Policy HOU2 Mayes Yard, High Street and Silver Street, Bedford

Showing comments and forms 1 to 4 of 4

Support

Bedford Borough Local Plan 2040 Plan for Submission

Representation ID: 9258

Received: 27/07/2022

Respondent: Mrs Alison Myers

Representation Summary:

Welcome an ambitious solution for this area.

Full text:

Welcome an ambitious solution for this area.

Comment

Bedford Borough Local Plan 2040 Plan for Submission

Representation ID: 9666

Received: 26/07/2022

Respondent: Historic England

Representation Summary:

The site is located within the Bedford Conservation area and includes the grade II* listed Harpur Suite, the Grade II listed Corn Exchange and the remains of the George Inn which is a scheduled monument. The Corn Exchange was recently listed. The area has been part of the Heritage Action Zone. There are a number of listed buildings nearby, most notably St Pauls Church and the Statue of John Howard, both listed at grade I and numerous grade II listed buildings.
Any development of this site has the potential to impact upon the heritage assets and their settings. Therefore, we recommend you prepare an HIA. The HIA should also draw on the new research and values from the Heritage Action Zone.
The recommendations of the HIA should then be used to inform the policy wording
We note the reference to an HIA as the first stage in the masterplanning process. It is indeed important for an HIA to inform the masterplanning.
However, ideally a brief HIA should be prepared now and the recommendations for the HIA should be used to inform the policy wording in the Plan.
vi. Whilst we broadly welcome this criterion, it may be better to use the following wording, given multiple asset types. ‘Development should conserve or where appropriate enhance the significance of heritage assets including the Conservation Area and listed buildings (noting that significance may be harmed by development within the setting of an asset)’.
vii We welcome criterion vii.
viii We welcome criterion viii

Comment

Bedford Borough Local Plan 2040 Plan for Submission

Representation ID: 9716

Received: 26/07/2022

Respondent: Historic England

Representation Summary:

We welcome the preparation of heritage impact assessments for many of the sites.
This is an important part of the evidence base and helps to justify the allocation and policy requirements for sites.
However, there are a number of issues in relation to the sites and HIAs.
For some sites, there does not appear to be an HIA and yet there are heritage issues
that need to be addressed.
These include sites HOU2, HOU8 and parts of HOU14.
In these cases, please prepare a proportionate HIA prior to EiP and use the recommendations to inform policy wording.

Object

Bedford Borough Local Plan 2040 Plan for Submission

Representation ID: 10476

Received: 29/07/2022

Respondent: Bedfordshire Police

Agent: West Mercia OPCC

Legally compliant? Yes

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Yes

Representation Summary:

Having worked with Bedford Borough Council during the preparation of its Local Plan and Infrastructure Delivery Plan, Bedfordshire Police (BP) is very disappointed with the outcome of this in two key respects:

1. Policies HOU1 – HOU 19 do not reference the police, or indeed the emergency services, infrastructure that will be required to support the developments they propose.

2. Although BP provided the Council and its consultants (AECOM) with a detailed Infrastructure Plan detailing precisely the police infrastructure required to support new housing growth in the Borough, only its contents in relation to premises requirements have been allowed for in the Council’s Infrastructure Delivery Plan (IDP) and even then inaccurately. The Council’s IDP also erroneously states that BP will eventually be able to meet the costs of delivering the infrastructure required to the growth envisaged by the Local Plan. In fact developer funding will be required to meet the costs. This was explained and evidenced at length in the Infrastructure Plan submitted by BP.

The above outcomes contrasts starkly with the basic expectation that when people move into a new housing estate or other development, they are protected by police and other emergency services that can operate efficiently and effectively in that vicinity. This applies to all levels of service, whether they ring 999 should the worst happen, or are simply benefitting from the reassurance of day-to-day neighbourhood policing for example.

It means in turn that the delivery of police and other emergency services infrastructure needs to be planned and funded in advance of a new development scheme, in the same way as utilities, education, health, transport and other public services that are currently specified in various places in Policies HOU1 – HOU19.

The potential impact on the police and other emergency services from a new development is not simply due to an increase in population, but also the location of where that new population is arising and the impact that it will have on the present disposition of emergency services resources. Delivery of services to the new communities is also not just about responding to crimes or incidents, but also includes community assurance, delivery of crime safety advice and where necessary providing referral responses when there are expressed concerns about the safety of children, the elderly or those with special needs, for example.

The experience of BP shows that new developments quickly take on the characteristics of surrounding areas in terms of calls, incident types and crime numbers, even from the point when materials are delivered to a site. Therefore, service provision needs to be expanded accordingly, as do those of other public service providers.

This is very important as development growth, particularly new housing development, has significant and permanent implications for the emergency services once delivered. Whether it takes place on green fields, urban centres or redundant factory sites, new schemes invariably result in an increased demand for ‘blue light’ services.

Hence why planning policies (i.e. HOU1 – HOU19) have a key role to play in ensuring that the police and other emergency services can provide the same level of service to the residents/occupiers of a new development as for existing residents, without compromising frontline services. After all, it is only possible to create successful places and support new communities if they are brought forward alongside adequate services and infrastructure.

BP would also like to point out at this juncture that mitigating the impact of a given scheme on the emergency services is not a false choice between design or infrastructure measures. These in fact go together to ensure a development is safe and secure. The emergency services want to see schemes that incorporate fire safety measures, adopt Secured by Design guidance, include suitable access for response vehicles (police cars, fire engines and ambulances alike) and provide the infrastructure necessary to enable service delivery and on-going coverage for the scheme in question. Current legislation and policy do not permit ambulance services, fire and rescue services and the police to downgrade the level of their provision to a new development scheme because it incorporates fire safety and/or crime prevention design measures. Appropriate new infrastructure for the police and other emergency services is therefore always required.

This is why sustainability of a development to the police and other emergency means two things. It firstly means schemes that both passively (through design measures) and actively (through infrastructure provision) preserve community safety. If a building or place does not provide these things, there can be no quality of life for the people who will reside, work or visit there, leading ultimately to an unsustainable development.

This is not only the view of our organisations. We are sure you will agree those who purchase properties on a development, who may bring up families there, or for whom it may be a place of work, will want to know that it is a safe environment underpinned by emergency services providing effective and efficient services. It is not only in the interests of the continual well-being of the new residential and/or business community that has been created, but also to protect those in existing communities that will border the development in question. Conversely, there would be great anxiety amongst all these people, new and existing, if the emergency services network was stretched to beyond capacity.

Turning to what is meant by ‘infrastructure’ in this context, the Council’s IDP takes the view that police infrastructure is purely new buildings or works to existing buildings. However, in an police and other emergency services context (and as BP showed in the infrastructure plan it submitted to the Council), infrastructure includes


• Vehicles of varying types and functions as needed to cover the development in question e.g. deployment for emergency response, patrol or follow-up for incidents.

• Personal equipment for officers and staff e.g. workstations, radios, protective equipment, uniforms and bicycles;

• Radio cover e.g. base stations, hardware and signal strengthening equipment;

• CCTV and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras;

• Mobile IT technologies e.g. body worn cameras and smart tablet computers; and

• Firefighting equipment such as Fire Lances and thermal imaging cameras.

This may seem an unnecessarily expansive definition, but what constitutes ‘infrastructure’ in any given case is what would not be otherwise directly needed by the emergency services but for the new development.

It is a view shared by the Government. Under Schedule 11 (204N(3) of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, the emergency services are classified as infrastructure and the Bill also states that this encompasses facilities and equipment.

This is why we consider that in the absence of references to planning for police and emergency services infrastructure in Policies HOU1 – 19, they are unsound in the context of paragraph 35 of the National Planning Policy Framework.