Call for council to investigate Levelling Up funding for Leighton Buzzard Land South as motion passed to ensure "something can happen"

An “incredibly detailed” and “well thought out” motion to make sure that “something can happen” with land south of Leighton Buzzard High Street has been passed by Central Bedfordshire councillors.

During last week’s Full Council Meeting (Thursday, July 20) councillor Victoria Harvey (Independent, Leighton Linslade West) said her motion tackled an area of land behind the town’s High Street, which has been “discussed for ages”.

“There is no reason why we could not have a joint community facility [there] that links in with some health facilities in the town centre, and the town council needs a bigger building,” she said.

“Put all of those together and you get something that stacks up, pulls in funding from other areas and can lever in funding at little cost to this authority. This is about looking and really working proactively in a way that meets all our strategic goals and delivers.”

Fellow ward councillor, Russell Goodchild (LibDem), who seconded the motion, said: “This motion conveys a continued willingness of Leighton Linslade Town Council to work collaboratively with this authority in progressing the development plans for land.” He added the proposal included retail units and 82 new homes to help achieve “financial viability”.

Council leader, councillor Adam Zerny (Independent, Potton) was concerned that although it was a “very positive thing for Leighton Buzzard”, the motion committed the council to “rather a lot”. He proposed an amendment that wouldn’t commit the council before the full costs were understood – however, this was rejected in a vote.

Executive member for business, housing and public assets, councillor Steven Watkins (Independent, Biggleswade West) said it was important that members who didn’t “feel able to support the amendment” were made aware of the lack of available funding for the motion’s proposals.

Councillor Kevin Collins (Conservative, Caddington) said that the motion called on the council to investigate Levelling Up Funding.

“[This is] restricted to one [bid] per parliamentary constituency, so by saying that you’ll do a Levelling Up Fund bid for land south of High Street you are expressing saying you are rejecting Tiddenfoot. That’s fine, if you feel this is the stronger bid, but you can’t have both.

“The Levelling Up Fund also expressly requires that the plans can be delivered within a fairly tight time scale. So any bid for land south of High Street cannot be aligned with a promise you’re going to reserve a chunk of it for at least two years.”

Councillor Harvey said she was a “bit bemused” by some of the criticisms over costs.

“The comments of this [motion] are about the local community looking for funding, it only says the word “investigate”, she said. “I think that is really key, so investigating Levelling Up, there is the potential of some large funders who have connections with Leighton Buzzard. There is the £4.5 million cultural development fund, there are a huge range of funding opportunities. And what I’ve asked for is to be able to look at how we would pull funding sources in order to be able to deliver.

“If you actually read the detail, it’s about feasibility and investigation, it is not tying your hands, but it’s making sure we explore all the possibilities. I think the people of Leighton Buzzard deserve to be allowed to explore what they could do with their publicly owned land.”

The motion can be read here.