Have your say to support Save Cheddington Village action group

Plans for Cheddington New Town which proposes building 7,455 homes on 422 hectares of farmland, are contained in Bucks Council’s draft Local Plan.

The allocation covers fields between Station Road on its South East border with Horton, Mentmore and Marsworth, with claims development will place huge pressure on roads and services.

Plans also include a bypass through Horton, building three/four primary schools and one secondary school, plus a community space, health centre and two pharmacies.

Leisure facilities including a new sports centre are also featured along with a new electrical substation.

A Save Cheddington Village Action Group (CAG) was set up following a meeting attended by hundreds of villagers on July 28.

Th action group states: “We are not against new housing. We are against this scale, on this land, without proper infrastructure.

“Help us keep Cheddington a village. Cheddington is a small rural village with 842 homes. CAG is coordinating a clear, evidence-led response to the proposals, focused on giving Cheddington the strongest possible voice.”

The action group has now prepared a detailed Group Representation challenging the proposals for Cheddington with residents urged to ‘authorise CAG to represent their views as part of the submission’.

The proposals are part of a wider plan to build 8,000 new homes within Ivinghoe ward – a 30,000 increase on previous targets. Bucks Council is expected by central Government to include 91,000 new homes in its Local Plan, or face having even higher targets imposed.

The proposed ‘mass development’ has now become a possibility due to a change in Government rules on July 15 to widen scope to grant a default ‘yes’ to developments close to stations where at least two trains an hour stop.

The group (CAG), which is collaborating with similar action groups in Wing and Mentmore, also calling for people to object to the housing plans.

Cllr Chris Poll told the packed village meeting last month the only local road links to the proposed development were lanes or ‘glorified farm tracks without footways that encourage rat-running,’ while historic single-track canal bridges, railway bridges and nearby junctions at Ivinghoe and Long Marston, forming pinch-points.

Residents also questioned the Government’s right to take away their lifestyle choice to live in a village, and raised additional fears about hospital capacity, local employment availability and the Government ‘not listening’.

Cheddington parish councillors said they had engaged a planning consultant to help work up a response within the very tight deadline, and also invited individuals to object.

Cllr Peter Brazier also told the meeting: ‘We are opposed to this development. Don’t get anything wrong about that. We encourage everyone else to be opposed to it too.”

Residents need to submit their views to CAG by September 2 and objections to Bucks Council‘s pubic consultation by September 6.

The draft Local Plan is due to be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate by December 31.

Cllrs Brazier and Poll will also be explaining the next steps in the Local Plan process at Cheddington Village Hall, on September 21, from 7pm to 9pm.

You can view the consultation here.