Object

Representation ID: 8885

Received: 30/09/2021

Respondent: Mr Peter Mills

BBC have concluded that Twinwoods creates such a traffic problem at the Clapham Road/Manton Lane junction in Bedford that it is not a suitable development site as the developer has not proposed a solution to the congestion at that junction. I believe that conclusion may be incorrect.
• The transport model starts with the 2018 base year model previously developed and then adds to that the growth identified by Bedford Borough Council in the adopted local plan to 2030 and includes the mitigations (traffic schemes) that are planned to happen by 2030. This then creates the reference case at year 2030, against which the different development scenarios to 2040 and to 2050 are compared.
• One of the measures of the impact the developments will have on the highway network, is the Junction-Volume Capacity Ratio. This shows how congested the junctions will be – so a figure of 100% means that the junction is fully utilised, i.e. congested, leading to delays at that junction.
1.23 100 word summary
Development north of Bedford has been ruled out because of the capacity constraints on the A6. However, the traffic studies conducted already show that the capacity on the A6 will be exceeded when you include the existing development planned for Local Plan 2030. Since then Bedford Borough Council have specified that the new East West rail station must be in Bedford town centre so the issues on the A6 need to be resolved even without further development north of Bedford. Therefore infrastructure funds from a new development could contribute to this.