The village envelope defines the limits of the built-up area of the village. All the villages in the city area have one.
Village envelopes are not fixed, during citywide planning consultation residents, landowners, developers, agents and parish councils can suggest changes to the envelope. A number of these suggestions are then put forward for consideration.
In principle, development within a village envelope is generally acceptable providing it meets policy requirements. Outside the village envelope, development is restricted, especially housing, to that which is essential to rural needs. Village envelopes are defined on the basis of physical features on the ground – buildings, walls, rivers, ditches, roads, field boundaries, property curtilages and so on.
Village envelope for Eye and Eye Green
* Please note: the boundaries on this map are only approximate – please see the mapping software on the Peterborough City Council website here for a more accurate map
The History of Village Envelopes 1
There have been village envelopes for the majority of the area which now constitutes Peterborough since 1981. In January 1981 Peterborough City Council approved its ‘Interim Village Policy’, following approval of a new Cambridgeshire Structure Plan in 1980. This showed an envelope for each village on an Ordnance Survey base map. During the 1970s and 1980s, the preparation of Local Plans was optional rather than mandatory. The City of Peterborough was undergoing massive and rapid change in the form of New Town development/expansion, under the guidance of the Greater Peterborough Master Plan. Planning decisions in the rural area were made on the basis of the Structure Plan and interim policy statements, including the ‘Interim Village Poly’.
In January 1996, the original Peterborough Local Plan was adopted. The village envelopes, revised on the basis of on-the-ground changes, and following scrutiny of objections by the Inspector who conducted the public inquiry, became part of the statutory planning framework for the first time.
The Peterborough Local Plan (First Replacement) was adopted in July 2005, replacing the 1996 Plan. Amendments to village envelopes had been made in the light of on-the-ground changes and allocated development sites. All objections seeking further changes were considered by the Inspector who conducted the public inquiry for the Plan, and all of the modifications subsequently recommended by the Inspector were incorporated into the Plan on adoption.
The most recent citywide plan, the Local Plan was submitted to the Secretary of State on 26 March 2018 with included extending the village envelope to Derek Crouch’s old runway to the south-east of the village.