Object

Representation ID: 3853

Received: 26/08/2021

Respondent: Miss Jacqueline Ayto

DENNYBROOK
OBJECTIONS:

1) The plan to have over 10,000 new homes built in Dennybrook would bring chaos to the village of Colmworth & surrounding areas. I have lived in Colmworth all my life (58 yrs) so know the area so very well. The local 2040 plan would stretch from Colmworth to the A1 at Eaton Socon. The size of the site would be 2/3rds the size of St. Neots. It would…
bring chaos to Colmworth’s roads, & surrounding roads, bringing in another 20,000
cars, plus other volume of vans, lorries etc. There is no infrastructure to support this
Amount of housing & traffic. It would totally overwhelm our local road network.
It would also erase a very rural area and many historic settlements.
2) The proposed site, consisting of 2,400 acres lies in a very rural area with few access
Roads and very minimal infrastructure. The proposed site only has the far east end near St. Neots as an access point. All other roads are unclassified & incapable of handling the traffic volume that Dennybrook would generate. There are many single tracked roads
surrounding the site, but nine have been viewed as being widened.
3) The proposed site of Dennybrook comprising of 2,400 acres is high quality
Agricultural land, growing essential crops. Priority under the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework says that here should be a brownfield element to the site.
Dennybrook has no brownfield element ear marked. Although other proposals for LP40
have been rejected by Beds Borough Council, such as Twinwoods, they do include
brownfield elements and should be or have been considered.

4) The scale of Dennybrook would create significant disruption from construction traffic Extending beyond 2055. This I consider to be an unacceptable burden on Colmworth & Surrounding neighbouring communities.
5) The proposed site of Dennybrook has very poor access to Bedford, many residents will favour St. Neots, which will bring further economic damage to an already declining Bedford town centre.
6) It is hard to see how the site would address Bedford Borough’s housing needs, when potential residents will either come from St. Neots or the surrounding Cambridge arc. The site would likely fail to attract people from Bedford & it’s needs for housing in proportion to the size of the development.
There are other high quality developments opportunities for inclusion in LP40. A call-for-sites by Beds Borough council totalled a response in excess of 70,000 plots against a need of 12,500 plots for completion of the plan. There is no need to consider a large & destructive proposal like Dennybrook.
7) The location of Dennybrook would encourage car use as residents would be commuting above average distances. This cannot be environmentally sound in the current climate of using cars less, & we are being encouraged to walk or cycle.