Object

Representation ID: 9625

Received: 27/07/2022

Respondent: Catherine Tolmie

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? Not specified

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

Firstly, if you think that the arrangements for members of the public to engage in and comment on these 'plans' are accessible and easy to follow, they are not. Despite spending a long time trawling through the website and documents, I have not found a simple link to actually submit a concise reply. How much time do you honestly think ordinary working people have to respond to this, to comment on every section? It's inaccessible or too time consuming for most You need a big rethink on this.

The website is convoluted and not user friendly. 'Have your say' on the front of the paper document sent through householder doors...??

So I'll give my response in a manner that suits me.

I know and most people I know also know that these non public consultated plans have been in the 'planning' for years, that we have been disenfranchised from the process as taxpayers and voters and that they are being sold as enhancements to the services and 'opportunities' in this part of the country when they are anything but. What they involve are mass people migration, mass housing and a complete denigration of the Bedfordshire countryside. I'm glad that CPRE are starting Freedom of Information requests because that's exactly what I'm thinking of doing up here in Sharnbrook so that we can finally find out all the real information about what is being done 'in our name'. I was born in Luton and I have seen how that once vibrant town has been totally destroyed by inconsiderate, poor building and planning and huge and unsustainable migrations of people from London and other conurbations. Now you want to do the same to Bedford. You will regret it I assure you when your public services, NHS and transport networks are in even more crisis!

My general comments also pretty much mirror those of the CPRE further below so I've copied that bit.

I would finally say that what you should be concentrating on is improving the struggling areas of Bedford Borough, the failing schools (I've been reading all the data on them this past week and boy, it's not pretty), drug and dependency issues, existing housing issues rather than pandering to Government and private builders and landowners for more housing. You spent money on the Embankment. Great but so many people I know through my son’s Bedford Town football asked what about the problems at my school, down my road, all the drunks and drug users in the Town Centre (I see them every week too as I make an effort to shop in the Town Centre).

Don't get me started on the damage to the River Great Ouse landscape and water management and environment. I genuinely think people on the Borough environmental protection side have lost their minds.

So I think the grandiose, legacy, 'bigging it u with the housebuilders', ego trip whatever you want to call it plans need to be scaled right back and you need to concentrate on helping the existing population of Bedford as opposed to overwhelming the area. And also building in Bedford in terms of the (non publicly consulted) 'arc' might help Oxford and Cambridge but it sure as hell won't help Bedford who will be left with a load of population it can't cope with in terms of services, transport links and everything else.

So I object wholeheartedly to the scale and breadth of these plans. They are wrong for Bedford Borough as was the 2030 version.

So reassuring that a property developer has been appointed to Chair the (non publicly consulted) 'arc'. Democracy in action clearly....


Copy of the CPRE comments:
We ask what does the government’s recently announced Oxford-Cambridge Arc expert advisory panel mean for the Bedford Borough Local Plan 2040 consultation?
During August, the Government quietly announced that they have appointed Emma Cariaga to Chair a newly established Oxford – Milton Keynes- Bedford – Cambridge Arc “Expert Advisory Panel”. The purpose of the Expert Panel, which will stand for six months, will be to:
“..focus on the area between Bedford and Cambridge, where the government has committed to explore the case for new or expanded settlements including those linked to potential East West Rail stations, to bring forward well-designed, inclusive and vibrant places”.
Emma Cariaga is currently a senior director with the company British Land, one of the largest property development and investment companies in the country.
The development of East/West Rail and particularly the route from Bedford to Cambridge has been driven, not by the needs of local communities for environmentally sustainable transport infrastructure which will reduce congestion on the road network, provide a sustainable transport option for existing communities, and reduce our carbon footprint but rather to provide massive new development opportunities for New Towns in the north Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire countryside.
Coming so quickly after the latest East West Rail Consultation has been completed, during which the East West Rail Company and Bedford Borough Council said that the development of New Towns in the North Bedfordshire countryside was not the target of the new rail route, this announcement makes a mockery of the whole process.
The government has continually said that local people will be included in the decision making process of developments across the Arc. To put a senior director of a London based property development company as chair of the Expert Panel adds insult to injury. It seems clear that the interests of the people of Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire and local democracy will not be one of the Panel’s priorities.