Object

Representation ID: 9534

Received: 11/07/2022

Respondent: Maxine Hendry

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? Not specified

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

I strongly OBJECT to the proposal that the borough council are proposing to build a large development called “Wixams Extension”


In your planning map the Areas called East of Wixams comes under the boundaries of Wilstead. So
it is not true that these houses are attached to Wixams. We are all aware that this large housing development would soon be extended by the Borough Council to merge with Wilstead.

Wixams has been built with thousands of houses and currently apart from schools has no infrastructure other than a small co-op supermarket to support these families. When this
development was at the planning stage, there were many promises of shops, GP surgeries a train station etc. none of which have ever materialised after more than twenty years.

The governments focus is on sustainable development so that houses should be built in areas where there are good facilities and transport, an increase in building would put additional pressure on the roads in Wilstead, as additional traffic will use Wilstead as a cut-through to the A6 and the A600.

At present we have footpaths and bridleways within the village which are used by surrounding villages. Further development would mean that they would not have access to the countryside. To tear down trees and hedging would have a detrimental effect on wildlife and protected species.

Facilities in Wilstead are already inadequate with no dental or GP practice and residents having to travel to Ampthill or further afield. If you are unable to drive this means a bus to Bedford and then change getting a bus to Ampthill, taking at least two hours, this is if the buses are not cancelled.

Currently children from Wilstead are not able to access local schools as they are already full to capacity and could not accommodate further families.

Wilstead has always been predominately a farming village and the areas around were designed to act as a green space for the production of food

Additional developments would have an adverse effect on our limited resources within the village, it would be better to build on brownfield sites, to place large developments where the infrastructure is already adequate to support them.

Facilities available in Wilstead are only there because of the efforts of local residents and the Parish Council, who have invested their time in fund raising to provide the money to establish them. They are only adequate for our local residents and size of the current village and not for future large developments.