Object

Representation ID: 7458

Received: 20/09/2021

Respondent: Mr and Mrs Vivian and Douglas Riddle

Dear Sirs
I am writing with regards to the proposal of development in Wilstead.

The first thing I would like to address is that Wilstead it a Key Service Centre. There is no way that Wilstead qualifies as such with facilities we have in the village, and with Wixams on our doorstep which is also a Key Service Centre with far more amenities and is expanding all the time. Wilstead should be taken off the Key Service Centre list.

Wlstead has had 100 houses buillt in the last few years and it is very important that Wilstead remains a rural village, which, when we bought our home, was the type of community we wished to live in. We chose to live in a village not a town and chose a small community with few amenities, but with the community spirit that exists in smaller communities. Any large development would change that community spirit as we have seen with the large development West of Luton road where few residents have integrated into village life.

The visual aspect of the village is also important. Many of the fields put forward for development are large fields and the type of development that would be built on a number of these would change the character of the village and a large number of houses would not have ready access to the countryside. That is not what rural village is all about. Some of the land put forward on Call for Sites would endanger Wilstead being a separate village in its own right and could be swallowed up by the large developments already going on around it. There is also the fact that Wilstead is made up of a number of hamlets, it is very important that these are not joined up into one large housing mass which would drastically change the character of the village. There should be green spaces designated between Wilstead and Wixams and also between the hamlets and the village centre. We are not saying no to development but what we are saying is there should be small infill development that would not change the character of the village.

The development built behind Whitworth Way already has problems with flooding. Rainfall on the Greensand ridge results in a steady flow down the hills into Wilstead. The bottom half of our garden is underwater most of the winter as are the other houses in Whitworth Way. We are on clay and the drainage is inadequate to cope with heavy rainfall. More large developments are only going to increase the problem.

There would also be a detrimental effect on services in the village. We don't have a doctors surgery and the majority of residents use an Ampthill surgery. There is a service run my local people to ferry people to the doctors who are unable to get there themselves. This would not be able to work with a large influx into the village. The school is full to capacity and the bus that comes through from Bedford travels down the Bedford and Luton roads, there is a once a week service for the Cotton End Road. there is already congestion outside the school and post office in Cotton End Road and into Whitworth Way at school opening and closing times. More traffic could result in a very dangerous situation. The roads are not wide enough to cope with heavy traffic.

I hope you will take into consideration the fact that Wilstead is drawing up a Neighbourhood Plan and that has been slowed down because of the pandemic but reflects the views of a large number of residents in the village. Wilstead is not suitable for expansion in a large way both because of the change it would mean to the character of the village and because of the topography of the area.

Yours Faithfully

Vivien and Douglas Riddle.