1.34

The plan is based on delivering the aspirations of the Oxford Cambridge Arc. The concept of the Arc has been dropped by the government so the entire plan is based on a false premise. More than enough damage has already been done in the town and out in the countryside and we don't need any more. Housing growth throughout BBC has grown at a crippling rate: much, much faster than anywhere else in the country and it's time to stop and stand up against the concept of perpetual growth - almost all of which is completely unsustainable.

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I support this version of the plan it removes the building of a new town Dennybrook which would have been a disproportionate development for the area and did not allow for the number of transport movements such a large development would require.

Huntingdonshire District Council (HDC) welcome the opportunity to comment on the submission version of the Bedford Local Plan to 2040. We appreciate the challenging timescale and circumstances in which this submission Local Plan has been prepared and confirm that we believe the duty to cooperate has been met in terms of engagement between Bedford Borough Council and Huntingdonshire District Council regarding mutual strategic issues. We are pleased to note that the submission Local plan proposes to meet the housing need of Bedford Borough in full and that no request has been made to Huntingdonshire to assist with meeting needs.

Without prejudice to the emerging development strategy, O&H have concerns that the Introductory section (summarised in paragraph 1.34) is over reliant on external influences which, at present, are uncertain.

It is understood that the requirement for the early review is to reflect emerging national policies for the Oxford-Cambridge Arc. However, progress on the Spatial Framework has not kept to the published timetable and the suggestion now is that growth targets and the vision should be locally led. At the time to writing, it is not known what shape this will take. This does not alter the fact that growth in the Arc is supported by Government and it is a sustainable and sensible location for growth, as portrayed in the Economic Prospectus. Further, this area is under significant housing pressure and the review of the Local Plan is necessary even in the absence of top-down housing figures from Government.

The concern is that underpinning the Local Plan on the Ox-Cam Spatial Framework potentially undermines what is an otherwise sustainable growth strategy in an area of housing pressure.

A similar point could be made about the shape of the town and country planning system. At the time of writing, it is not known how the system might change in the future and this is particularly difficult to predict given current Government priorities.

O&H believe that the locally derived evidence underpinning the emerging Local Plan is robust and that the Introduction should explain that this forms the justification for the development strategy.