Leading councillor urges Leighton Buzzard residents to have 'confidence' in Land South - with housing most likely first

In an exclusive interview with the LBO, Central Bedfordshire Council's Executive Member for Planning and Regeneration talks Land South of High Street and reveals why residential-led development could be the way forward, and what he thinks to the town council and Peppercorn Centre's proposed ideas…

On Friday (March 10) CBC's eagerly anticipated consultation went live, allowing residents to have their say on what has been a hot topic and point of contention since 2012. However, Councillor Kevin Collins is keen to stress that the consultation is in its very early stages.

He told the LBO: "The key point is that we haven't said there's going to be building 'type a' here and building 'type b' there. We're still a step back from that. What we have been doing is looking at the financials of what is deliverable for, what there is a market appetite for, and what people might use. What we are consulting on is what we think the right mix of different uses might look like."

Councillor Collins explained that when "trying to masterplan a larger site", it will most likely come forward in stages.

"You're not going to deliver everything at once and you cannot lay that out in such a way that something that's going to come later frustrates something that's ready to come now," he explained. "It's of nobody's benefit in the long term to rush at this."

However, Cllr Collins believes that in the short term people will begin to see "real evidence of tangible things happening", such as site clearance, urging people to have "a confidence" that Land South will transform.

On CBC's belief that "residential-led" is the way forward, he stated: "I don't doubt that some of this will be residential, because, bluntly, that's what provides the money, but also people moving into a town centre location are exactly the people who are going to generate that night time economy, and footfall in the town centre. Anything that comes forward needs to respect what's already there [referring to pub nightlife], not displace it, not threaten it.

"There’s every chance that that [housing] will be one of the earlier things brought forward, so again the challenge will be in getting people believing that that really is phase one of a wider project."

In terms of a wider project, different ideas have been previously proposed, including a new chamber/community building, for which the town council is “exploring the possibility”, and the Peppercorn Centre's desired arts and heritage centre - while many townsfolk are calling for health facilities.

On CBC's relationship with the town council, Cllr Collins stated: "There has been some dialogue, but it does feel like it keeps returning to a position where they say 'show us all your data, and come and join our meeting'...and ultimately, it's our asset and our responsibility. Let me stress, I hope that we can come to a consensus where it's one and the same thing - what they would like and what we are prepared to do - but ultimately, it doesn't actually benefit anyone in the long term for us to be dictated to by the town council.

"With the Peppercorn Centre, I've been very clear that I like their vision, but they need to persuade more people than me that it stacks up financially."