislation, which requires submission of the Proposed Submission Plan to the Planning Inspectorate, alongside all public comments, by 31 December 2026.

“An independent Planning Inspector will then undertake a thorough examination of the draft plan and supporting evidence, including public hearings, to consider all representations and recommend any necessary changes. We are aware of the concerns raised by the ‘Pause the Plan’ group and have reflected these in updates to our timetable.

“The next phase of public consultation will now begin in September 2026, providing additional time to consider the initial outcomes of local government reorganisation proposals and to finalise supporting evidence.

“This includes ongoing work with partners such as the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority on key transport infrastructure, including the A141 and St Ives improvements scheme alongside working with infrastructure providers for matters such as health, water, and education.

“Starting consultation in September also avoids the main summer holiday period while ensuring we can still meet the national deadline. Failing to do so would require restarting the Local Plan under new legislation, delaying the delivery of an up-to-date plan for Huntingdonshire’s communities.

“All evidence to support the Local Plan update is publicly available on our website Local Plan Update – Huntingdonshire.gov.uk, including evidence relating to infrastructure delivery.”