Object

Representation ID: 7558

Received: 21/09/2021

Respondent: C Smith

3. Preferred Choices of Options Listed and Options Not Included
The consultation asks for suggested for most preferred options and to include other alternatives not included in the consultation.



Option 2a: Proven Most Suitable Alternative
Bedford Borough Council’s own sustainability appraisals demonstrated and concluded that the alternative
Option 2a is the preferred and most suitable option because urban development is more sustainable than rural.
Importantly, development within urban areas performed best particularly in reducing carbon emissions, promoting town centres (which incidentally are in decline), encouraging physical activity, delivering residents’ needs, access to community services (which are so important to mental wellness) and reducing the need to travel and promoting sustainable types of travel. New stations south of Bedford are planned and the A421 has capacity for additional traffic.

Option 2b: Alternative Preference
Of the other options that have been presented in the consultation Little Barford (site 907 – option 2b) is by far the most appropriate alternative, but excluding Wyboston / Dennybrook (see section 5 below), which would provide additional 3,085 dwellings in the rail corridor, for the following reasons:
• A development in and around the urban area plus A421 transport corridor with rail based growth parishes
• Access to a large number of services and facilities including existing employment which would reduce the need to travel by car
Further Alternatives Not Proposed in the Consultation – Twinwoods (site 833) or Colworth (site 1002)
A new development 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 has been needed for some time to provide residents with access to the east west rail station in Bedford. A northern parkway station could be considered in the future to provide sustainable transport for those in the north of the Borough.
Twinwoods (site 883) would provide a significant proportion of brownfield land and Colworth (site 1002), which was supported in the 2035 plan, includes lower quality grade 3 agricultural land and so would comply with the NPPF requirement to use brownfield land or lower quality agricultural land before high quality
agricultural land. These sites would also support Bedford Town Centre.

4. Government Planning Policy – Application and Relevance to These Proposals
Government planning policy requires that brownfield sites be selected as a much greater priority than greenfield sites for very robust reasons. One of those reasons they quote is that developments must recognise “the intrinsic character and beauty of the countryside, and the wider benefits from natural capital and ecosystem services – including the economic and other benefits of the best and most versatile agricultural land” and that “where significant development of agricultural land is demonstrated to be necessary, areas of poorer quality land should be preferred to those of a higher quality”.
In further support of this a relevant definition within the National Planning Policy Framework is:
“Best and most versatile agricultural land: Land in grades 1, 2 and 3a of the Agricultural Land Classification”.
The land proposed for Dennybrook at Honeydon and Wyboston is mostly grade 2.
There are alternative, much more suitable, sites which are brownfield land at Twinwoods (site 883) and Colworth (site 1002) and much of the site at Little Barford.
On these grounds alone, as a further alternative to Dennybrook or even an urban development, the brownfield site on Twinwoods is much more suitable particularly as:
• It does not flood
• It has no major watercourses and is distinct from other settlements – so no loss of identity for existing settlements
• Government planning policy seeks to develop brownfield land ahead of greenfield land (open countryside)