Object

Representation ID: 10332

Received: 29/07/2022

Respondent: Elstow Parish Council

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? Not specified

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

SECTION 2: MISLEADING CONSULTATION REPRESENTATION

It has been clear from resident feedback that throughout the formal consultation process the information has been challenging to fully understand and appreciate where exactly the strategic growth is being proposed. A number of the key documents which have been used to show overall growth, has been misleading which as a result has meant many local residents were not aware of any sites within Elstow being included.

The Parish Council would like to highlight a number of fundamental flaws to the consultation document relating to the misleading presentation of Policy EMP5 and Policy HOU5 which have not been helpful representations for the Elstow community.

In general, it is reasonable that at most, members of the public will glance or briefly scan such a local authority document at best, whether that is the literature produced in text, or visual format. For many, on doing that it appeared that the draft Local Plan 2040 document showed no allocation for Elstow.

Figure 12 Key Diagram, Page 83 in the consultation document sets out an overview of proposed development for housing and employment sites. There was no reference of Elstow on the Figure 12: Key Diagram which the local authority used in their promotional information of the consultation. The marking of the map again is misleading in how it represents the sites - mainly due to its coarse scale which makes it a poor complement of the LP2040 document and it fails to identify Elstow as illustrated below.
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The geographical misrepresentation of Wixams illustrated above and no Urban Area Boundary being shown it was even more unlikely that villagers could not understand the map as they could not relate to it. This was fed back to the Councillors by a significant number of residents.

Also it is particularly unclear where the sizeable allocation known as Policy HOU5 is, it should be represented immediately adjacent in a north position to the 'E' shown below. Which white area is HOU5 supposed to be?
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The above shows the apparent overlapping of housing allocation sites quite some distance from the crossing of the two highways routes, the A6 being represented by the north to south white line and the A421 Bedford bypass being represented by the east to west white line. The site sits in fact where the red arrow below is pointing to.
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This misrepresentation of information will have resulted in many not understanding the proposals as often when individuals see no direct impact they do not go into a more in depth review of the consultation and therefore are unlikely to give feedback, or engage in the consultation process. This is relevant to those that live in Elstow, as well as those who live nearby in Wilstead, Wixams and other local communities, who also have been misled. The knock on impact of this will also spread beyond the nearest settlements.

By doing this it feels like an attempt from the local authority to disguise significant development for the village community.