Object

Bedford Borough Local Plan 2040 Plan for Submission

Representation ID: 9611

Received: 27/07/2022

Respondent: Mr Barry Wootton

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? Not specified

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

Representation Summary:

I wish to register my objections to building a 30 hectare business park on sites 761 and 764 where St Neots Road crosses the A421 (hereafter the “junction”).

• Destruction of the distinctiveness of nearby villages
Renhold comprises several hamlets separated by open countryside along a narrow road plus 3 new estates along 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 character of the area.
• Landscape
When developed, the business park would link Renhold to new housing planned for Great Barford. This is an almost perfect definition of urban sprawl in action using agriculturally productive, greenfield sites (in this case rated BMV) rather than existing or brownfield sites.
• Sustainability
The description as 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 (like Glaxo at Stevenage or the colleges in Cambridge) or an education institution producing developable technology (like Cambridge). 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, it will be purchased by a commercial developer who will repeatedly request the easing of planning restrictions. Once these are awarded (to save employment at the site and generate rateable value} this will set off a downward spiral adding yet more warehouse boxes 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 a will impose more traffic on the road network and the junction. Both are already overloaded at certain times of each day. For those working at the site, access will be mainly by car along either the A421 or St Neots Road adding to this overloading.
• Safety
Renhold is a series of hamlets linked by a single narrow unlit road with a single person footpath. Both are hemmed in by housing. The road is used by a mixture of cyclists, walkers, parked vehicles and traffic. 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 of the junction itself 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.