Comment

Representation ID: 10461

Received: 29/07/2022

Respondent: Shortstown Liberal Democrats

My response to the consultation addresses those policies and sites most relevant to Shortstown and has been informed by the views expressed by residents of Shortstown and sent to us. We start by making comments on the national context in which the Local Plan is being prepared.

National

The number of homes and employment sites Bedford Borough Council (BBC) is required to include in the plan is set by the national government. BBC has built many new homes and employment sites over the last 25 years – it was recently named as the faster growing area in the East of England, so it seems that those Councils who have got on and built – and people need homes, are then required to build many more. Residents rightly feel that BBC has provided the genuine local need and feel that the number of new houses demanded by government is too much. Yet the council is in a Catch 22, as unless the government’s planning inspector signs off the plan as compliant with those numbers developers can pretty much do as they wish. And the council has no real option to successfully challenge the numbers set by government as they government insists council’s must use their data set that gave rise to the numbers! Another Catch 22.

People need homes and they need affordable homes. What we understand to be affordable is that the cost should be a low factor of the average household income, but that is not the case with the houses being built across the country. To bring home ownership within the grasp of a significant proportion of households needs a national rethink of the system. What is doesn’t need is a planning free-for-all on the incorrect belief that it is local council planning permission that is holding up house building. Nor does it need the sort of free-for-all on home extensions recently proposed by the government. Residents care about their local environment and ill-thought out, unconstrained extensions would undermine the original plan for Shortstown’s various areas which include well-spaced homes, and put greater strain on infrastructure and services.

The level of national ambition on climate change is profoundly disappointing and this is particularly critical as a energy and resource-efficient or net zero home reduces energy bills and reduces fuel poverty – as long as the benefit of reduced energy and water bills is not passed on as increased ‘green rents’ and ‘green mortgages.’ These do nothing to reduce fuel poverty as they simply allow landlords and mortgage providers to charge more.

Bedford Borough Council

In the early 1990s Shortstown was a village of 500 homes. In the 30 years following it has grown to its current size of 1,800 homes with development ongoing. The development of the old RAFA Club into a shops, the provision of a Village Hall, playing field, MUGA and skatepark, new village centre with a shop, café, children’s centre, new school (primary) and long-awaited medical centre have all been very welcome.

The Local Plan 2040 proposes 1,150 additional houses for Shortstown – overall a 6 times increase over 30 years! The majority view expressed to me is that Shortstown cannot grow further without adequate provision of infrastructure (road, cycling, walking) and services (education, health) – as despite being named as a Key Service Centre (Policy TC1(S)), the services are struggling to serve the population as it will be when the currently planned sites are built out.