Bedford Borough Plan - where's the rail infrastructure?

There is a consultation in the Harpur Centre on the Bedford Local Plan 2035. See www.bedford.gov.uk/localplan2035. Email: planningforthefuture@bedford.gov.uk 
Check those houses at Bromham and relation to a clear access for Cobbler Line trajectory. 
Closing date is 9th June.
Questions via 01234 718300. Things we want is as follows:
a. Station at Oakley north of Lower Farm Road.
b. Retail Park Station on the MVR not MML!
c. East-West Rail sooner than later with Bedford-Sandy being delivered same time as Oxford-Bedford ideally - what are we getting for £10 million allocated?
d. All build results in road saturation and progressive gridlock. Same style houses being rolled out Bedford, Northampton, Milton Keynes, Cambridge... this results in ever more cloning of towns/residential estate areas.
e. Unless there's a more focused and coherent plan for the rail projects a-c by 2035 not after 2035, we will have a short fall of footfall and spend, informing closed shop syndrome and spiraling diminishment of traditional town centres, more out of town pressure to pander to the car. Empty properties abound domestic and commercial and more directives to fill and amend those first before green field expansion should be looked at.
f. Bedford-Northampton should be progressed with East-West not addendum to it/afterthought.
g. Network Rail must be flexible on level crossing and bridge adaptations, Cardington Road Bedford and Bridge Street Northampton need rail accessibility to be retained.
h. Wixams and/or Ampthill should be pursued together or incrementally, both serve differential markets - Wixams declutters commuting into Bedford for rail, Ampthill declutters Flitwick off the M1/A507 and all south of Wixams e.g. Marston Moretaine/A421 development corridor.

Get Bedford Moving Campaign

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Re: Making a case for a new Northampton-Bedford Rail Link Booklet

I am writing to you to let you know that this booklet is now available. It is £4.50 + £1.27 postage (UK) making a total sum of £5.77. If you order 10 copies you get them at a discount price of £4.00 each making a total cost including postage (UK) of £52.70. Payment should be made to ‘ERTA’ and sent to Richard Pill, ERTA, 24c St Michael’s Road, Bedford, MK40 2LT (01234 330090). All proceeds go to the ERTA funds to enable it to continue to advocate better public transport.

The booklet seeks to highlight key aspects the rail link would address and why it is worthy of an 11th hour act to save it from obliteration at the hands of piecemeal development which with the railway would be more sustainable. The balance between development aspirations and the wider effects and need for better public transport infrastructure (local rail) to inform a better equilibrium.

It is hoped that support for the rail link will rise as a result of the booklet being widely read and appreciated and further studies commissioned to build the case further and court Network Rail GRIP attention. It should be both integral to East-West Rail and the Luton Airport-Northampton-Coventry arc. Taking a parish pump approach, it is a useful addendum to the localism agenda suitable for libraries, archives and general reference.

I attach a poster of the front cover and quote ISBN number of 978-0-9957682-0-8

ERTA is seeking more free/low cost stalls to promote our causes and sell our meager array of booklets and magazines mainly. All events and fixtures we attend will get a listing on our website to help boost patronage if wanted. We do not have a budget for outlay so can only reciprocate in kind. For example an exchange of flyers. Please contact Simon Barber (details below) with enquiries and offers alike.

I am doing media services for ERTA in a non Executive Committee role. I am advising behind the scenes. Really would welcome more local interest in our calls for Kempston Retail Park Station and footbridge, Bedford-Northampton and indeed news for hastening East-West Rail. Our officers are keen to attend meetings and make common cause for more of what we wish for. On the matter of developments at Flitwick, our concern is the wider traffic magnet draw to a poorly configured road system. Should Flitwick have a bypass? Where should it go? Our call is for a study into how an Ampthill Station could be provided as the scope of regional draw centered on Flitwick is off M1, Milton Keynes, Olney and Wixams as well as plenty of new housing for commuters going in around Froghall Road for example joining the two towns together finally. This is happening now, Flitwick has just one access bridge over the railway and the Froghall Road is restricted width and height clearances. Please see http://ertarailvolunteer.blogspot.co.uk/ and click the link for more information of what is proposed.

Only by people joining ERTA and offering to help in some shape or form can our voice be stronger and bring the powers that be to consider more seriously what we table. Some has scoffed at reopening part of the Great Central, but when one considers HS2, it would be much less cost/intrusion/impact environmentally and over a 20 year scale of growth, given M1 and West Coast Main Line are at capacity now, something has got to give. 

Bedford lost Allens, Texas Instruments, London Brick, Cutler Hammer, Pre-Star, Britannia Igranic and Meltis in terms of making things and in it's place we have ratio-wise a bundle of retail/warehouse jobs, caring sector jobs and a few research and administrative jobs but swathes of public sector and civil service local offices and outlets have closed or shrunk or gone elsewhere - Milton Keynes, St Albans, Cambridge and London. To commute costs, takes time and basically one is looking at a 12 hour day away from home-life. Our town centre is ailing, welfare (and it is spent locally and immediately) is being cut and deconstructed bit by bit leaving a precarious economic and social situation. That other towns suffer the same, doesn't make it any easier when one gets people coming along suggesting getting employment is easy, again they release people to the market, they don't shoe-horn them into employment and there's a huge gap. Therefore having access to cheap, affordable, abundant and comprehensive public transport, safe segregated cycle ways and properly maintained pedestrian rights of ways is essential for smooth operations.Don't believe the myth that bus passes are hand-out subsidies as Bus 2020 The Case for the Bus Pass by Greener Journey's (www.greenerjourneys.com) says "Each £1 spent on the bus pass generates at least £2.87 in benefits." Clearly Unions, Management and Elected Representatives who rail against and begrudge filling off peak more - need to look at this report and consider whether their prejudices are ideological or factual? Shame to remove or cut a bus service when more bus passes could ensure better levels of all day usage. The off peak savings help boost spending elsewhere, so all gains.

Hope of interest.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA

Flitwick Station and Retail Expansion

This development should raise concerns: 
http://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/news/april/flitwick-regeneration.aspx 

I suggest you write and object and cite that looking at Ampthill would be better:

1. this development will act as a major traffic generator informing demands for parking and resulting in more congestion.

2. We need a crossing from the footbridge over the road to the Swan Pub

3. Bus shelter to Ampthill needs cleaning, better information with RTI or similar and later buses linking the station and the town of Ampthill which is expanding too

4. Flitwick deals with traffic from a wider area- M1/Milton Keynes, Olney and Wixams for a start and the town will be over-run with cars.

5. Ampthill offers relief from the Steppingley Road side off the A507 and could offer more parking capacity for the area generally

6. this development puts more pressure on Froghall, Road which has a bridge height restriction

7. Station platforms at Ampthill need to be staggered for land-access issues with entrances and exits both sides of the MML and via a foot/cycle exit south of industrial estate into Froghall Road for Redbourne School and East Flitwick which aligns to Froghall Ropad and A507 roundabout now - all spaces being filled in with developments. Options need to be kept open. For solidarity and further support please see Twitter @ReopenStations or contact 

Membership, Recruitment, Administrator and Finance Liaison Officer: Mr Simon Barber, 20 Fitzherbert House, Kingsmead, Richmond, Surrey, TW10 6HT

T. 0208 940 4399 E. simon4barber@gmail.com 

Retail Park, Kempston - call for a new station to serve it.

Retail Park, Kempston - call for a new station to serve it.

The Retail Park, Kempston has grown to three sites since inception in the early 1980’s. Today it commands a considerable patronage, the majority of which come by road to work, shop and enjoy leisure at the site. There was a view to develop a station but for some reason the idea was dropped, it was resurrected in about 2004 but a handful of objections led to it being shelved. Since then the Retail Buildings have screened off residential Kempston and shrubbery on the residential side has been allowed to grow considerably.

           

The Railway which runs adjacent to the original site is that of the Bedford-Bletchley alias Marston Vale Railway. This line has seen remarkable growth in patronage over recent years but still remains more busy during peak periods am/pm and less-well-used during off peak times – the lion’s share of the day.

Ampthill Road (A6) feeds a lion’s share of the traffic into the B530 which served the Retail Park sites. These roads and those arteries to and from them radially, get bunged up with traffic, a lion’s share of which is due to the popularity and success of the Retail Park, as a wide range of traffic from about 15 mile radius seeks to access the venue. The demand for parking outstrips supply per volume and so congestion, tail backs and some frustration is keenly felt. Standing traffic emits fumes and exhaust and residential areas have to breathe that standing traffic’s air.

The Solution to alleviate the problem of success is to provide more and better options for more people from more diverse reaches and ranges to use the Retail Park and access it. ERTA calls for and has long called for, the provision of a station adjacent to the Retail Park on the Marston Vale Railway with a footbridge cum cycle-bridge over the two tracks to enable Kempston residents to walk and cycle to the Retail Park, freeing up parking spaces.

The railway is due to be incorporated into the East-West Rail project which means the audience to the Retail Park would increase considerably and use sustainable transport to get to and from it and the surrounding area. Oxford-Bletchley-Bedford is a population catchment of some considerable numbers of people given connections at Bletchley, Bicester and Oxford let alone from the Bedford direction. In other words the railway station would quickly pay for itself and the benefits on and off the railway would be keenly felt.

Key Benefits of Pursuing the Station

·      More customers for the Retail Park

·      Greater reach and range of shoppers

·      Easier access for work and shopping

·      More parking spaces for others to use

·      Integrated East-West Rail reaches and ranges

·      Both sides bus and rail integration: No. 42 south-side, No.1 Orchard Street Parade.

·      Boost Access to Kempston Town Population of over 19, 000 people according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kempston.

·      Benefit by bridging the two-way transport access with Bedford Town Centre

·      Cutting queues of congestion around the Ampthill Road/B530 Junction, helping everyone live, move and breathe easier.

·      Choice with more joined up networks and integrated links, putting people first.

Public and Community Call to Action

Only by a growing membership can ERTA’s voice be stronger and exercise influence to get local politicians to support this station initiative. Please add your voice by joining ERTA today and get involved in helping to take this campaign forward, building a team of local people who care and want to make a difference.

Join ERTA and help us realise this essential piece of local infrastructure to help communities thrive and cope better amidst the clamour of development and its wider impact. See https://ertarail.com/ And let the journey begin!

 See our dedicated web-page: https://ertarail.com/retail-park-station-bedford-bletchley-railway-kempston/ and vote with your feet – join ERTA!

In any case contact: English Regional Transport Association (ERTA)

Second Officer, Co-London Coordinator and Northampton – Olney- Bedford Corridor, Stations and Field Officer:

Mr David Ferguson,

T. 020-8876-3340 E. daferguson1212@gmail.com

https://ertarail.com/

Get Bedford Moving Campaign

Get Bedford Moving Campaign

So the Borough Council is bidding for £millions for a scheme to address traffic and capacity issues along Ampthill Road? It is my conviction at least that this scheme will not cut congestion but will probably result in squeezing the cycle-pedestrian share paths to cycle lanes on a widened road-way? Much of this traffic is bound to and from the Retail Park at Kempston and what that needs is a station on the Bedford-Bletchley Railway with a cycle-footbridge linking Southfields Kempston with the Retail Park. This would give more options, open up the area to more footfall and spend but also create more parking spaces. The Retail Park's expansion is running out of land and more growth generates more road traffic and it needs somewhere to park. Meanwhile local residents get the emissions from exhausts on all sides and on that score alone the Council should be seeking means and ways to reduce car and other traffic by nurturing alternatives from walking, cycling and better public transport.

Buses deliver dollops of footfall and spend wherever they go and have bus stops for dropping off. Places like Black Tom, Tavistock Street, Prebend Street and the High Street do not have buses and those which serve the railway station are scant during the day.

These glaring gaps could be rectified and the smaller shops benefit from the new trade they would bring. Likewise pedestrianisation of the High Street and Midland Road West would extend the town centre footfall and flow and make for a better shopping experience as more buses bring more footfall and spend to a broader area. Pandering to the car means land used for ever more parking which cannot be used for housing or business purposes. All that traffic spills onto an ancient town road system which was never designed to cope with it all. 

It is ironic that Government can find £55 billion for HS2 and £3.5 billion for a new road but for poor old East-West Rail and Bedford-Northampton we have a 6 year wait for Oxford-Bedford and well into the 21st century for the other two, if creeping development allows a route to be recovered. Yet as Bedford, unlike Milton Keynes is not adjacent to a motorway, we need these rail links more to bring sustainable footfall and spend to our ailing town centre. Quangos at £millions are invisible, lack-lustre and a waste. We need locally elected, accountable and visible people able to bang the tables of Whitehall for a fairer deal for Bedford - to balance our transport and moral leaders can lead by voting with their feet than giving the signal car-lifestyles are justified. I would suggest not if they impinge on the reasonable chances of others and that is the equation which is yet to be squared. Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/877055242435042/