Object

Representation ID: 9518

Received: 27/07/2022

Respondent: Mrs Judith Wootton

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? Not specified

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

I wish to register my objections to building a 30 hectares business park on sites 761 and 764 at the St Neots Road/A421 junction.

• Urban Sprawl
The proposed business park is located a mile from the Bedford boundary on the A 428 on 30 hectares of prime agricultural land. The site proposed would be totally isolated from any other industrial land use on all sides and would sit unconformably in a rural, elevated setting. The nearest industrial development is over a mile away on the Elm Farm Industrial site. If developed, the business park would join Renhold with Great Barford. This not only creates an urban sprawl but uses agriculturally productive, greenfield land to do so rather than existing industrial or brownfield sites.

• Destruction of the distinctiveness of nearby villages
Renhold comprises several hamlets separated by open countryside. There are 3 new estates on Norse Road which are physically separate from the original village. Green End and Water End are two of these hamlets characterised by low density, low rise housing as well as several Grade 2 listed properties. They will be completely overshadowed by such a major and alien development changing the rural character of the area. It would also dominate the skyline as you exit Bedford or travel along the A421.

• Landscape.
The description of a campus style development with landscaping along its Green End facing side is an expression of hope rather than the likely outcome. Campus developments generally need either a major investor (Glaxo at Stevenage and Astra Zeneca in Cambridge) or an education institution producing developable technology (like Cambridge or Oxford). Bedford has neither at present. It is unlikely to develop these characteristics in the next 20 years. Once permission for such a business park is given, the developer will repeatedly request the easing of planning restrictions. Once this is done, usually to save employment at the site and generate rateable value, it will set off a downward spiral adding yet more warehouse/ distribution units to the Milton Keynes/Black Cat corridor.

• The need for increased local employment
Such development would be best achieved either at existing business parks, or close by the new settlements at Little Barford and Kempston Hardwick, or in Bedford itself where the necessary infrastructure and access is already planned or in place.

• Highways
The extra traffic generated by the business park will increase flows. Both the road network and the junction are already overloaded at certain times of each day. For those working at the site, access will by car (there is little public transport at this point) along either the A421 or St Neots Road adding to this overloading.

• Safety
Renhold is a series of hamlets linked by a narrow unlit road with a single person footpath. The road is the vital umbilical for the village used by a mixture of cyclists, walkers, parked vehicles and traffic. It is lined with homes and passes by an historic church, a school and a public house Additional traffic, including trucks, already regularly spill over onto this inadequate road and use it as a dangerous rat run particularly when there are incidents on the main roads or there is congestion at the junction. This will get worse if the business park goes ahead.

• Construction
The site is located directly on a busy junction which also gives access to Water End and Green End. This will require reconfiguration which will maximise disruption and adversely affect access to these hamlets during a prolonged construction phase that may last some years. Landscaping takes a number of years to mature and become effective. In the
meantime, the local hamlets will have to endure a view of the rear of a business park.

• Water Provision
Renhold has an old water main serving its hamlets which frequently experiences bursts. There will be a significant need for water on a new Industrial site. Where will these supplies come from and what will be the impact on the fragile water supply in Renhold?
It is essential that we protect our precious green space particularly in the densely populated parts of south east England for future generations by developing brownfield and already designated industrial sites.
Bedford must remain a compact, modern town without the downside of urban sprawl, surrounded by pleasant open countryside and characterful villages.

The proposed Business Park development is driven by those who would benefit from developing a green field site and by a planning need to meet a numbers goal. This is not the basis for progress or good planning.