Bedford Borough Local Plan 2040 Plan for Submission

Object

Representation ID: 9832

Received: 28/07/2022

Respondent: Pippin Enterprises Ltd

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

I object to the inclusion in the plan of Policy EMP6 Business Park, Land at Water End and St Neots Road.

[a] The use of land at the junction of the A421 at Water End Renhold may be appropriate, but it is not appropriate to allocate a site that is split by the A421, requiring a duplication of access and main services. For reasons that follow, the allocation of a larger Site 764 might be supported, but the allocation of Site 761 is not supported.

The following comments all relate to Site 761.

[b] Renhold is essentially a linear village comprising a number of ‘ends’ separated by green gaps. Site 761 essentially would join Green End and Water End, so compromising the character of this part of the village.

[c] Site761 would be a scale of development that would dwarf the residential properties at Green End and Water End that it wraps around, destroying their rural character.

[d] Access is suggested from the roundabout at the A421 junction. More detailed work by the landowner I have seen shows that there is insufficient room for another significant access off the roundabout, and if the proposal proceeds the intention will be to close the existing access into the village, to create a new access into Site 761, and take a new access into the village from within the site. Hence, the only access into the village from the A421 will have to be through whatever development takes place on Site 761. This would be totally unacceptable, again compromising the essential character of Renhold.

[e] Whether Green End remains as an access from the roundabout or a new access to the village is provided through Site 761, the development will generate significant volumes of traffic, the nature of which will only be known when the type of development is finalised.
Renhold already has traffic problems, with the route through the village, including Green End and Water End being used to bypass Bedford by traffic from the west wanting access to the A421. Measures such as the traffic lights at Church End, where the road is too narrow for 2 lanes of traffic, average speed cameras between Green End and Church End, and a ban on through traffic in the morning and evening rush hours have already been implemented to try to reduce the scale of the problem. The proposed developments at Sites 761 and 764 will greatly increase the risk of traffic through the village, and it’s difficult to identify any further measures, short of closing the route somewhere, that could address this. If access to Green End is taken through Site761 as seems to be being suggested, this will effectively direct traffic from within Site 761 towards the village, compounding the traffic problem.

[f] Site 761 is earmarked for ‘a modern research campus-style development, primarily for research and development with elements of manufacturing, warehousing and distribution’. Apart from the scale of development being inappropriate whatever use is finally developed, the suggestion from sites elsewhere along the A421 is that warehousing and distribution uses predominate. These bring a scale of development that would be totally inappropriate on Site 761, perhaps not to such a great extent on Site 764. These uses would also seriously exacerbate the traffic problems through the village when drivers ignore the restrictions, as they do already. If EMP6 remains in the plan the terms ‘warehousing’ and ‘distribution’ should be removed from any suggested development types.

[g] If Site 761 is deleted from the plan, Site 764 could be extended as a replacement, with development extending eastwards on the south side of the A421. Such development would be remote from existing residential properties, would require only one access off St Neots Road, and would not compromise the A421 access into Renhold.

[h] The allocation of Sites 761 and 764 seems to reflect land ownership. Surely it is not good planning to allocate development in this way, when a better solution in this location can be found by allocating a site across 2 or more ownerships on the south side of the A421.