‘Our town is a dumping ground for new builds’: Locals blast plans for 416-house estate on fields pushed through by Labour that will see neighbours ‘stare’ down at them_Nhy
Residents in a quiet town are up in arms after a massive housing development for more than 400 homes was approved despite the council rejecting it.
Locals in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire have claimed their community has become a ‘dumping ground for newbuilds’.
They are furious at the plans for 416 new homes on a 43-acre site and say the scheme will cause havoc on local roads and put further strain on already busy doctors’ surgeries.
The plans, put forward by Hallam Land Management, were rejected by Central Bedfordshire Council in August last year.
However, they were later given the greenlight as part of Labour’s plan to build 1.5million new homes across Britain over the next five years.
Fuming resident Nicola Haynes said other towns need to be targeted for development.
She told MailOnline: ‘The mother of two said: ‘I do think that other towns and villages should take their fair quota because we can’t get appointments or dentists, and the schools are full to the brim.
‘I’m not one of these Nimby (Not in my backyard) protestors but I just think we’ve had so much of the new estates being built in the last six to seven years, it’s been continuous and it’s just too much.
‘It just seems like Biggleswade is the dumping ground for new builds.’
The plans put forward by Hallam Land Management which have been fought by councillors will see up to 416 homes on the 43-acre site in Biggleswade, Beds
Neighbours have cited concerns over the scheme’s impact on local infrastructure and said the town already lacks doctors at GP’s
The plane will see see up to 416 homes on the 43-acre site in Biggleswade, Beds
After the scheme was initially rejected the developer appealed the plans which saw them being approved subject to several conditions imposed by a planning inspector.
The company submitted a second planning application before the appeal was determined, which attempts to address issues raised in its original project, according to the town council.
Residents have now told MailOnline they blamed the new government in their plans to bypass local councils to get plans approved.
It comes as the Prime Minister unveiled a radical overhaul to planning system rules saying he would prioritise ‘human beings wanting to have a house’ over the environment.
The changes for England – designed to prevent so-called ‘Nimbys’ blocking development – could see hundreds of thousands of acres of Green Belt land redesignated as low-value ‘grey belt’ land.
The new framework also imposes mandatory housing numbers on local authorities across the country – many of which have already been condemned as unachievable.
Neighbours in this Bedfordshire town are not happy as they say infrastructure has not kept up.
Ms Haynes, a resident for over 20 years, said the community have been fighting the plans for years as there has been a barrage of newbuilds around the town and neighbours are saying they have had enough.
The 52-year-old said: ‘I’m also going to go from having a view of the field to getting homes staring at me.
‘I must admit I don’t go out into the town because we’ve had people move here from all walks of life, some of them from Luton and they were thrown out of their housing estate – maybe through no fault of their own.
![David Ford, 74, said: 'I was at the council meeting when the public was allowed to attend and [the planners] got absolutely hammered by the councillors and by residents'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/12/14/93029391-14185571-image-m-7_1734015535702.jpg)
David Ford, 74, said: ‘I was at the council meeting when the public was allowed to attend and [the planners] got absolutely hammered by the councillors and by residents’
Ms Haynes added: ‘The roads are gridlocked so building more houses is not going to help the situation. We keep on being told that will be dealt with but it’s just not.’
Mother-of-two Nicola Haynes, pictured, a resident for over 20 years, said there has been a barrage of newbuilds around the town and neighbours are saying they have had enough
‘But the crime rate has got really bad. I’ve met locals who were born and bred here and even they’re not happy and they don’t want to live here.
‘The roads are gridlocked so building more houses is not going to help the situation. We keep on being told that will be dealt with but it’s just not.’
‘We get people coming from Luton who can’t get houses there, so they come live here. We get drug dealers who move in and then wreck the houses. That happened to a house near me. And we’ve never had this before.’
Louisa Baker, 75, said: ‘There’s a lot of pressure to build more houses, and it’s only logical that the government are pressuring councils to get building.
‘That’s the only logical reason for them to be told to build because the council said ‘No”.
Pensioner Janice Holben-Smith, 74, said: ‘The amount of traffic we get up and down the road next to where the houses will be built is horrible. It is busy enough as it is, you ought to come here at night the way they’re parked, it’s disgusting because they don’t have space to park around here.
‘A lot of the houses here don’t have driveways so there isn’t enough space for people to park.’
Former carer Pat Stevens, 80, who has lived in the area for 60 years said: ‘The thing is there’s not enough doctors or dentists.
‘You can’t get appointments now so another 400 houses will just cause even more chaos.
The plans were rejected by Central Bedfordshire Council in August last year but were later by appeal
Meanwhile, neighbour Andrea Martin said: ‘With all of the trucks coming in and out of Biggleswade because of the construction, it’s just going to make matters worse. I’m completely against these plans.’
A resident of 50 years in the town, David Ford, 74, said: ‘I was at the council meeting when the public was allowed to attend and [the planners] got absolutely hammered by the councillors and by residents.
‘The developers stood up without any real argument and everybody came away with the feeling that it had been rejected.’
His wife Janet added: ‘It’s going to totally overload at peak times those roads at school time and the traffic will stretch from one end of the town to the other.’
Hallam Land Management has been contacted for comment.
Central Bedfordshire Council have been contacted for comment.
Bedfordshire Police has been contacted for comment.
