I note the following statements in the assessment:
1E.1.37 Conserve and enhance surviving historic field boundaries and restore hedges where possible in areas of former ancient enclosures, while retaining the open character of areas which were formerly open field land.
1E.1.38 Enhance the hedgerows consistent management and resist development that will result in further loss/fragmentation of hedgerows and hedgerow trees. Encourage the growth of new hedgerow trees to maintain landscape structure and connectivity.
1E.1.42 Conserve the character of the rural roads and limit urbanising influences – widening/kerbing and ensure that traffic management measures are sympathetic to the rural character.
The Staploe Parish Neighbourhood Plan survey demonstrated that the peace and quiet, open countryside views and very rural feel of our parish are of great value to all of us. Visitors to our house have described it as 'lovely' and a 'truly wonderful remnant of countryside, wholly unexpected in Bedfordshire'. Our single track lanes, often edged with tall hedges, are a distinctive local feature, likened to Devonian lanes by some visitors, and are much used by leisure cyclists. Many have roadside nature reserves due to the rare plants present such as Bath Asparagus and provide habitat for wildlife. The verges and hedges are cut as little as we can manage in order to maintain visibility and this has enhanced them as green corridors and added to the rural feel of the area. Developing a large new town of Dennybrook (site 977) or other large sites in Duloe such as Cobholden, Manor Farm, Duloe Field, Flints Field and Top
Homes may necessitate widening of these roads which would urbanise them and destroy valued hedgerows which is contrary to the comments in this landscape character assessment. We value our peace and quiet, the lack of litter, our dark night skies, and the lack of 'urban noise' such as fireworks, traffic, noisy parties, sirens and so on.
The three hamlets of Staploe, Duloe and Honeydon (including Begwary) are very sparsely populated often with large gaps between
homes and usually only with houses on one side of the road. All have wonderful countryside views from their gardens. This is different from a larger settlement such as Thurleigh on which the Landscape Character Assessment appears to be modelling future development.