Lose lose in Flitt leys Close

The Central Motors application for 135 houses accessed via a back passage called Flitt Leys Close was passed by CBC development control yesterday. The committee split roughly 2 to 1. 

Roger Baker spoke on behalf of the Parish Council to oppose it on the basis of poor access. Roger told last night's Parish council meeting that the discussion went on for over an hour. Officers had promised a plan to solve all the problems (present and future hopefully). Parish Council chair Delise Ball said the officers' view was that the parish council and residents couldn't decide what they wanted.

She added: "We told them to do what is necessary and we will go with it" and said that sustainable communities executive lead Cllr Nigel Young had promised to liaise with the PC over alternative accesses especially for the school. 

I won't hold my breath.

The difficulties emerged a year ago when CBC revealed that the development brief for the site included a school, something which we have never been consulted on.  After years of pathetic education expansion earmarked for Home Farm (the playing field)  an equally inaccessible location had been identified and CBC was driving it through.

Simultaneous to this were the continuing problems for residents in the existing Flitt Leys Close caused by the hot food outlets and parking by users. 

It's what might be called a lose-lose situation.

One huge traffic jam

We went head to head with CBC last week over Flitt Leys Close and the Central Motors proposal. Here is my interim report to the parish council. More discussion tomorrow night.

Last week Pcllrs Delise Ball, Roger Baker and Laurence Pollock met with senior planners and highways officers and Cllrs Nigel Young (sustainable communities lead ) and Brian Spurr (highways lead) at Chicksands along with our three ward councillors. The aim  was to look at how Flitt Leys Close/Central motors was now the potential access for 135 homes, a health centre, a school and the existing takeaways and to highlight existing issues in the Close.

There are two points of note:

First Brian Spurr has offered, and I am sure we will take it up, to do another site visit to look at the current situation in FLC. This is in the light of our description of the on-going problems as they stand with the hot food takeaways. Parking bays and double yellow lines were discussed with Brian warning that any parking restrictions will cause a public reaction. We acknowledged this but pointed out that CBC in effect had offered to look at the present situation and offer some solutions.  

Secondly Nigel Young went to great lengths to argue that the local development framework including a school in Central Motors had been fully consulted on. Given that the original paperwork simply nominated a school (if needed) I’m not so sure. That option has now become a cast iron certainty with no alternative site permitted. For years we were told the playing field on Home Farm reflected the expansion needed for the Lower School. No one in CBC education or planning has ever stated ‘we need to look for a new school site’.

Others present will I am sure offer more detail and context tomorrow night. 

I appreciated the time spent but I’m not sure CBC 'gets' how a series of poor decisions – inadequate education capacity for Home Farm, poor choice of location for the health centre, permission  to build around a group of  takeaways and single access for a 135-home development are now piling up. Into one huge traffic jam.   

 

 

Double yellowing

So many cars and too few streets. That seems to be the problem. In residential streets it's too many cars parking but in high streets with local shops its too few, due to double yellow lines - so we are told. So the latest idea to encourage people to stay away from say, Kingston or Flitwick and shop locally is short term parking on the double yellows.  The BBC reports

Motorists could be allowed to park free of charge on double yellow lines for up to fifteen minutes under plans being considered to help boost High Streets.

Drivers in England could be given a "grace period" to pick up goods from shops or leave their cars in bays for longer without being fined.

While the Conservatives are keen on the idea, their Lib Dem coalition partners are understood to have reservations.

See BBC News for the full story including all the politics smoke and whistles. Cranfield PC reps will be meeting Central Beds'  Cllr Nigel Young and senior planners over at Chicksands later next month to find out how the Central Motors design brief  smuggled a school in. The big worry, obviously is traffic and parking given the tsunami-on-wheels nature of the school run these days. Cllr Young is portfolio lead for sustainable communities and ultimately takes responsibility for the Flitt Leys design (or undesign)  brief. Full report asap.

CBC and Central Motors site

Following the Parish Council's letter to leader of CBC Cllr James Jamieson about the Central Motors Design Brief we have received the following answer. See below.

Cllr Jamieson is proposing that the executive lead for sustainable development (i.e.planning) Cllr Nigel Young meets with us to discuss the issues raised by the planning brief for Central Motors involving a school. That sounds like a sensible way forward though whether any remedy can come out of the meeting is anyone's guess. 

On that, Cllr Ken Matthews reported to the PC last week that talks were continuing with the developer at Flitt Leys /Central Motors to establish if there were alternative accesses. Again, I would not recommend the placing of any significant wagers.

And, finally, CBC is supposed to be working on a traffic management scheme NOW for the current parking nightmare that is Flitt Leys.