Object

Representation ID: 6640

Received: 14/09/2021

Respondent: Bedford Borough Councillor

RESPONSE OF THE CONSERVATIVE GROUP
Initial Comment:
This is a Group response and should not be taken as the complete response of any individual councillor, each of whom may have particular concerns in relation to their particular wards.
A weakness of the 2030 Plan, which we articulated at the time, was that it did not, as confirmed by the Inspector, adequately take account of future needs. That was perhaps inevitable given the uncertainty around the impact of the Oxford- Cambridge Arc and the impossibility of assessing how it will affect any given local authority within its area. That uncertainty remains and the Group regards it as absurd that the Borough is required to submit its plans for development up to 2040 without knowing what will be proposed in the Government’s Spatial Framework for the Arc; that is expected in early 2023, almost exactly when the Borough’s 2040 Plan must be submitted for approval.
The Group will support any attempts to persuade the Government that more time needs to be allowed so that the Spatial Framework can be taken into account in the preparation of this plan. Not to do so creates a clear risk that the areas identified for growth in the Local Plan will differ from those similarly identified in the Spatial Framework. It is not joined up government.
We are disappointed that the full range of options set out in the Development Strategy Topic Paper has effectively been excluded from full consideration both by the absence of any open debate in Council about strategy and by the restricted list of options set out in the Summary Paper sent out to residents. For most that will be the only document they see and for it to include only four options is not open government.
There is an added difficulty for those rural residents in locations named in the various options; for example the various “transport corridors”. The fact of possible inclusion offers no clue as to what the impact might be in practice given the areas covered by the locations and the numbers of villages they contain.