Safety concerns over the access road prompted councillors to reject a piecemeal development on a parcel of land allocated for housing in Toddington.
Up to 61 homes are proposed for the seven-acre site to the east of Leighton Road and west of Russell Road, according to a report to Central Bedfordshire Council’s development management committee.
Applicant Landcrest Developments Limited controls the application area, while the remaining two-and-a-half acres belongs to Bloor Homes and would be considered separately, said the report.
“The majority of the application site is open with some landscape boundary features, such as trees, shrubs and hedgerows.
“The applicant has asked for access to be considered at this outline stage,” added the report.
Planning officer Andrew Cundy told the committee: “The Local Plan indicates the whole allocation will accommodate 92 homes.
“This application is for 61 houses on the south-east part of the site, with access from Russell Road,” he said.
“Officers anticipate the remaining part of the land to come forward in the near future.
“The Local Plan doesn’t stipulate how the site should be accessed. CBC said access would be off Leighton Road and Russell Road.”
The housing would include 30 per cent affordable and ten per cent self-build.
Toddington parish councillor John Coleman explained it objects to the development in its current form, as 61 houses is too many.
“It should be reduced to allow biodiversity targets to be met and enough green space allowed.
“We know 92 homes were anticipated and it seems too many are on this part of the site.
“By developing the site piecemeal the only access for construction traffic is from Russell Road.
“The feeling is without a route directly from a main road the health and safety of local residents will be severely compromised.”
Richard Murdock, a director with agent Woods Hardwick Planning Limited, said: “Access arrangements were comprehensively assessed by a highways officer and found to be acceptable, subject to conditions.
“He doesn’t consider there’s an issue with on-street parking in the wider area. The site forms part of an overall application in the recently adopted Local Plan.
“The provision of an access link between the two sites can be fully secured. There’s no planning reason why these shouldn’t come forward separately.
“For all submissions concerning this land, the access has always been via Russell Road and no objection raised by the council to this.”
Independent Potton councillor Tracey Wye was unhappy with the density of housing, saying: “It’s sad the council can’t influence it as a whole site because the 61 homes is alot of the allocation envisaged in the Local Plan.”
Conservative Dunstable Watling Councillor Nigel Young said: “There’s no fundamental objection in my mind to housing going there.
“To be absolutely clear this is about access to the land and loss of amenity to residents.
“This committee believes it’s a dangerous access to this site, which I contend requires an unenforceable condition we’re trying to impose.
“It’s about an access from Leighton Road which it needs to comply with the spirit of the Local Plan.
“Construction traffic was never meant to come trundling down Russell Road.”
Councillors voted 11 in favour and with one abstention to refuse the plans.
