The green space that surrounds us - lost forever?

Think of the green and open land that surrounds Leighton Buzzard and the villages. Even if you’re not someone who participates in outdoor activities, it’s always a nice feeling when you travel past the edge of the town and into the pleasant countryside that surrounds us. OK – it's not the Lake District, but it's still quite pleasant nonetheless.

Think of all that open space. Think of the view from Eggington across Clipstone to Shenley Hill. Or the view back from Shenley Hill to Eggington and beyond.

Think of the wildlife that is commonly seen in the farmland around Clipstone. Badgers, foxes, bats, kingfishers, skylarks, nightingales, cuckoos and more.

And think of that view full of houses. Houses and roads and traffic almost everywhere you look. The wildlife will be mostly gone - another contribution to the depressing downward trend across Bedfordshire recently highlighted in a report from the County Council.

That is what will happen if the current proposals for 6000 houses succeed. The green and open space that is there today will be lost, irretrievably, forever.

For our area, the loss of such land on that kind of scale, and the massive blot that it would create on our landscape, would be nothing short of catastrophic.

Of course, at the moment, Leighton Buzzard and the villages have Green Belt regulations in place to prevent large-scale development on green land. However, as part of the process to smooth the path for mass housing development, these regulations are currently being reviewed and will almost certainly be rolled back. That would not only allow the present development proposals to proceed, but will greatly increase the opportunities for further mass housing development to follow. The threat to our area will be even greater.

And also, let's not forget the huge extra environmental strain that will be placed on our area by the massive increase in population and traffic that mass housing development will bring. This is something that will be felt well beyond the areas where the houses are actually being built. Noise, traffic fumes, light pollution, population pressure on local facilities, loss of green space – by almost any measure you can apply, the environmental impact will be negative and it will affect us all.

Furthermore, as the green space around us is built on, that which is left will become subject to more and more pressure from sheer numbers of people and traffic. Popular local open spaces like parks, the canal, Stockgrove or Tiddenfoot will be pushed beyond their capacity to cope (indeed, Stockgrove is arguably over this limit already). Local sites of special environmental value, such as the National Nature Reserve at King's Wood, will run a very real risk of irreversible damage.

The negative impact on our local environment will significantly affect us all.