Issues and Options

Yes

The Biddenham Society recognises the direction and requirements provided by the National Planning Policy Framework and, as a result of this, understands the context of the Local Plan. Policies will need to be agreed in the early stages of developing this plan and the Society hopes it will continue to be consulted on these. Specifically, retention and enforcement of Policy 19 is necessary to avoid further encroachment of the green space between Biddenham and Bromham. It should be expanded to include maintenance of the green space between Biddenham and Great Denham, ie to protect the current Great Denham Golf course from being developed.

The Biddenham Society agrees with the Vision set out but believes there are direct conflicts between the outcomes set out in this and the objectives of housing, workplace and infrastructure development. For example, you refer to a greener and more attractive place to live and yet may plan to build on green areas surrounding many villages and areas of scenic beauty.

I do not agree with this plan period

The Biddenham Society suggests extending the duration of the plan to 2050. This would take into account the extensive input required in the development of this plan and remove the need to repeat the exercise until approximately 2040 when progress to that point, based on the output of this plan, could be properly assessed rather than doing so in an iterative and more regular manner.

Yellow – A421 based growth , Pink – Rail growth , Orange – East-West rail northern station growth , Red – New settlement based growth

The Biddenham Society does not support the developments Brown and Grey. The Grey Development would have a significant negative society-related with the building of a large number of houses across the region rather than focusing this on impacting a smaller number of areas but to a greater extent. The Brown Development suggests expansion of the Town area, the likely outcome of which will be continued eroding of the green space between Bedford and Biddenham and similar villages such as Wootton, Salph End, Renold, Cardington and Elstow thus diminishing the village look and feel of these locations. There should be no further large-scale housing developments within a reasonable radius of Biddenham (see development sites listed below). This should be enforced through new or amended policies. Recent developments have reduced significantly the amount of green space in the surrounding area. These developments in the last 25 years include: Deep Spinney – 350 houses built in the mid-90s Great Denham – 1,600 houses built since the late 1990s North of Bromham Road (West) – 500 houses built from 2017 North of Bromham Road (East) – 200 houses built from 2017 Gold Lane – 249 houses due to be built from 2021 North of Bromham Road Old Golf Course – 700 planned to start in the coming years

The Biddenham Society considers this to be outside of its remit and does not wish to comment.

The Biddenham Society considers this to be outside of its remit and does not wish to comment

The Biddenham Society considers this to be outside of its remit and does not wish to comment.

The Biddenham Society considers this to be outside of its remit and does not wish to comment.

I agree

The Biddenham Society recommends the inclusion of solar panels and car charging ports as standard in all new houses.

The Biddenham Society recommend that any building within an existing village (eg filling brown-field sites in preference to using green space) reflects the buildings in the surrounding and local area in terms of styles, architectures and materials and that this should be reflected and controlled through the correctly-developed and subsequently enforced policies.