Comment

Representation ID: 9539

Received: 13/07/2022

Respondent: Ravensden Parish Council

Ravensden Parish Council in principle welcomes the development strategy in the 2040 submission version plan, as it builds on our preferred option from the 2021 consultation (Option 2b), but subject to the reservations set out below. We also support the deletion of the proposed new settlement at Dennybrook which would have had significant traffic implications for the road network in the Parish, notably the B660.
At para 4.23 of the Submission Plan, it says that East West Rail is a “critical catalyst and pivotal to achieving the Plan’s vision”. The Local Plan 2040 should acknowledge that Government has yet to finally decide whether the section between Bedford and Cambridge should be constructed at all, or in a given timescale, or on a particular route. Therefore much of the strategy of the Plan could be undone if Government does not confirm the premature assumptions which the Borough Council has made with regard to this section of the proposed railway. The absence of a fall-back strategy in the Submission version of the Local Plan 2040 could be considered unsound.
For these reasons, EWR corridor E should be deleted from the Key Diagram. The scheme is not a commitment and it is outside the control of the Borough Council to deliver it through the Local Plan 2040.
The Parish Council notes that the greater part of the dwelling requirement for the Borough is to be met through the creation of new settlements in the A421 corridor, based on new stations at Kempston Hardwick and Wixams (as part of the wider South Bedford policy area), and at Little Barford. That strategy would be consistent with the creation of a sustainable and environmentally acceptable multi-modal corridor along the A421, and undermines the case for the railway to cross the undulating and environmentally sensitive landscape north of Bedford. If EWR is not built, then the south Bedford development strategy including a new settlement at Kempston Hardwick could still be achieved, as it would continue to be served by the Marston Vale line, plus the new committed station at Wixams on the Midland Mainline.
However, we are concerned that a new settlement at Little Barford would have no public transport rationale if EWR did not go ahead or if a more southerly route through Tempsford was chosen. Although it would lie within the A421 corridor following the completion of the Black Cat/Caxton Gibbett dual carriageway, much of the sustainability rationale for the Little Barford proposed new settlement would fall away if EWR was not constructed through the proposed allocation (see related comment below about the Key Diagram).