Comment

Representation ID: 9502

Received: 07/07/2022

Respondent: Mr R W Harland

I would like to comment on the Bedford Borough Local Plan 2040.

I am a resident of Wilstead.

My initial and very important comment is that Wilstead is still designated a “Key Service Centre”. As I recall in one of the first Local Plans Wilstead “achieved” this status based on the Council’s weighting rules. Because, at that time, we had a (part-time) doctor and had allotments and playing fields these inflated Wilstead’s “score”. At the time the council did not recognise that the doctor was only part-time and allocated a weighting for a doctor. We no longer have a doctor in the village.

Wilstead is very poorly served by any services. We do not have a doctor and the bus services are woefully inadequate. And we only have one shop and a pharmacy. In the Local Plan 2040 it states “In rural areas, Key Service Centres also perform the role of local centres and are important in serving their surrounding rural areas”.

I do not see how Wilstead can serve the surrounding rural area, since we have no services in the village.

To describe Wilstead as a “Key Service Centre” is misleading and factually incorrect.

Wilstead should be “downgraded” from a “Key Service Centre” to reflect the reality of the situation.

As far as I can see in the Local Plan 2040, there are three proposed developments that will affect Wilstead. They are:

HOU15 – Land South of Wixams - 300 Houses (*)
HOU16 – Land East of Wixams - 1,800 Houses (*)
HOU17 – Land at College Farm Shortstown - 1,000 Houses

(*) Please note that these developments (HOU15 & HOU16) actually lie within the Wilstead Parish Boundary and so to imply that they are part of Wixams is misleading.

All of these pose a danger that they will ultimately encroach on Wilstead and we will be left as just small “suburb” of a sprawling urban “town”, with no facilities.

In these developments the council states “The development is dependent on the delivery of transport improvements which will need to be secured before development”. So will improved bus services be
“in place” before the developments are started? I very much doubt it. We will then have over 2,000 new houses with no adequate public transport.

I also note that in the larger developments (HOU16 & HOU17) the council makes provision for schools (primary and secondary). I see no provision whatsoever for any new surgeries or medical centres.

So, to impose these developments onto Wilstead is complete madness because (as I have already described) Wilstead has no facilities and the result will be a sprawling town with no services to support the population.