Saturday, September 6, 2008

SAVE OUR ELSTOW HERITAGE






Bedford Borough Conservatives have launched a 'Save Our Green Fields' Campaign to challenge controversial proposals to build 1,400 houses on 19 areas of public land.

Elstow is one area earmarked for housing. The proposal is to build 15 houses on the narrow green strip which divides historic Elstow village from urban Bedford. It is totally unnecessary when sites are already earmarked for 16,270 houses, many of which will not be built for years due to the current credit crunch.

If housing is built on this green space Elstow village will vanish into urban Bedford, destroying an historic heritage which stretches back over 900 years to the building of Elstow Abbey as a Benedictine Monastery in 1098.

John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's Progress and Bedford's most famous son was born in Elstow in 1628 and married in Elstow Abbey. We also have the famous 16th Century Moot Hall shown above and wonderful timbered 16th Century houses in Bunyans Mead. John Bunyan would turn in his grave at this shortsighted proposal to submerge tiny Elstow with just 300 houses into urban Bedford with a population of 80,000 people.

Bedford Borough Council is not due to commence formal public consultation on its proposals until August 2009. However Bedford Conservatives have already forced the Council to withdraw its plans to build houses on Mowsbury Golf Course and reduced the original number of land development proposals from 20 to 19.

Please join me in my campaign to stop the Council ruining our beautiful village and persuade the planners to withdraw these housing development proposals immediately.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well done Cllr Faulkner. The Council is only concerned with how much money it can make. You and your colleagues have all my support on this matter. I hope the Mayor changes his mind before its too late.

Our green fields our the vital green lungs that prevent urban sprawl.

Mary Klein, (Putnoe, Bedford).

Cllr Lynne Faulkner said...

Thank you for your kind comments and support Mary.

These "green lungs" are vital and I will continue to campaign hard to retain Elstow as a village.