Fears council will build houses on Leighton Buzzard's Land South and 'disappear with loot' for rest of county

The charitable company has been working on plans for a new arts and heritage centre in the town and hopes that such a facility could be established in the centre. However, following Central Bedfordshire Council's (CBC's) consultation launch, which suggests that a residential-led mixed used scheme is the "realistic" way forward, the trustees have expressed their concerns.

Speaking on behalf of the group, trustee Paul Brown, claimed: "The Peppercorn Trustees had hoped that CBC would earmark a plot of long derelict land behind Wilko’s store so that we could raise money to build a heritage and arts centre for the benefit of local people. The reason the trustees preferred that plot is that it had long been disused - for more than a century - and had been the old Rothschild gardens from Leighton House. It is a historic site and so part of the town’s heritage which could have been reflected in the architecture of the centre we hoped to build.

"Instead, CBC has decided to build more housing on the land behind Wilkos and offered a piece of the Duncombe Drive car park as a possible site for an arts and heritage centre, removing any association with its historic setting and taking away parking spaces the expanding town and any arts and heritage centre would need."

He added: "For a town that badly needs a health hub, a police station and many other facilities, just building more houses and flats on land designated for town centre uses and not residential seems wrong in principle. Councillors are supposed to support local communities not make speculative profits out of long derelict land and then disappear with the loot to spend elsewhere in the county."

CBC's consultation states that "residential use would naturally increase footfall and support the economy in the town centre", while releasing part of Duncombe Drive car park would create a “much more attractive opportunity for developers to invest”, and give “more opportunity to explore whether a new community/cultural facility is a possibility.”

The council has also stressed that consultation ideas are in the early stages, and that nothing is set in stone.

Have your say: https://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/info/38/consultations/1363/have_your_say_on_plans_to_improve_the_area_south_of_high_street