Object

Representation ID: 9606

Received: 29/07/2022

Respondent: Wilshamstead Ward

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

I am totally opposed to the proposals for development at Wixams South, and believe that proposals are unsound for the following reasons:

Misleading representation:
• The sites at Wixams East and Wixams South have been erroneously labelled and are in fact entirely within Wilstead Parish. This appears to be a deliberate attempt by Bedford Borough Council to mislead the people of Wilstead into believing that it is a Wixams issue and doesn’t affect them. It is misleading and wrong.

Lack of clear links to Wilstead parish
• The sites will be within Wilstead Parish, but with roads existing onto the A6. Wilstead will not benefit in any way and will only be adversely affected by noise, pollution and additional traffic. It seems likely that a Community Governance Review would result in the new dwellings being annexed to Wixams Parish, so Wilstead would not even benefit from any parish precept money and a debate may well be had over which parish should benefit from any resulting CIL money.

Overdevelopment of Wilstead
• Wilstead is currently a settled village of just over 1150 dwellings. To add an additional 2100 would be to treble the size of the village over the life of the Local Plan. This is more like wanton destruction that sustainable development.
• The proposals also result in the removal of clear lines of green open space between Wilstead and Wixams, resulting in the merging of both villages, without any clear boundaries between the two.

Traffic through Wilstead
• Wilstead already endures a significant amount of through traffic along Cotton End Road as a result of commuters from Wixams. The addition of 2100 new homes, with a likely additional 4000+ vehicles will only add to this problem and destroy the rural village nature of Wilstead.

Wilstead Neighbourhood Plan
• Wilstead has been working on a Local Neighbourhood Plan for some time and is almost complete and at the point of going to a Local Referendum. The Local Plan 2040 takes no account of this and as the Wilstead plan is a long way through the process, the Borough should have taken this into consideration.

Wixams Infrastructure:
• The existing infrastructure at Wixams has been long delayed and is still woefully insufficient. It will not be able to cope with the additional pressure of 2100 new dwellings. The existing Wixams villages have become a good case study for the consequences of ‘development without infrastructure’.
• Wixams is a living example of “development without infrastructure”. Any proposal to drop even more houses on us, without first addressing the infrastructure deficit, is only going to make matters worse.
• Wixams currently lacks suitable pedestrian crossings outside schools and has recently witnessed accidents with children hit by cars. The Borough Council still has no concrete plans to address this deficit and the building of 2100 new dwellings with a likelihood of over 4000 additional vehicles will add further pressure to Wixams roads (including the A6) as residents of the proposed new developments gravitate towards the existing Wixams settlement.
• There is still a missing link of cycle path from Wixams into Bedford Town. This results in cyclists having to take a dangerous route along the A^, or a long detour via Elstow. If such a small basic piece of infrastructure can’t be delivered, what hope do we have for the bigger items? It’s a nonsense to even suggest that the local infrastructure will be able to accommodate such significant additional development.

Roads and Highways
• The opening of Wixams station, scheduled for late 2024 will act as a ‘pull’ for yet more traffic into Wixams from the surrounding areas.
• There are currently significant HGV movements through WIxams as a result of local distribution depots and warehousing. Additional housing so close to the existing Wixams development will result in a dangerous combination of more cars mixed with significant existing HGV traffic.

Environmental concerns
• The potential loss of green space on the sites proposed is worrying and goes against the need for protection of the environment. There is currently a clear and obvious divide between the villages of Wixams and Wilstead. However, the proposed development at Wixams East and Wixams South looks like it will result in a major loss of green space and wildlife habitat, with the two separate villages merging into one, as a continuous sprawl of development, with no clear delineation between the villages.