Object

Representation ID: 10266

Received: 29/07/2022

Respondent: Central Bedfordshire Council

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? Not specified

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

HOU19 - Land at Little Barford
10.22 Central Bedfordshire Council objects to this allocation on the basis of our transport concerns as detailed above.
10.23 Little Barford is proposed in the Submission Local Plan for a new settlement, delivering at least 4,000 new homes, approximately 3,800 of which would be within the plan period to 2040, and around 4ha of employment land. The draft policy suggests that the new settlement will be a community located in close proximity to the proposal for a new station on the East West Rail line and that it will provide all the key services and facilities to address its own needs, including health, education, retail, culture and community components.
10.24 This proposed allocation is particularly reliant on new strategic infrastructure that is outside of the authority’s control, including a new junction on the realigned A428 (not in the scheme currently subject to the DCO process) and a new EWR station, neither of which have a high enough level of certainty in our view to be included in a core transport modelling scenario at this stage. Given the levels of uncertainty surrounding significant infrastructure requirements associated with the proposed allocation, Central Bedfordshire has concerns about the overall sustainability of the proposals and would seek clarification as to whether the proposals could still be delivered without a new junction of the A428 and / or if the proposals for a new EWR station do not materialise within necessary timeframes.
10.25 Furthermore, a site of this size and scale in this location should also be identifying and delivering a specific mitigation strategy for the A1 junctions in the vicinity due to the likely implicatins for communities along the A1 corridor. We would also suggest, if the scheme is taken forward, that the design of the Barford Road bridge currently forming part of the package of works for the A428 scheme could benefit the site if the design was revisited in discussion with National Highways to allow for walking and cycling, to futher enhance the ‘accessible’ section of policy HOU19.
10.26 Given the above, and our detailed concerns set out in our review of the supporting transport modelling in sections 4 to 8 above, Central Bedfordshire cannot support this proposed allocation.