Object

Representation ID: 7319

Received: 02/09/2021

Respondent: Miss Emma Pegler

The location of Dennybrook is unsustainable. For employment purposes, for example, many residents will have to commute above average distances reliant on private cars. The distances will not allow for walking or cycling – the suggested new stations will NOT be close enough for anything other than cars to be used. In my years of commuting from Bedford Station, I have not seen bicycles coming from the countryside – it is too far, the roads are dark and often slippery. When there is ice on the roads in the winter, most of the roads are not gritted unless for the major B660 there is gritting if there is a threat of snow. It is completely out of the question that anybody can do anything other than use a car and if you have young adults on the estate, they need to drive or be driven everywhere – sports, stations, shops, cafes, bars. The demographic of people moving to such an estate. Has that been identified? If it’s young people and people in employment, this site is totally unsuitable.

Please be reminded that back in 2019, BBC noted in their assessment of the site: ‘the site is located in a relatively convenient location for vehicle journeys on the strategic road network, which may be a deterrent to non-motorised travel.’

A very important point about Dennybrook is that the Draft Local Plan assumes the development for 2500 dwellings but the site promoter’s Vision document talks about up to 10,000 and what they have put in is on the basis of that and NOT the 2500. This feels like it is tricking Colmworth and my local community. This is so important and so momentous and yet we are given inconsistent and vague assumptions without a firm evidence base. So little precision has also meant that there is a lack of consistency as to whether the site proposal is Dennybrook or Denybrook and yet this will fundamentally change the area beyond recognition. Does BBC or the Mayor care about evidence base and our communities enough to respect us with proper evidence? As a lawyer I would expect far more precision and respect for honouring previous statements and conclusions, the NPPF and climate.

The scale of this project is promising significant disruption even at 2500 houses with construction traffic extending beyond 2055 – this is an unacceptable burden on our neighbouring communities.

There are very few access roads to Dennybrook. Apart from the far east end of the site near St. Neots, the only road access points are unclassified roads incapable of supporting thousands of cars and lorries. Several roads are single-tracked .

There have been statements by the developer for Dennybrook that the site has opportunities to integrate with the new East-West Rail and new station. This is misleading and unrealistic. They are as far away as Bedford and St Neots stations. People will have to have a car so in a family of 4 – 2 adults and 2 teenagers, one needs at least 2-3 cars or reliance on taxis to get to work/school which is pollution/congestion and cost. The reference by the developer to a cycle link is a token to appeal to the current environmental agenda and cannot be considered realistic. You cannot cycle to work or a station on a narrow unlit back road with lots of traffic on it in the dark for over 8km – and that is as the crow flies.

Further you can’t cycle on the A1. And getting on to the A1 will be severely congested for cars.

Water is also an issue. The Environment Agency’s Draft Sustainability Report 2021 recommends that the Local Plan considers water resources as a key issue and yet there is no evidence how the water supply will be provided/safeguarded and there is no evidence base around how waste water will be dealt with. These are extremely important issues and we have to assume that the Dennybrook site adversely impacts existing and future water supplies in the absence of any statements showing otherwise.

Heritage

BBC has not prepared Heritage Impact Assessments on its options to comply with the NPPF and Historic England’s Advice Notes. This shows the disregard for our area. People live in and preserve historic homes dating back to the Middle Ages. For a listed property, anything I want to do to it needs pre-approval and I cannot do anything that impacts its views or appearance, but one can totally alter the complexion of an historic area without any kind of impact assessment. I refer to a recent appeal regarding 49 dwellings in a Suffolk village which was partly dismissed because the inspector deemed there to be too high an impact on a manor house, barns and a Grade II* Church. Please bear in mind the Colmworth Church is Grade I listed.

Landscape and Biodiversity

The Bedford Borough Landscape Character Assessment (2020) states that the Thurleigh Clay Farmland (the landscape character area in which the Dennybrook Garden village site sits) is characterised as “dominated by arable farmland generally with large irregular fields plus smaller fields around settlements…” with “hedgerow trees are prominent in the level of landscape, many of them mature, including remnant trees within fields…”. Regarding future management it states that a key guideline is to “conserve the character of the rural roads and limit urbanising influences” and to “resist any development that will result in further loss/fragmentation of hedgerows and hedgerow trees.”

Dennybrook clearly conflicts with this.

Chapter 15 of the NPPF requires decisions to enhance the natural and local environment. The site promoter has merely referenced a wildlife corridor. This demonstrates that there is no proper application of the Ecology Strategy 2021. Smaller developments do not systematically destroy habitat for wild bird species and mammals in the way Dennybrook will. All those cars, the pollution, the light pollution – a corridor is not enough. All that destroyed farm land takes away wildlife habitat – how can a decision to impose a town the size of Biggleswade on the countryside be taken without proper consultation with our communities and without properly considering other more appropriate sites – smaller sites, brownfield sites, urban spaces. There is nothing coming from the Local Plan that shows that biodiversity/landscape/wildlife is considered or matters. And yet during COVID, we saw masses of people using our country park and walking in our fields to improve their frames of mind. Do these things not matter? That people who do not live in our communities have the power to destroy them rather than looking at smaller sustainable development.

Agricultural Land eradicated

A Green Future: Our 25 Year Plan to improve the Environment sets out the Government’s 25 year plan to improve the health of the Environment by using natural resources more sustainability. It says the best agricultural land needs to be protected.

Under Agricultural Land Classification, out of the 5 grades of agricultural land, the best is 1,2 and 3a.

Dennybrook is comprised mostly Grade 2 and some Grade 1. This means that out of all the promoted sites, Dennybrook has the best agricultural land. It should be protected. Twinwoods and Little Barford have previously developed land. Colworth is Grade 3.