To the House of Commons

We, the people of Leighton Buzzard, Linslade and surrounding parishes of Eggington, Heath and Reach and Hockliffe, recognise the need for affordable housing growth to meet local need. However, we strongly object to the disproportionate and unsustainable proposals to build 6,000 dwellings on 850 acres of Green Belt land around our communities. This enforced indiscriminate development is a direct result of Leighton Linslade being placed in the Growth Area for South Bedfordshire.

Large scale housing developments have been ongoing around the south of Leighton Buzzard since 2001, and a further such development of 1,300 homes is currently going through the planning process. However, this recent expansion has not brought with it more jobs or opportunities for local people.

Our town is at breaking point! We are already unable to sustain the existing population with the healthcare, education, policing, social care, sporting and community facilities that it needs. Traffic congestion is intolerable, with roads completely grid-locked at peak times.

We believe that further large scale development will place an impossible extra strain on an area that is already woefully short of infrastructure. It will accelerate the decline of our historic town centre. There will be a hugely negative impact on our local environment, our communities and our quality of life. Large sections of our Green Belt will be lost forever. Our small market town and the surrounding villages will be irreversibly changed for the worse.

We therefore demand that the proposed development, and any similar future unsustainable development, is turned down; and that Leighton Linslade and surrounding parishes are excluded from the Growth Area for South Bedfordshire.