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Representation ID: 7433

Received: 03/09/2021

Respondent: Mr D De Massey

Agent: CC Town PLanning

I write on behalf of Mr. D De Massey (the client’) in response to the emerging (draft)
Local Plan (‘LP’) 2040 for Bedford Borough which has been published by Bedford
Borough Council (‘BBC’) for the purposes of public consultation under the provisions
of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012.
To ensure full disclosure, our client has an interest in land at Luton Road, Wilstead
which lies adjacent to the settlement and is largely surrounded by existing built form.
The site is referenced within the Site Assessment Document (June 2021) as Land
east of east of Luton Road, Wilstead (Ref ID: 714) within the evidence base which
has informed the consultation document. For the purposes of this letter, the site is
referred to as ‘Luton Road’.
The following is structured to provide succinct representations, on behalf of our client,
to those pieces of literature which have been published by the Council for the
purposes of this consultation. To this end, some contextual details are provided in
respect of the Luton Road site, thought is then afforded to the Council’s evidence
base: namely, the Development Strategy Topic Paper (2021), the Draft Sustainability
Appraisal Report (2021) and the Council’s Site Assessment (2021) publication.
Representations are then provided in response to the Local Plan 2040 – Draft Plan
Strategy Options and Draft Policies Consultation (2021), which has been published
for the purposes of public consultation. Those comments are largely constrained to
the proposed spatial options for growth and the proposed development management
policies.
Our client commends the significant work and undertaking which BBC have embarked
upon to produce and publish the emerging LP consultation document and we welcome
the opportunity to comment on its content at this stage.
The following comments are largely set out in order of their appearance within the
document and are made in the context of our client’s land interests as well as the
content of national planning policy and guidance.
Regarding the other issues which the emerging LP will seek to address, the client
reserves the right to comment on these during the course of future public consultation
events.
In conclusion, the efforts of BBC to produce the consultation document are to be
commended and the thrust and content of those initial draft policies contained therein
is largely welcomed. Whilst the client is supporting of growth Option 2a, it is their
position that the sustainability credentials of Wilstead be considered in greater depth
and the role which it can play in contributing to the future growth of Bedford Borough
be pragmatically assessed.
It is hoped that those revisions referred to above will be positively considered by the
Council and we would be more than happy to answer any questions which you may
have.
In light of the above, if you require clarification on any of those points which have been
raised above or require any further information in respect of the client’s site then
please do not hesitate to contact me via any of those channels listed.