Windsor Drive Development Proposal, Houghton Regis Archive Notes
CBC Pause Plans to Build on Windsor Drive Open Space
17 Aug 2022
Central Bedfordshire Council will not be progressing any further works on the proposed development of affordable housing at Windsor Drive, in Houghton Regis at this time. The decision to pause this proposal has been made because the construction sector is exceptionally volatile currently and costs are rising rapidly. Instead, the Council will proceed with the delivery of other affordable housing schemes that are further along in the design stage.
Julie Ogley, Director of Social Care, Health and Housing, at Central Bedfordshire Council, said: “Whilst these cost pressures are having an adverse impact on all construction schemes, we think that by waiting 2-3 years, we will be in a better position to revisit and consider the Windsor Drive site. Central Bedfordshire Council will always endeavour to balance local concerns when exploring potential sites to better meet the demand for more affordable homes in Houghton Regis.”
The Friends of Windsor Drive Committee
issued this statement last night,
"This evening, like several others, we received the letter from Julie Ogley, Director of Social Care, Health and Housing for Central Bedfordshire Council (CBC).
"Whilst on the surface “The decision to pause this proposal” sounds great, the reality is it is just that…..a pause, which basically means eventually CBC will be back again wanting to develop the open space at Windsor Drive, as they have done several times over the past 25 years.
"We can certainly celebrate the decision to postpone and be very proud of the energy and drive with which the 630 plus members of The Friends of Windsor Drive have fought for our open space. There is no doubt that we have been a huge part of CBC's decision not to build, even if they never acknowledge that fact.
"However, for us the decision to postpone is just not good enough, therefore it is our intention to continue until the open space on Windsor Drive is returned to the people of Houghton Regis and we receive a commitment for it to be kept as leisure land in perpetuity and not built upon or designated as an allocated site for development in the Local Plan.
"We need the continued support of our members, Houghton Regis Town Council and Community at large to keep up the pressure on CBC to make the above happen."We’ve proved there is strength in coming together as a Friends of group, and hopefully everyone will be up for the the challenge ahead.
Town Council Vote Shows Support for not building on Windsor Drive Open Space
23 Jun 2022
A recorded vote was taken at the Houghton Regis Town Council (HRTC) meeting on Monday this week. Members of the Council were deciding whether or not to support a campaign group who are opposed to any suggestion from Central Bedfordshire Council (CBC) that they might build homes on an Open Space beside Windsor Drive.
For many years HRTC has cut the grass at the large open space on Windsor Drive, that it might be used for sports and recreation, even though the ownership of the land falls to CBC who regard it as an asset to be redeveloped.
In their address to the Town Council, members of the campaign group, Friends of Windsor Drive Community Open Space, sought the support of the Town Council to be unified in their approach to CBC when it came to any planning application for homes to be built on this Open Space. FoWDCOS recorded their comments (above). In the video the argument is put that Houghton Regis is providing more than its fair share of new housing for Central Bedfordshire, already.
However, although decisive recorded votes were taken, there were some abstentions and not all HRTC councillors were actually present. After deliberations, and the prospect of an alternative motion 2 was discussed, voting took place:
The published recommendations in the HRTC agenda were: 1. To continue to offer support to the Friends of Windsor Drive Group in terms of engaging in democratic processes;
This motion was voted on and was agreed.
2. To oppose any future development on Windsor Drive unless very special circumstances are shown in accordance with draft Neighbourhood Plan Policy 12.
Motion 2 was voted on but not agreed upon.
Cllr Kennedy (independent) then proposed a new recommendation2. According to the Labour group, the new recommendation put forward by Cllr Kennedy stated “The council supports the National Planning Policy Framework and its commitment to the brownfield sites instead of greenfield sites and therefore opposes any development on greenfield sites in Houghton Regis including Windsor Drive”.*
This new recommendation was voted FOR by the following councillors: Cllr M Kennedy (independent), Cllr C Slough (Labour), Cllr A Slough (Labour), Cllr C Copleston (Labour), Cllr J Carroll (independent), Cllr T McMahon (independent), Cllr P Burgess (independent). The Liberal Democrats present at the meeting abstained from this vote.
To find out more about the 582 member-strong Friends of Windsor Drive Community Open Space visit their Facebook (private) Group . The group's description states: “We wish to use this group for community comments and photos regarding the plans by Central Bedfordshire Council to build more homes on one of the only green areas left. As a community we need to know what is left will be kept for the use of local residents. Outside of covid restrictions this is used for football, rounders and running club activities as well as by local residents for exercise, dog walking and even golf recently.”
* may not be the agreed wording.
The Great British Spring Clean
13 Apr 2022
The Great British Spring Clean is coordinated by Keep Britain Tidy and ran from 25 March to 10 April 2022.
In Houghton Regis, Friends of Windsor Drive collected some 25 bags of rubbish, a burnt-out motorbike, a deep fat fryer, a Deliveroo bag, unmentionable smalls, and reported this sofa for removal, which later found its way into the middle of the field thanks to youths spotted in the area.
WINDSOR DRIVE - "100 HOMES"
2 Feb 2022
In January 2021, Keaveney, Assistant Director Housing Services, Social Care, Health & Housing Directorate told Houghton Regis Town Partnership that he would be engaging with local people about building '100 homes' at Windsor Drive, Houghton Regis, indicating that the engagement would be in the late spring / early summer of 2021.
A Central Bedfordshire Council spokesperson said: “The Council remains committed to involving the public should it get to the stage where any proposals are developed.
“We held a listening event in November where we heard from local people about how they use Windsor Drive, and how they would like to see it used in the future, and we’ve had conversations with Ward and Town Councillors. During the sessions, a number of people asked questions about what is possible with the land and which parts of the site, if any, could be built on. We are in the process of commissioning site investigations for the coming months to help us understand this, which will inform the next steps. We will continue to engage with the public once we have a better understanding.”
CBC - “Come and Talk to Us About Windsor Drive“
28 Oct 2021
Central Bedfordshire Council is asking residents about Windsor Drive.
On it's Facebook Page, today (28 Oct) CBC wrote, “We want to hear from you about the land at Windsor Drive, Houghton Regis, and the need for housing in the area.
“Earlier this year we announced that we were exploring whether we could develop affordable housing on some the land, while improving some of the remaining space to benefit the local community.
“While we’ve said that we want to explore this as an option, no decisions have been made, and we want to listen to the views of local people before we take these ideas any further.
“We’ll be holding an informal listening event at Houghton Hall Park Visitor Centre on Saturday 13 November, 12 – 5pm, and we’d love to hear from you.
“Come along at any point and have a chat with our team. Representatives from our team will also be walking around Windsor Drive itself at 3pm, starting near The Brook, and will be on hand to listen to your views.”
Joanne Anderson, an admin on the Facebook Group, Friends of Windsor Drive Community Open Space, (was a Public group at the time) responded to the appeal by commenting, “There’s over 500 members in The Friends of Windsor Drive group, but there’s always room for new members. Help us to make Central Bedfordshire Council listen, because they are obviously not, and join the group ❤️”
Campaigner, Danielle Melissa Osborne, also commented on the CBC post, “This is quite laughable Central Bedfordshire Council you want a listening event but you haven’t listened to date? Why will this be different? We’ve been trying to get you to listen since you announced your pre-determined plans about building on Windsor Drive!
“There is a petition of over 1500 residents telling you they don’t want it built on, why don’t you listen to that? Why don’t you listen to the anger there is from the people of Houghton Regis and just withdraw the plans?
“We need this space more than ever with increasing mental health concerns of our area, the deprivation in our area due to lack of infrastructure but yet you keep building and building with absolutely no thought to the people who already live here!
“I yet again look forward to meeting the Cbc officers who want to do this and actually don’t live here or know anything about what’s going on I look forward to educating you on what it’s really like here and not from behind your desks with a computer telling you the information 👍🏻”
CBC Committed to Building on Half of Windsor Drive Open Space
8 Jun 2021
A petition was presented to Central Bedfordshire Council (CBC) today, 8th June 2021. Joanne Anderson of Friends of Windsor Drive Community Open Space presented the petition and also sent a Power Point presentation to members of the Executive Committee at CBC the day before the meeting.
We the undersigned petition the council to review the potential future housing development on green open space in Houghton Regis at Windsor Drive.
The proposed development we have been advised about is to put 100 new houses plus open space improvements on an open field used by local residents for exercise, dog walking and recreation. It is used by local footballers and rounders teams in the summer but also for walks by a large number of the local population of Houghton Regis.
There is already thousands of houses being built in Houghton Regis with the new Linmere Development on top of what has already been recently built. This space is more important than ever to keep for recreation for local residents given the additional burden and subsequent mental health issues people are experiencing due to COVID-19. It’s critical that we maintain green space such as this.
For years we campaigned to move traffic away from Windsor Drive for the safety of local residents due to volume of traffic and pollution. With the opening of the Woodside link, we improved the huge traffic flow through such a small area. To add another 100 houses in such a small area would impact greatly on the surrounding area.
This will impact on all surrounding roads and residents so Windsor Drive, Tennyson Avenue, Halleys Way, Longbrooke predominately but also Bloomsbury Gardens and all roads around the Lowry Drive area and Tudor Drive Area.
This ePetition ran from 04/03/2021 to 24/05/2021 and has now finished.
554 people signed this ePetition.
During the 3-minute presentation of the petition mention was made of a green route through Houghton Regis from east to west, and reliance by local people on the Windsor Drive space. It was explained that over 1500 people had signed a petition on Change.org but CBC had requested that people use their own website to create a petition. It was explained in the presentation that many people had had difficulty signing the CBC petition.
Cllr Eugene Ghent on behalf of CBC's Executive responded to the petition. He explained that their technical people had tried to emulate problems on signing a CBC petition but had not found a problem.
Cllr Ghent said that the proposals were just that, proposals, at this stage. But the councillor also stuck to the Council's line that they were “committed to building on no more than half the land”. Mention was made to making better use of the space such as providing car parking to support recreational use, and planting trees. He also mentioned that the Council would not make any decisions without consulting with local councillors and would engage with the local community but they were not at that stage yet. He also said that there would be opportunity through formal planning consultation for residents to comment. He said that Tony Keaveny, assistant Housing Director, would be wiling to attend meetings with the 'Friends' group.
Special Pages have been created by Central Bedfordshire Council on their website to address Windsor Drive. Below are the words on those Pages as of 8 June 2021:
“About our proposed development in Windsor Drive, Houghton Regis
Windsor Drive is a proposed development of up to 100 affordable homes for rent and shared ownership, with a substantial amount of open space retained and enhanced to benefit local people. These homes will be available mainly for local people from Houghton Regis and Dunstable. Our approach to designing the homes and the retained open space will begin with a community engagement event later this year. This will give local people the opportunity to say how best the land should be developed and to suggest other things that could be included in the development, such as a shop.
“The land area is 6.05 hectares. We can assure local residents that not more than half of this area will be developed for housing; and it is not being sold to a developer or anyone else. Importantly, no more than 100 dwellings will be developed.
“More information about our Windsor Drive development
Why is this development being proposed?
There is a great need for affordable homes locally. The land is not as well used by the public as it could be and can be enhanced to enable more people to enjoy the open space that is there, and to potentially create an attractive woodland walk to rear of the land. A more compact open space could be retained as a field, or planted with trees and shrubs, or landscaped to look more attractive. Some parking can be integrated within the design to give people easier access to the grass.
Is Houghton Regis Town Council involved in bringing forward this proposal?
No, this is our project. Houghton Regis Town Council will be consulted with along with other organisations and local residents.
What are the timescales?
This proposal is just at the starting line. A planning application is necessary and that will not happen this year. Due to the anticipated consultation and master-planning exercise, start on site is not anticipated until 2023, and this depends on whether planning permission is granted. A planning application is likely during 2022. We will take our time to bring forward this proposal, so that we can listen to people’s ideas and suggestions along the way. Our intention is a high quality, sustainable development.
Has a decision already been made that the development is going to happen?
We've approved a budget of £20.6 million for this development. No other decisions have been made about the proposed design or how much of the land will be developed, or how the remaining land will be used to benefit local people. Planning permission will be required.
Will the Houghton Regis Neighbourhood Plan prevent this from happening?
The neighbourhood plan is not yet adopted, but is likely to be adopted this year, subject to consultation in spring 2021 and a local referendum. We will give weight to an adopted neighbourhood plan when a planning application is made for development of this land.
Can local people influence the proposal? If so, in what ways?
We plan to run a community engagement event similar to the one held for All Saints View, which took place over three intensive days, and offered residents an opportunity to comment and contribute. This will be the main opportunity for local people to influence the Windsor Drive proposal at an early stage. People can share their ideas on how the land can be developed to benefit the community, alongside the council-managed affordable homes and the enhancement of the open space.
What is the planning status of this land?
Windsor Drive is not designated as Green Belt land. However, the land is widely recognised as open space locally and we will consider this land to be a local amenity benefit. That in itself offers some protection to the land, which may be enhanced later in the year if the Houghton Regis Neighbourhood Plan is adopted.
Get involved in shaping our Windsor Drive proposals
We plan to run a community engagement event similar to the one held for All Saints View, which took place over three intensive days, and offered residents an opportunity to comment and contribute. This will be the main opportunity for local people to influence the Windsor Drive proposal at an early stage. People can share their ideas on how the land can be developed to benefit the community, alongside the affordable homes we manage and the enhancement of the open space.
You can have your say on the Houghton Regis Neighbourhood Plan through a consultation process and eventually a referendum. The Windsor Drive land is identified in that plan and people can comment through that consultation process, which is scheduled for spring 2021.
Prior to a planning application (during 2022), there will be an informal consultation on the detail of the proposals, where we will share designs and answer questions that people have.
Once the planning application is submitted, there will be consultation with local residents that is within the formal, well-established planning process.
15 March 2021 - CBC release an Info sheet. see below or download.
Councillors Hold Private Meetings and Send Information, But CBC Keeps Ignoring The Town
10 February 2021
Public feedback suggests that people in Houghton Regis want to retain Windsor Drive recreation ground, but it is a CBC Housing Revenue Asset and the unitary authority has aspirations to build up to 100 homes there. 3 CBC councillors for Houghton Regis, two Liberal Democrats and one Labour, have been taking part in unofficial 'information exchange meetings' in which Windsor Drive seems to have been bartered away in exchange for 'areas of improvement'. Meanwhile, an anticipated new Leisure Centre for Houghton Regis has been put back, at least by a few years, in favour of other projects in the CBC area. This week, councillors at a Houghton Regis Town Council committee meeting decided NOT to renew Windsor Drive or Houghton Regis Leisure Centre as Assets of Community Value. This report by Alan Winter, tries to inform you how all of this has unfolded.
(It's not always easy to get the right spot to start CBC videos so you might have to hop around the start points provided.)
Windsor Drive: 5th January
On the 5th January, Councillor Carole Hegley, a CBC Executive member, at the time with significant responsibility for Housing, seconded a motion approving the Central Bedfordshire Council's Draft Budget for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA).
The minutes of that meeting say, “In response to a question, the Executive Member for Adults Social Care and Housing Operations [Cllr Carole Hegley] explained that a working group, involving those ward Members that wanted to be involved had been formed in Houghton Regis to understand the aspirations for the town and what could be derived from investment there to benefit the community. Windsor Drive had been included in the draft HRA budget, this was the first step in enabling the activity to be delivered. Other areas of improvement for Houghton Regis had also been added to the draft budget after listening to feedback from ward Members.”
As far as I can ascertain, the 'ward members' for Houghton Regis would have included Cllrs Farrell (LibDem) Goodchild (LibDem) and Ryan (Labour), but not Cllr Hamill (Indep), as he left the group, he tells me, “months ago. It was a setup in my opinion just to get Windsor Drive built on. I don't go with set ups.”
I have also tried to find out what the "Other areas of improvement for Houghton Regis" might be, but am being told by CBC's Goodchild and Farrell that they do not know.
Listen here - 1:29:00:
Fast Forward to 26th January - Town Partnership
CBC are set to allocate £20m from it's 2021/22 budget to look to see how it might use its housing asset land at Windsor Drive, known locally as Windsor Drive recreation ground.
At the moment there are no hard plans, only aspirations, and the council, CBC, are hoping to find ways to engage with the community to find out how it might enhance the facilities there, whilst also building a suggested 100 homes.
The following recording is from the Town Partnership meeting of 26th January. Tony Keaveney, Assistant Director Housing Services, Social Care, Health & Housing Directorate at CBC speaks followed by a cross-examination put by local councillors.
The video starts at the right time in the meeting to see Tony talking.
Also, on the 26th January 2021, an item appeared on the Houghton Regis Town Council's Town Partnership Agenda entitled "INFORMAL INFORMATION SHARING ". The item goes on to say,
“Members may be aware that over the last few months the Chairs and Vice Chairs of the CBC Partnership Committees have met to share good practice in relation to the operation and function of the committee.
For Houghton Regis this has resulted in a more focused spin off group emerging comprising Houghton Regis Ward Councillors, 2 CBC Executive Councillors and the Chair and the Clerk Houghton Regis Town Council. This group has met a few times over the last 6 months or so. Some useful discussions have been had and ideas have been discussed for potential strategic projects in Houghton Regis. Members of the group are very aware that this is an informal, non-decision making group with no authority or remit other than to bring ideas forward.
It is hoped that as these ideas become more tangible that they can be presented for formal consideration.”
In other words, they have met privately, and they have no power to do anything. The Agenda item then continues,
“The Terms of Reference of this [Houghton Regis Partnership] Committee state:
Meetings and Quorum
4. In addition to the Committee meetings, the Town Joint Committee can organise other forms of engagement to take place such as themed discussions / task and finish groups and community conferences, including joint meetings or events with other Town Joint Committees in Central Bedfordshire.”
In other words, the Houghton Regis Partnership Committee has the authority to authenticate the work of an ad hoc group of people. This would legitimise what the ad hoc ideas group has already been doing without authority 'over the last few months'. The Agenda item then continues,
“To support the work of the group, members are requested to endorse the membership of this group and its basic remit.
Let's be clear, these last are two Dunstable CBC councillors with Executive roles at the time the report to the Houghton Regis Council was written. The additional responsibilities for Cllr Carole Hegley included Housing, and Cllr Young has had a lot to do with regeneration and roads. In an Executive reshuffle at CBC just before this Town Partnership meeting, both of these councillors lost their most significant and influential roles. The ward CBC councillors would include Cllrs Goodchild (LibDem), Farrell (LibDem), Ryan (Labour), and Hamill (Independent). Cllr Hamill has told me he had left this group by the time of this meeting.
The Agenda item then continues,
“Chair of HR Partnership Committee
Vice Chair of Partnership Committee (not currently included)
Chair of Houghton Regis Town Council
Clerk of Houghton Regis Town Council
Officer representation from CBC (not currently included”
“Remit
To discuss project ideas for Houghton Regis and for these to be put forward for further consideration.”
“Recommendation: To support and endorse the informal information sharing group:
To discuss project ideas for Houghton Regis and for these to be put forward for further consideration.”
A discussion then takes place about the above, and Houghton Regis Town Councillor, Cllr David Jones (LibDem), strikes out against the proposed membership of the committee. He starts by correcting misinformation about how in his view the meetings began and the number of them actually held, and points out that Cllr Hamill had told him that he had instigated them.
Cllr Jones continues to run down a list of what he sees as failings of CBC towards the town and the Town Council [see video below for full script]
In the video above, HRTC Cllr Jones points out various items of significance to do with Houghton Regis, information asked for by CBC with no feedback received from CBC. samples - Cllr Jones, “... the feasibility study for Kingsland was promised last March, since then we haven't seen it. We've had to judge the best situation for the new secondary school without the benefit of seeing that. Some of the aspirations are small things but not really prioritised but people are not really so bothered about those as long as the usual range of services is available. They are bothered about the big ticket items, schools, leisure centre, possible health centre, the town centre.
“There are signs in that programme that we're not being listened to. For me, the situation is summed up by the proposals on budget. Medium term financial plan. For capital last year included some £12m towards the Leisure Centre. This year, the proposal has been removed and replaced by £250,000 to be spent in year 4. In the Medium term financial plan for housing revenue we have the proposal forWindsor Drive. It just shows how out of touch CBC is with what's going on in this town. Those proposals are directly opposite to what people want. So there has to be change. Can't support the motion tonight, I will propose that we postpone consideration of this... ”:
He is followed by CBC Cllr Patrick Hamill who supports him (see video for full words), “We had Puddle Hill, that wasn't an Houghton Regis aspiration, it was officer lead. We had no one listening to the voices in Houghton Regis. I feel sorry for the Town Councillors, I know you've been ignored. It needs to change. You can't keep a deprived area deprived. It's got to change.”
See Footnote 1 - Cllr Hamill made a statement on 10 Feb, following this publication.
Rewind to 5th January: Houghton Regis Leisure Centre
On 5th January 2021, in CBC's Draft Capital Programme 2021/22 to 2024/25, Houghton Regis Leisure Centre was excluded, whereas Leisure Centres in Leighton Buzzard and Sandy would be catered for. Cllr Pat Hamill asked the CBC Executive meeting why £25m promised in 2020 was no longer allocated to Houghton Regis Leisure Centre, and instead why only £250,000 was allocated to the capital budget for 2024/25 for this project.:
Cllr Hamill was subsequently advised by the Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Corporate Resources, that the provision of leisure and a new school in Houghton Regis was being considered as part of the development of the Kingsland Site. Due to slower delivery of the housing development in Houghton Regis the development of a new leisure centre would be kept under review. Residents in Houghton Regis had access to Dunstable Leisure Centre (quotation from draft minutes).
Cllr Susan Goodchild wanted an explanation as to what had happened between 9th November and now to have a replacement Houghton Regis Leisure Centre removed from the budget? Houghton Regis was a significant area of growth:
Fast Forward to 8th February: HRTC Community Services Committee
This committee of Houghton Regis Town Council met virtually on 8 February. On the Agenda was an item to renew a couple of items of Assets of Community Value. The officers were recommending that an application be made to renew these sites: Land at Windsor Drive and HR Leisure Centre.
The recommendation was put. The vote was 4-3 against renewing the sites. A recorded vote was taken:
Against: Clare Copleston (Lab), Yvonne Farrell (LibDem), Susan Goodchild (LibDem), Martin Kennedy (Lab).
Following the vote, on the 9th February, Houghton Regis Town Council posted this message to their Facebook Page: “Assets of Community Value
Last night the Community Services Committee considered whether to list as a Community Asset the land at Windsor Drive and the HR Leisure Centre. Although it was ultimately decided not to, please be assured that the council will be actively involved in any future consultation or proposals for either site and we would encourage all residents with an interest in these, or other sites, to engage in any consultation process.
For further details on the Community Asset scheme including its benefits please follow this [link]”.
Conclusion
Well ... ? Our information exchanging CBC councillors in Houghton Regis have exchanged some ideas in unofficial meetings with powerful CBC Conservative councillors for as yet undisclosed trade-offs in exchange for going along with the idea of development of Windsor Drive.
Somewhere along the line someone at CBC has had the bright idea that developments at Houghton Regis are going too slowly and therefore the anticipated new Leisure Centre can be postponed.
Two of the town's HRTC's Community Services Committee are also CBC councillors for the Town, and two others are politically allied to another Houghton Regis CBC councillor that all voted not to relist Windsor Drive as an asset of community value.
Further Reading: Petition, Facebook Page, Community Right to...
1.Cllr Pat Hamill, writing on Facebook 10/2/2021 9:13am, and slightly edited later, "Just to put the record straight I set up a meeting with the two CBC Councillors Cllr Young & Hegley to see what Land could be made available for a Cemetery which I have been trying to source since I became a Councillor. The discussions turned towards trade offs to get this land. Meaning bringing forward housing on one side of Windsor Drive which then could offer land for a Cemetery and investments for recreational purposes for the rest of Windsor Drive. It was made clear by me that this package would have to be put before planning and as councillors considering the views of the residents. We continued with other projects such as parking schemes in Houghton Regis and many other investments needed on our estates to be funded. There is nothing wrong with talking to councillors outside of council to gauge what can and can't be done. It's called negotiation and we carried this out in good faith. We agreed to ask other
Councillors to join this group so both the Town Council and CBC were both represented sharing their views on what had been discussed. It was then decided to call it an Aspiration Group because that is what councillors should have for their communities, aspirations. It was never going to be a secret group and a list was developed to present to the partnership Committee so we could hear what they had to say, only nothing ever got done that was on this list apart from a thrust by these two councillors to push the housing side through. The small ticket items were ignored, the Cemetery land identified was never discussed by the Town Council as far as I was aware. In my opinion this aspirations group was merely a front for two executive members to lay the foundations down for more housing on Windsor Drive so I pulled out finally.
We have enough housing in Houghton Regis but at the time I felt we were as Councillors safe in the knowledge that the residents would have the final say on any package put before them. I will support those residents."
2. Houghton Regis Labour Team, writing on their blog on the afternoon following this publication, “Assets of Community Value ... has been occasionally used to save the odd pub or shop ... we as a parish town council would not be allowed to borrow the sum of money required ... Even if we were allowed to borrow this sum, it would mean a colossal amount of financial debt going into millions of pounds ... our efforts and energies would be far better directed at ensuring that the inevitable development on Windsor Drive creates the least possible disruption to the area and that the maximum public utility is retained. We are fully committed to listening to the community and working towards achievable outcomes for the growth and development of Houghton Regis, to build a town that we are all proud of.
Friends of Windsor Drive Community Open Space Facebook Group Created
Green open space in Houghton Regis at Windsor Drive is being considered for housing development by Central Bedfordshire Council.
The news of the Council's intention to build on the site came in the Housing Revenue Account report to the Executive Committee of Central Bedfordshire Council on Tuesday, 5th January 2021. Particulars of the proposed development were discussed at the meeting.
The HRA report specifically mentions Windsor Drive, a couple of times (see quotes below). The report states that the site is in the 'Parkside estate', and Cllr Susan Goodchild commented during the meeting that it is in the ward she represents, Houghton Hall.
“59. The other large site, that is new to the programme, is land at Windsor Drive in Houghton Regis. This is a substantial area of green space within the Parkside estate. At this early stage of feasibility and site assessment a development of 100 homes is being considered, which will allow significant open space to be retained and enhanced, yielding significant local benefits. The intention is to incorporate local space improvements and wider linked benefits locally. Careful consideration will be given to the best type of housing and tenure mix. An expenditure of £20.6M is proposed, with potential HE funding of £2.5M, to leave net spend of £18.1M. Due to the anticipated consultation and master-planning exercise, start on site is not anticipated until 2023; the majority of spend is shown in years 3-4 of the MTFP.”
“60. The approach to the development of land at Windsor Drive will begin with a Planning-for-real type event, similar to the approach that was taken for the development of All Saints View, as a means to engage the community in a process aimed at benefits optimisation, as a genuine Place-shaping opportunity. That process will begin during the spring of 2021 and will be designed to maximise opportunities for local people to say how best the land should be developed to deliver both affordable housing and to enhance the amenity space. ”
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Residential Development Ahead For Windsor Drive Recreation Ground.
17 Jan 2017 : The Town Council at one time had aspirations of building a sports pavilion at Windsor Drive to better facilitate the provision of sports fields in Houghton Regis.
The site was invaded by travellers in 2018 and it is alleged that traveller children used tools to smash down concrete bollards to gain access. The site was left with considerable amounts of fly-tipping.
South Bedfordshire District Council Consider Development at Windsor Drive
13 January 2009
South Bedfordshire District Council (SBDC) Executive considered a report weighing up the pros and cons of development at (a) Creasey Park in Dunstable
(b) Astral Park in Leighton Buzzard, (c) Windsor Drive in Houghton Regis.
In the case of Windsor Drive, they “set aside £.3m funding in connection with the Grove Theatre development. The estimated cost of the scheme is now
£1m including fees. There is a funding gap of at least £.22m and if Football Foundation money is not available, which is likely to be the case, this will increase to £.7m. There is now a question over value for money. We believe we should look to discharge our planning obligations in respect
of The Grove development through the Creasey Park project.” This document is available to download>
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