Where will it end? ... now there's a question ...

So just suppose the proposed 6000 houses go ahead.

Will it end there? Do we concede this first development, in the hope that there will be no more?

NO. Because it won't end there.

The second phase of the ELLP development from 2021 to 2031 could then bring thousands more houses on another 180 hectares. It would extend the housing beyond the Stonehenge works all the way along Miletree Road to Eastern Way, taking Leighton Buzzard almost to the A5. (click here for a map)

And it won't end there either.

Current Goverment policy requires that thousands and thousands of more houses must be built in South Bedfordshire by 2031 (see A Bit of Background for the full details). This policy will then almost certainly demand that even more houses are built beyond that date.

This makes it very likely that further proposals for mass housing development will be put forward for Leighton-Linslade and the surrounding area. What about the land between the new Linslade bypass and the present edge of the town? What about the fields adjacent to Rothschild Road? What about the south side of the A505?

So, maybe you feel that you're not affected by the current proposals. It's not your part of Leighton Buzzard. It's too far in the future. You've got other things to worry about.

Don't be fooled. We have to make a stand now.

Sooner or later these developments would affect the quality of our lives. If it's not the massively increased traffic congestion, or the fact that we can't get local jobs or NHS dentists, or we can't ever find somewhere to sit on the train, or that green path we enjoyed for some peace and quiet has been built over, or we can't find a nursery school place....virtually every aspect of our lives would be affected.

The rolling back of the Green Belt, the overwhelming pressure of Goverment policy, a planning system weakened so that Goverment targets can be met.....all of these things conspire to create a situation that is very attractive to developers indeed. A gift horse of potentially enormous proportions.

So, if we don't make a stand now, then we could end up with a Leighton Buzzard that has the potential to expand and expand, maybe into Heath & Reach, maybe further towards the A5, maybe along the A505 towards Houghton Regis and Dunstable, maybe south from the A505 towards Billington. Or maybe all of these.

Government policy is all about getting houses built. The loss of a market town and a few villages in some corner of one of the smallest counties in England isn't going to trouble them.

If we don't oppose these developments now, then there's a very real danger that a precedent will be set that puts us all at risk of disappearing below a tidal wave of houses, people and traffic.