Houghton Regis In Pictures - The Water that Sits and Sits on the High Street

Sometimes you couldn't make it up, could you, but this is the High Street in Houghton Regis, today as it has been for years.

I wrote, asking Highways when they would be sorting this drainage problem out. The response came back on the 24th February:



"We have logged your comments and will continue to monitor this. This issue will be picked up when all the remedials in the area associated with the Morrisons development are completed in the near future."



Meanwhile, a little further along the road, at the junction of The Green and Drury Lane, an apparently superfluous work is being done by Highways, ON LAND LOOKED AFTER BY THE TOWN COUNCIL who say they have not been consulted.

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In Search of a Cemetery Space for Houghton Regis

At the weekend I had a wander over Bidwell. Along the Chiltern Way, past Blue Waters Woodland, through the mud, and then stopped to look over the land to the north.



Looking north towards Thorn Road from the Chiltern Way, along the northern edge of Houghton Regis Chalk Pit.

Houghton Regis current cemetery is almost full. We need a new cemetery to last the town and the new building in the town into the future.



So, I've commented to  CB/15/00297 - Land West of Bidwell (Houghton Regis North Site 2) Houghton Regis  that up to 6ha being part of the area designated as Playing Fields, bounded by The Chiltern Way, Blue Waters Woodland,  and Sewage Works could be set aside for a new cemetery for Houghton Regis. 



Also suggested that the developers be requested in S106 monies to ask the Environment Agency to investigate the suitability of this 6ha for use as a cemetery, and if suitable, to request that that 6ha are levelled to prepare the site as a cemetery.



And that construction of site roads up to the Chiltern Way footpath be done as early as possible to permit access to this new cemetery site. 

Part of the Chiltern Way footpath south of the red-lined area already has a hedge, and this could be extended.

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Where to Hold Planning Meetings, And When?

Is it to far to go for local people to attend Development Management Control meetings at Central Bedfordshire Council?

I'm not really sure if that is a genuine concern or just an excuse. 

Public transport between Houghton Regis and CBC's offices at Chicksands is not easy, but it is possible. A journey by car is much easier. If people have real concerns they'll do what it takes to get there if they feel it is important to them.

There are usually several applications to be heard from all parts of Central Bedfordshire. Theoretically, it should be possible to have the councillors decide all the applications in towns local to each town affected, but I'm not convinced this would be a practical or a good use of councillors' or officers' time carting all their maps etc around. 

It might however, be practical and sensible in certain circumstances to have more meetings at localised centres, such as at Watling House in Dunstable for applications affecting Dunstable, Houghton Regis, Toddington and possibly Leighton Buzzard. 

The meetings might be held in the evening to facilitate attendance by people who work during the day, but this could mean they can go on until very late, and if you happen to be a councillor for say, Sandy, that means a long late-night journey home. And public transport might be even more of a challenge at that time of day.

The other beef often expressed is that "councillors who don't know an area shouldn't be deciding planning matters that don't affect them". 

It should be borne in mind that the councillors on that committee are offered to be shuttled around Central Bedfordshire to visit application sites before their meetings, so they often get access to private land that is not always afforded to the general public, so actually, they can be more informed about aspects of the applications than local people. You also need to factor in that they will have built up knowledge of how planning works, what is a planning ground for an objection and what is not. 

I would hope that most councillors would want to be seen as consistent in their approach, after all, similar applications requiring decisions may be made in any part of Central Bedfordshire.

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Houghton Regis: Building developments around Central Beds versus LBC And A "Duty To Co-operate"

An Inspector has said that he "considers the co-operation between Central Bedfordshire Council and Luton Borough Council in particular has fallen short of the required level."

He is now recommending non-adoption of the Development Strategy Plan for Central Bedfordshire.

Cllr Nigel Young has responded saying, "I cannot and will not accept the Inspector’s conclusions that it is ‘inevitable’ for the area to meet all of Luton’s unmet need. We genuinely feel his findings are at best misguided, if not perverse, and next week I will be seeking the support of the full Council to call for a judicial review of the process."

Well, I think the next CBC Council meeting will call for a judicial review, but it's six of one and half a dozen of the other. LBC have not co-operated with CBC. At the development meeting I attended last week the 2 parcels of land in Houghton Regis off Bedford Rd were for determination as part of the overall scheme for Development. An LBC planning officer attended to verbally object but admitted they had not made written objections during the consultation period and that their councillors had not discussed the applications; it was just their planning officer objecting. As far as their ideas on planning go, he apparently wasn't even clear as to how he was to get back to Luton, as our Houghton Regis Town Clerk ended up offering him a lift back to Clophill so he could catch a bus.

The Inspector's decision will make it harder for local councils to resist other housing schemes that come forward. 

By allowing building to go ahead off Bedford Rd on land that actually does include a minimum of some green stretches to broadly fit in with the aspirations of the HRN Framework Plan, CBC planning dept could argue they are doing their best to keep to the plan. 

With that plan now being classed as unsound due to insufficient cooperation with neighbouring local authorities, developers could just argue back (with expensive QCs) saying that there should be no hindrance to their building. After all, they've long been saying that the Green Belt will be rolled back to the line of the A5-M1 link and assuming that it does get rolled back, then there would be nothing to stop developers from arguing the case to fill up any remaining plots. CBC would have no plan to fall back on that says "This is how many homes we said we'd build, and we've now reached that limit".

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The Clanger - Number One

The Clanger Issue 1 ..... February 2015

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Houghton Regis Can Say Goodbye to Aspirational Green Spaces

Houghton Regis (North) Framework Plan (download link)

I suppose I could say that I had an aspiration to holiday in Hawaii every year, or to buy a new suit every month, but let's face it, as aspirations go that's all fine and dandy, but the reality is that it aint probably going to happen. 

If we ever thought that the Houghton Regis (North) Framework Plan was ever a plan we could heavily rely on in planning terms, then we were sadly mistaken. For it is now abundantly clear that it is just a scribble on a bit of paper that totally lacks accuracy, sincerity, or even credibility.

The Framework Plan for Houghton Regis (North) was "just an aspiration" said the planning officer to the Development Management Committee at CBC, today. The "plan" was circulated in full colour on A3 sheets for its members at the meeting, showing broad green arrows where they had previously toiled to "aspire" to have green corridors from the east of Bidwell homes across to Blue Waters woodland. And despite this, two planning applications before the committee were clearly slap bang in the middle of these green scribbles. And they voted in favour of the applications. 

Thank goodness for those few prepared to vote against, or abstain from making a decision. Pity that more didn't.

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