Object

Representation ID: 10416

Received: 27/07/2022

Respondent: Lone Star Land

Agent: Pegasus Group

Legally compliant? Yes

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Yes

The current Core Strategy identifies, Great Barford as containing 'a good range of services and [is] well connected to larger town centres by regular public transport.' As a Key Service Centre, the current Core Strategy recognises that it provides a 'strong service role for the local community and surrounding area'. The strategy alighted upon for the Regulation 19 plan however, whilst continuing to identify the role of Great Barford as a Key Service Centre, does not seek to identify a single additional home to the village, beyond that already committed through the current Core Strategy and identified via the Neighbourhood Plan.

Objection is raised to the overarching spatial strategy's reliance on a limited number of large sites to deliver the new homes required for the Borough. This is at the total exclusion of growth within sustainable settlements such as Great Barford, which are capable of accommodating additional growth on smaller sites well related to the urban fabric. These would be capable of early delivery, thereby avoiding the need for a stepped trajectory, and would meet need both when it arises, and within sustainable locations.

Objection is raised to the Local Plan Policies DS2(S), DS3(S) and DS5(S), on the grounds that these key policies embed an unsustainable growth strategy for the Borough, which fails to have regard to the evidence base, and which fails to follow through on the recognition of the settlement hierarchy, notably, larger villages such as Great Barford, which are identified as Key Service Centres and for which no new allocation is made for the plan period. In this case, the provision of a stepped trajectory, thereby denying the requirements of those in housing need today, is considered to be an unnecessary deferral of delivery. It also requires a significant uptick on historic delivery rates, over rates achieved in recent years. A strategy which draws on some smaller/medium sized sites, capable of faster delivery, would be more sustainable as p art of an overall balance which might still favour longer term delivery through large sites.

With regard to the provision of housing for older people, the emerging housing strategy is silent on the role that Key Service centres, such as Great Barford, may play in meeting that specific tenure. NPPF para 62 makes clear that the housing needs of older people are to be specifically addressed in planning policies. The Council's spatial strategy should reflect that Key Service Centres have a particular role (being defined as the most locally sustainable settlements beyond the Bedford/Kempston Urban Area) and which would be well placed to accommodate and meet the housing needs of an aging population.

For the above reasons the identified Policies DS2(S), DS3(S) and DS5(S), are considered unsound as they are neither Positively Prepared, Justified, Effective, nor consistent with National Policy .