East Cambridgeshire District Council’s latest local plan will move a step closer towards being implemented next week.

The council’s proposed submission local plan, which targets building 10,850 new homes and creating 6,000 new jobs in the area, will be recommended for approval by council officers at a full council meeting on October 5.

Once approved, the plan will move into its final round of consultation before being submitted to the Secretary of State, Sajid Javid, for examination.

Councillor Coralie Green, service delivery champion for strategic planning at the council, said: “We would like to thank the residents for all of their comments at the previous draft stages. The interaction with the local plan from the communities across the district has proved to be very helpful for those working on the plan.

“Officers have carefully considered all representations received at the last consultation stage and aimed to address as many concerns as possible. If full council approve the latest version, it will prompt the final phase of consultation.”

In a previous draft of the plan, former council leader and now Mayor of Cambridgeshire, James Palmer, said the council is “committed” to building a better East Cambridgeshire.

“Yes, we need to protect the very seasons why the district has such a high quality of life but we also need to facilitate growth in much-needed homes (including affordable homes) and jobs,” he said.

“A new local plan can also help build a better East Cambridgeshire. It can release much needed land, to help businesses grow and homes (including affordable homes) to be built, in places we want such growth to take place (and not in places where speculative developers pick and choose).

“It can have a more positive ‘yes please’ set of essential policies, which support high quality development, rather than lengthy pages of policy hurdles, putting off developers.”

If, as planned, the latest plan is approved, it will enter its final round of consultation in November, lasting six weeks.

All representations in this round will be considered by an independent inspector. The council hopes to adopt the plan in the second half of 2018.