My objection to HOU15 is as follows.

The proposed housing development title Wixams South Extension is misleading as the planned ‘extension’ is within the Wilstead Parish Boundary. This is a Wilstead Village extension creating with the proposed HOU16 development a more than 200% extension trebling the size of the village and dramatically exceeding its share of required housing commitment. On its own the 300 houses within the parish of Wilstead would still be to large for the limited facilities Wilstead could provide.

Wilstead is not a Key Service Centre. It has one small general store with a small post office The size of which is adequate for the present population of Wilstead but not much more. A pharmacy which is closed at weekends. A small primary school which is over prescribed.
No doctor. No dentist. No small supermarket. It relies heavily on Bedford for all general services. I try to use the bus service to avoid car journeys but very often unable to because of its unreliability and very odd timings. Also its route is very inconvenient for most Wilstead residents as the stops are away from much of the population.
Wixams however is much better placed to be a Key Service Centre with much more facilities.

The proposed siting of the 300 houses would be better placed in a location around Wixams (for this is a Wilstead housing extension) nearer the proposed railway station to make jounys to it by foot or bicycle easier and therefore more likely and making the borough’s net zero carbon target more achievable.

I believe that a report has been published regarding an investigation into the traffic impact of developing the north of the borough and its detrimental effect on Bedford. This Wilstead development with the other developments proposed will have exactly the same effect on the southern parts of Bedford, with the coalescence of villages and exacerbated by the confluence of the A6 and the A600.

The development would be on pasture land which has been proven to be a useful tool in carbon capture.

The proposed development runs counter to the intentions expressed in Para. 2.2 Theme 1 of the Bedford Borough Local Plan 2040

In conjunction with HOU16 the effect on Wilstead of a development twice the size of the existing village will swamp the road system with a great increase in east-west traffic. Even with just the 300 housing development and it sited on west side of the A6 there will be a significant increase in traffic. The roads Bedford Road and Cotten End Road are far to narrow and with the need for many households to park along the road anyway. This will lead to traffic congestion, fumes, pollution and a serious impact on health and safety. The limited and non-existing facilities in Wilstead will not be sufficient to provide for the development.

To object to this development being labelled as a South Wixams extension is not a nitpicking argument concerning boundaries; its size will mean that it will have a detrimental effect on the community of Wilstead.