Object

Representation ID: 9624

Received: 27/07/2022

Respondent: Ms Julie Robertson

Legally compliant? No

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? No

This is a green field site. Brown field sites should be considered first for development.

A large business park in this location, as proposed, is in complete opposition to the rural lifestyle of Renhold, which has a distinct character and a dark skies policy. At the Water End/Green End part of the village, close to the proposed site, there is only low-level housing and open rural views. A development of this nature would introduce buildings which would be out of scale and out of keeping with the area, imposing on nearby residents and would introduce light and noise pollution.

The Water End junction of the A421 already has congestion issues making it hard to enter and leave the village at certain times of the day. Queues into and out of Bedford are the worst they have ever been. This proposal would result in additional traffic for much of the day resulting in more queueing, making access to the village even harder. It is also inevitable that additional traffic would use the village road to access the site. The village already has a much-increased volume of traffic since the A421 development despite restrictions on access times, and has had to install traffic lights and speed cameras to deal with the resulting issues from that. With no street lights and narrow footpaths (mostly on one side of the road only) additional traffic is a danger to pedestrians in Renhold.

There are currently vacant commercial and office buildings in the Borough. I would question the need for more new premises of this nature (and there are a number of other proposals in the Local Plan as well) when the change in working practices over the past two and a half years has seen a decrease in office occupancy and an increase in home working. With this likely to be sustained, or the trend continue, I would be concerned that this development would stand empty, or if undeveloped, be allocated for additional housing (also not appropriate for this location).
This development would result in the loss of Grade 2 agricultural land, which according to national policy should be protected from inappropriate and unsustainable developments.

The area has a rich diversity of wildlife, which would suffer loss of habitat and the effects of light and noise pollution.

This development would also contribute towards a loss of distinctiveness from other villages, especially with the nearby proposal for houses along St Neots Road in Great Barford.

Oxford to Cambridge arc including this area no longer valid.