I have read, understood and wholly endorse the opinion given in their submission by Staploe Parish Council, I am in favour of Option 2b, with the provision that there is a new settlement at Little Barford and not Wyboston.
The proposed settlement at Dennybrook (site 977) (site land west of Wyboston) does not provide a suitable alternative. This proposed settlement provides for around 2,500 homes. It is located very close to the existing settlement of St Neots and Wyboston and entirely engulfs the existing hamlets of Honeydon and Begwary. It appears to offer very little separation causing potential coalescence. This new settlement would also be car dependent with limited access to the wider road network due to the existing narrow roads.
There is poor connectivity in terms of a choice of sustainable modes of transport, including the train.
A further option may be a new settlement of 2,500 homes at Twinwoods or Colworth. The problems on the A6 north of Bedford are going to need to be resolved anyway in order to support the housing development proposed in the 2030 plan and for residents to access the east west rail station in the centre of the town. The development of a new settlement of up to 3,000 homes at Twinwoods (site 883) or Colworth (site 1002) could provide the infrastructure funding to support improvements to the A6 which have long been needed and provide residents with access to the east west rail station in Bedford. A northern parkway station could be considered in future to provide sustainable transport for those in the north of the Borough. Twinwoods would include a significant proportion of brownfield land and Colworth includes lower quality (grade 3) agricultural land and so would comply with the NPPF requirement to utilise brownfield land or lower quality agricultural land before high quality agricultural land. These sites would also support Bedford Town Centre. Colworth was the site supported in the 2035 plan which was later reviewed. The A6 was not a considered sufficiently problematic to prevent this site being adopted – the site was dropped because it was difficult to mitigate against the noise from Santa Pod. So we find it hard to understand why the A6 is deemed such an insurmountable problem now.