Residents slam village housing plan
Posted on February 7, 2011
A former parish councillor has slammed absentee landowners for trying to push through a massive housing plan for Eaton Bray which he says will blight the village.
Rick Brand has launched a campaign to try and halt potential moves to turn more than 20 acres of open space into housing.
The idea is in its infancy but residents fear that the chance to boost housing stock will lead to Central Beds Council looking favourably on the scheme.
It would mean the loss of former orchards and grazing land which stretch from Bower Lane/ Harling Road behind homes in Orchard Way, Moor End Lane and Mill End Close and down towards the Edlesborough border.
Mr Brand, a former EB parish councillor, moved to Mill End Close, because of the outlook over open fields which attracts a wealth of wildlife.
But he fears he may soon be looking at a new housing estate if the landowners get their way.
The site is owned by a former local woman now retired to Florida and farmers who live out of the village. Last year CBC asked landowners to notify them if they had any areas that may be suitable for housing development.
The Bower Lane site was offered as it is unsuitable as farmland. Moves were made in the 1980s to build on the land but the then South Beds Council threw out the idea because it was in Green Belt and would extend the village's natural boundary.
Now CBC must find room for more than 600 homes in rural areas and Eaton Bray has been identified as one area which could take some development.
Read more of this story on Leighton Buzzard Online and see tomorrow's Leighton Buzzard Observer for the full story.
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Source: Leighton Buzzard Online
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February 15, 2011
,Eaton Bray says:The Parish Council are requesting feedback on this matter via a feedback form attached to the February 2011 minutes.
March 9, 2011
,Resident of Eaton Bray says:I am all for this development, particularly if affordable housing.
Too many younglocal people cannot afford to live here.