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The east-west rail link should go south of Bedford and link with the new railway station proposed at Wixams - which we were promised and still await delivery. This would provide a proper north-south and east-west hub. Development north of Bedford should not be considered until Wixams is fully complete. No housing development should take place until all extant Planning Permissions are fully built out to protect the rural communities. No new greenfield development should be allowed until all brownfield sites within the current envelopes of cities, towns and villages have been re-developed to meet current demands. If developers are sitting on brownfield land the council should use compulsory purchase orders to get the land into the system.
You can't plan for the next 25 years - nobody can predict the future to that extent.
A new railway station at Wixams forming a new north-south and east-west hub that is connected to the east-west road infrastructure that was built there for this very purpose in the first place.
Make sure the strategy on infra-structure is properly thought through. You've started one idea to build the east-west links south of the town but now you have to follow it through instead of starting again on the north of the town.
The recently built east-west A421 corridor is the best place to locate this kind of development as the infrastructure is already there and can only be improved with a new station at Wixams.
There is still a significant shortfall of homes at Wixams and opportunity at the brownfield Stewartby brickworks site. There are also many other extant planning permissions that have not been built-out. Developers should be forced to complete their current developments before any new proposals are considered. All brownfield land within current SPAs should be developed before any more greenfields are lost. The east-west railway station should be south of Bedford and link up with the new Wixams station.
The High Street is dying because of on-line shopping and all the signs are that this will only accelerate due to COVID-19. Why not put more housing back into redundant town centre buildings where it will meet a need and be truly sustainable. If you could live in the centre of Bedford the town is small enough for you go practically anywhere on foot.
The use of ground-source heating should be the default position before solar panels and wind turbines. Houses and businesses should be in the town so that people can walk or cycle to work. It should not be acceptable to build on greenfield sites which leads to more car and bus travel at the expense of the environment. Development away from the town is not sustainable and developers should be actively discouraged from bringing forward such ideas.
The space standards in new houses are inadequate and there is never enough storage space. All the sites outside the town have been over-developed with densities that leave residents with little or no gardens - no space to sit out or for children to play or to allow you to grow your own vegetables.
