Object

Representation ID: 10029

Received: 29/07/2022

Respondent: Mrs Stephanie Court

Legally compliant? No

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? No

The proposed policy outlines that it “ recognises the importance of retaining the separate entity of Elstow” however the proposal of the additional housing and employment allocation shows that this is not the case and rejects the very sentiment that this proposal claims to want to fufil.
This new development proposed for Elstow means that it will be merged with Bedford. Elstow is an historic village with the Church, the Abbey and Moot Hall all being key features. The new housing and employment developments will swamp what is a unique, rural village and thereby change forever the character of the village. The proposals are not in keeping with the nature of this village.
The additional houses will inevitably mean more cars and therefore greater congestion. The roads in and around Elstow will not be able to cope with this. The alternative sites of Kempston Hardwick and Little Barford have better road networks to manage this problem.
There is no guarantee that this housing proposal will remain at 200 houses. Once planning permission is granted there are several opportunities for the developer to vary planning conditions, whether that be be adding more houses or moving the placement of them.