ELECTION SPECIAL - Barton-le-Clay Focus

Janet Nunn for Central Beds Councillor on 7th May

The latest edition of Focus, produced by the Lib Dem Focus Team in Barton-le-Clay, is now available to download.

Threat to Barton from UKIP family

Lib Dem PPC Linda Jack on hustings panel (4th from left)

Barton-le-Clay is threatened with massive new development on the Green Belt if a local UKIP candidate MP's sister-in-law gets her way.

Tim Smyth, husband of north-east Beds UKIP candidate MP Adrianne Smyth, let slip last night that his sister plans to build a whole new village on the north-east edge of Barton. He and his wife were talking to me after the first hustings for Bedfordshire parliamentary candidates yesterday.

I'd asked Adrianne Smyth to clarify a remark she'd made earlier. She had said that, if elected, UKIP would “take villages out of over-washed Green Belt status”. She confirmed her intention was to keep Green Belt around villages, but to allow building and extensions within villages themselves once their Green Belt status was removed.

But then her husband pointed out that Bedfordshire was “rather better” at this than Hertfordshire and as Lib Dem candidate MP Linda Jack joined our group, Mr Smyth announced his sister's building plans with (momentary hesitation and clicking of fingers while he searched for the name) 'Kilroy'.

The hustings, hosted by the Country Landowners' Association (CLA) at Shuttleworth manor house early yesterday evening, were well attended by CLA members.

The next hustings will be in Shefford at the St. Michael & All Angels Parish Church hall, Shefford, SG17 5DD from 7.30pm on Thursday 16 April. All are welcome to attend to question MP candidates on their views and local issues.

What do you think? Please email me at janet.nunn@ntlworld.com or call 01582 882799
Janet Nunn - Lib Dem candidate for Central Beds Council 2015

To go safely

This month's Focus newsletter hit a few raw nerves. The poor state of roads and footpaths at various points around the village was flagged up also by:

• Jackie who's concern at the faded marking on the zebra crossing between Gale Court and the surgery. This is used especially by schoolchildren and the elderly on this busy east-west rat-run between the A1 and M1. See photo below. 

I reported it to highways@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk and urge you to do the same if you share the concern. And is this enough or is there a need for a lollipop person (school crossing patrol person) or a traffic light controlled crossing to ensure motorists stop at busy schooltimes? Do let me know your experience.

• Bob who welcomed support for his long running campaign to have the pavement on the northern side of the Sharpenhoe Road outside number 4 repaired.
• Ken, who was pleased to hear I'd reported the sunken drains on the southern side of Sharpenhoe Road as one leaves the village going west, then added his own observations of more sunken drains on the bridge crossing the A6 into the village. And I've since been made aware of how deep the drain cover has sunk on the east side of Bedford Road next to the bollard crossing at the village centre end of Manor Road. Clearly motorists keep clear of the bollards but have caused the drain cover to sink, which a (motor) cyclist might not see outside daylight hours.

Email highways@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk or call 0300 300 8049 to report highways problems to Central Beds Council. And please, keep me in the loop with how you get on or for my support.

Janet Nunn
tel: 882799 or e-mail janet.nunn@ntlworld.com

Bartonians' views on housing development

A sincere thank you to all who returned our survey to tell us what you think is the best way forward for housing development around here and in the country more generally.

There is a real appreciation of the need to (re-)develop sites in towns and cities here in the South-East but also in the Midlands and the North. There's also wide support in principle for the idea of developing towns into garden cities where locals support the notion, although several people here thought Ampthill should be excepted.

As for Barton-le-Clay and walks out to surrounding villages, the majority cherished the Green Belt and wish it to be safeguarded. Janet Nunn and Jonathan Paxton thank you for your responses.

1. General - Use of paths around Barton-le-Clay: The vast majority of respondents regularly use our footpaths, but a small handful have developed mobility issues with age and can no longer do so. This highlighted that people who use a wheelchair or mobility scooter also want to gaze on the lovely views around here, yet the staggered fence blocks access to the Bunyan Way footpath east off Manor Road. Can this be made wheelchair friendly?

2. Our most used paths: In order of popularity, these were the paths east of Manor Rd; south from Church or Old road; west towards Sharpenhoe; north from Higham Road. 

3. Bartonians' favourite places: the favourite walks were
a. around Barton-le-Clay: to Hexton; to the springs and up the Barton Hills; to the Sharpenhoe Clappers.
b. around other Beds-Herts villages: in order of popularity, around Silsoe, Pegsdon, Old Warden, Shillington, Meppershall, Clophill, Maulden, Shefford, Pirton, Ashwell, Woburn, Woburn Sands, Harlington, Holwell, Willington, Arlesey, Dunstable Downs, Lilley, Kimpton
c. among towns of Beds and Herts: in order of popularity, Hitchin, Ampthill, Bedford, Luton and its Stockwood and Wardown Parks, Stotfold, Harpenden and its Common, Hertford, Wyboston
d. of Beds, Herts, Bucks cities: MK, Letchworth, St Albans, Stevenage, Welwyn GC, Tring, Aylesbury
e. other: London, Cambridge, Oxford

4. New Housing sites proposed were:
a. in/around Barton-le-Clay: the vast majority said none; two said the infrastructure wouldn't support more growth; one person suggested Faldo Road and west of Barton-le-Clay; one person said 'west of village centre, off Sharpenhoe Rd'; one person said 'on the several available plots around Barton' without identifying any
b. in/around villages of Beds/Herts: people felt strongly that brownfield sites be used and also suggested of Sandridge, Wheathampstead, Wilstead/Wixams, Offley, Cockernhoe and one person saying 'we're not qualified to comment'
c. in/around towns of Beds/Herts: brownfield sites were overwhelmingly urged, citing Stopsley and Luton, especially the old Vauxhall site; inner Dunstable and Houghton Regis near new by-pass; Leighton Buzzard; Stewartby, Kempston; Bedford; corridors along M1-A1M; extension of new sites in Wixams, Silsoe
d. in/around cities of Beds, Herts, Bucks: MK, Luton South, Stevenage, Aylesbury
e. other: general support for brownfield site development; one person said there was 'plenty of room around Bucks villages, but they'd need their transport links improved'.

5. Make certain willing towns on the Oxford-Cambridge axis into Garden Cities:
a. support: most people supported the idea; a handful were unsure; two said 'not Ampthill' and one opposed
b. prefer to grow villages in SE England: two people supported this option and all other respondents disagreed
c. prefer to grow cities and opportunities around UK - the SE has enough: several people supported this proposal, with one person citing how 'North and Midlands towns need better investment and opportunities'; one person said 'by far the best idea'; one person was 'unsure about the SE having enough'
d. other: town regeneration and maintaining villages were the preferred priorities. One person thought Lincs with its low population density had great scope for development.

Garden cities best safeguard for Green Belt

 My daughter's boyfriend lives in Bicester and to visit him using public transport, she takes the X5 westwards from Bedford through Milton Keynes. The buses can only rarely stick to timetable and take almost two hours, without adding on travel time from Barton-le-Clay to Bedford. The Lib Dem vision to develop between three and five garden towns or cities along the Cambridge-Oxford axis would mean  investment in roads, trainlines and other infrastructure, slashing train journey times between Cambridge and Oxford from two and a half hours to 60 minutes - see http://www.libdems.org.uk/new_garden_city_train_link

Another benefit of this Lib Dem vision would be the building of 300,000 new homes in a co-ordinated and controlled way in this part of the country, starting with Bicester as pioneer.  It would thereby reduce the pressure to add hundreds and sometimes thousands of homes to every town and village here, which would turn villages into town and towns into cities indiscriminately, concreting over our Green Belt.

There should certainly be no large scale house building at Barton-le-Clay, sited as we are on the aquifer of the Barton Clay Vale between the chalk escarpment of the Chilterns to the south and the Greensand Ridge to the north, stretching up into Cambridgeshire..

The winter rains of 2014 saw water levels here rise in much of Barton to within six inches of the ground. When we flood it is through the water table rising, flooding gardens, patios and, in the worst cases, homes. Culverts on Manor Road brimmed with rainwater and homes at the juncture of Stuart Road and Windsor Road saw their gardens and patios flood. Building over more of the aquifer makes no sense given that the water table will rise again as rains fall. And with climate change, we are having wetter winters and warmer summers.

How is it for you in heavy rain? Does your garden become waterlogged or the patio flood? What do you think of the idea of having Bicester and other towns on the Cambridge-Oxford axis developed into garden cities like Letchworth and Welwyn? Janet Nunn wants to hear your views on janet.nunn@ntlworld.com  

Red alert for Green Belt

Central Beds Council withdrew its draft Gypsy and Traveller Plan in October, so our Green Belt on the western edge of the village is reprieved from development for now. 

Well done Bartonians, all our hard work to keep out Green Belt paid off. However, this is not the end: Central Beds must come forward with a revised plan next year – this will probably be after the general election and they have launched a 'call for sites' that will close 9th February, see www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/sites  So we must remain ready to protest again if they propose to build on our Green Belt.

Rumour has it that Central Beds is preparing to roll back the Green Belt on the eastern edge of our village, behind Manor Road under cover of the local development plan. Whether and how quickly that would extend the full length of the eastern side of Barton-le-Clay from Hexton Road to Higham Road is unclear and an obvious risk.

This information emerged in October, when Barton parish council held two community consultation sessions on the Neighbourhood Plan as its spring 2014 housing survey has identified an alleged need for 14 affordable homes in Barton-le-Clay. These would be built in conjunction with an unspecified number of 'market' houses. Central Beds is said to want to use the local development plan to push back the Green Belt on the eastern side of the village. As CBC Cllr Young confirmed at a  meeting on 6 November with representatives of the BRAG group, one developer still wants to build 550 homes here – this would have to be on our Green Belt.

Once the Green Belt is breached, the roll-back may prove impossible to contain, especially if money to build youth or community facilities sweeten the deal, as happened with the Grange Farm estate and development of the football facilities here some 20 years ago. We need to be alert and prepared to act if we wish to safeguard our Green Belt. The Parish Council's steering group five key themes are on display in the library.