OBJECTION TO THE LOCAL PLAN - FEBRUARY 2018 1. Sutton is a pearl within Central Bedfordshire, a real beauty spot. The Pack Horse Bridge and ford are so picturesque. The road through Sutton is suitable only for its inhabitants. Any extra traffic will be to the small village’s detriment. Adding a development in Sutton is not to any ones advantage. Good land will be destroyed as will the village, where there are no amenities. The roads around are not capable of coping with further traffic. Once our heritage is gone it is lost forever. This is unnecessary destruction of countryside. 2. Lidlington , a small community is to be swamped with developments. Good land once again used when there are plenty of other sites with land less productive. There is no infrastructure. Spreading the load would be a much better solution, rather than killing the village. 3. Arlesey is another site picked to be destroyed. It has very few amenities and will be choked. 4. Stotfold thought they had reached their quota of housing. Didn’t we all! 5. Professor Hussain wrote a book about Gibraltar Farm at Tempsford. (Nigel Young, showed his ignorance on this important site, when the Local Plan was put forward at a CBC meeting.) How can a person who is leading this Local Plan have no knowledge of Gibraltar Farm? Does the heritage of our district mean nothing? Surely anyone with half a brain realizes the historical importance of preserving this area. Over development on or near this location is criminal. We read about preserving our heritage in the Local Plan but it is just words 6. Biggleswade and surround does not have the infrastructure to cope with the influx of any more developments. Does anyone think of how much development has been going on in the last few years? Biggleswade, Sandy, Potton, Sutton and Dunton are becoming one big conurbation. Villages are becoming towns! Are the railways, NHS, highways agencies etc. prepared to put in the extra money needed to upgrade all these services? Can it be guaranteed? We are told this plan will be infrastructure led, how can that be, when planners and councils cannot control outside agencies to do their bidding? 7. The Drop In session (in Biggleswade) about the Local Plan was a farce. Not one map gave a true picture of the developments. Some had houses which had been in situ for years not shown, on others developments already started were missing, even finished houses were noticeable by their absence, where one development was close to another both were not shown together. There was no true map of how the area would look with ALL the developments shown, with existing or partly built homes shown as well. How could the public get a true picture of what is proposed? Extra housing was hidden away in the appendices. Jo Public found it very hard to understand the 300 pages of Local Plan and the Drop In session was no help. I feel the public are being misled. I was told there would be railway parking and a park and ride bus to the station. Is that truly guaranteed or more pie in the sky? 8. Bedfordshire is known for its market gardening . (Brussels have always been grown in this area.) We need to grow more of our own food in this country, not less. Why destroy so much productive ground? Top grade soil is being built on, in this proposal, it does not make sense. Much, much smaller sites around the county, would have less impact on loss to farming and with the lack of infrastructure. Some farmers do not want to sell their land, will be taken away from them, so they lose their livelihoods and the jobs they create? 9. In England we need affordable housing , social housing , and homes for first time buyers , small houses and flats, bungalows, shared ownership and apartments for the aging population . Building bungalows for the growing aging population would release more family homes, but of course bungalows take land and are not as lucrative 5 and 6 bedroomed houses! Social housing should be for locals first, not residents of Marsh Farm as happened in Biggleswade. Adults from the area who have jobs should be housed first. The majority of the developing houses are available only for those with money. Developers are still building houses that cost half a million pounds. Developers and land owners are pushing up house prices, their greed is not fulfilling the national crisis. Be the first council to stand up to the developers and work for the good of this county and us, for we elected you. 10. Our wildlife is being threatened. Birds and animals are losing their habitat. On some of these developments endangered species live. How this issue will be respectfully treated by the developers is not mentioned in the plan. Water voles, badgers, toads and so many more animals need homes too. Do not close your eyes to these issues. Research has not been carried out properly, the safety of our wildlife has not been taken into account but dismissed. Developers are given carte blanche to do whatever they want and killed off badgers in part of Biggleswade, don’t let it happen again. There must be a way to impose sanctions. 11. Doctors are cutting corners to cope with the extra residents at the moment. 180 new patients signed on in just one day at one of the practices in Biggleswade, there are over 12,000 patients in that practice already. Before, figures averaging around ten to eleven thousand patients was the norm. It takes up to 6 weeks to get a blood test at the surgery. They have been rethinking reviews of medication on repeat prescription. Nationally we are short of doctors with few joining the profession. How can we hope the increased population can be catered for? Much is made of the new NHS hub, where Biggleswade hospital for the elderly was, but there is no guarantee this will go ahead. None of the ideas for this site over the past years has come to fruition. Getting prescriptions made up can only be executed in Biggleswade town centre if you have a spare hour. Queues at Boots and Lloyds chemist are an everyday occurrence. Before seeing which of the chemists has the shorter queue one faces an almost impossible task of finding a parking space. There are no NHS dentist spaces in Biggleswade, residents are travelling to Shefford, Sandy, and Bedford and beyond. No room for more patients, means we need to have transport, more traffic on the roads. The Local Plan is infrastructure led – how is this problem going to be addressed? 12. Banks are closing in Biggleswade. There are no banks in Sandy. Not everyone uses online technology. How do you envisage this problem is going to be solved? 13. Roads become gridlocked very easily in Biggleswade. The traffic lights at the top of Rose Lane have a short green period at weekends. This causes queues down Potton Road. A small road built in the Victorian era has been made one way, now 33.000 vehicles race down Sun Street each week. Juggernauts are using small town roads and bridges ignoring any weight restriction. We are told there is no funding to cover signage! Your assurances the Eastern Relief Road would be used for these vehicles has not been realised. Listen to local residents before you make more mistakes. There are no plans to upgrade the A1, it can take over an hour to get to Stevenage, (via this route) at certain times of the day, and it is only 15 miles away. The A1 can take no more traffic and the town’s roads are in the same position. 14. Bus services are being cut, no busses run on a Sunday. Not everyone has a car. Have you spoken to the bus companies? How is this problem going to be addressed? 15. Schools are not expanding at the same rate as the developments. The newest school at Kings Reach has been there a couple of years, it has already had two extra extensions built and it needs another. Existing schools are building on play areas. Where else can our schools extend now? Are schools included in the housing estate or is more good land going to be lost. Extra resources for extra pupils, more money once again. 16. The station, in Biggleswade, has limited parking, and no land around to provide for one. Commuters are unable to get a seat at rush hour on the trains, when you are lucky enough to get on the train. At rush hour it can cost up to £40.00 each way from Biggleswade to London! There are no plans to make the station available to the disabled. The Local Plan is infrastructure led – how is this massive problem going to be addressed? 17. Business Parks are going to be developed, and we hear about all the extra employment places. None of the business parks around this part county are filled completely. Do we have an assurance from businesses these new buildings will be filled? I assume the figures given for new employment are when these business parks are full. Is this a true number of jobs being made available, before or after the people who work on the land have been dismissed? 18. Too much Green Belt is being used when there are other alternatives. Save our green belt and countryside at all costs. Spread the housing, do not put it all in just a few towns or villages.