South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC) have admitted that they wrongly excluded Histon & Impington and six other South Cambs villages from a funding scheme to support Net Zero initiatives across the District.
Data error
When the Net Zero Villages Grant scheme was announced in December 2024, Histon & Impington was deemed ineligible to apply, on the grounds that the village was defined by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as part of the Cambridge Built-up Area.
But HI HUB enquires with the ONS as to why that definition was applied revealed that Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority – who set the rules for the scheme – had based it on out-of-date information, rather than the 2021 census.
An ONS spokesperson told HI HUB: “It appears that the data… is from the 2011 Built Up Area (BUA) geography. Looking at both the 2022 and the 2024 version of the BUA classification, the village of Histon and Impington is a separate BUA. Please see the most recent version of the BUA classification which can be found here.”
Extended deadline
SCDC is responsible for managing the grant scheme for the Combined Authority. HI HUB challenged them with the ONS response, and this has resulted in Histon & Impington, Milton, Girton, Great and Little Shelford, Fen Ditton, Fulbourn and Teversham all being eligible to apply for the Net Zero Villages Grant – but not Orchard Park.
To correct the record, SCDC is now contacting these communities to invite them to apply for the grant.
Community groups, businesses and the Histon & Impington Parish council are now all able to submit applications for grants ranging from £20,000 to £100,000 to support “transformative, community-led projects” and help villages become low carbon, more sustainable and more resilient to the effects of climate change.
SCDC is also extending the window for applications until 2 February 2025.
They say: “To confirm a project’s eligibility, applicants should open the map, select Cambridge in the ‘Settlements’ table and confirm the community asset or project site is outside of the yellow shaded area. This area represents the Cambridge built-up area, as classified by the ONS using the 2021 Census figures.
“Potential applicants should email climateandenvironment@scambs.gov.uk to have any questions answered, or to arrange a time to discuss their application 1-2-1 with an officer.”
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