These included 62 houses on Mill Lane, Potton, and a total of 132 for sites surrounding Blunham.

The application in Potton went ahead despite written objections from 80 local residents, Potton Town Council, ourselves, the RSPB and local councillors. CBC's own Strategic Landscape Officer had commented in writing "the development would result in an unacceptable incursion into the open countryside to the west of Potton...the applicants have failed to recognise the importance of the underlying heathland character and the significance of the Greensand Ridge".

Local Central Bedfordshire Councillor Adam Zerny has written to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) asking it to review CBC's decision.

The local councillor has also set up a campaign group All 4 Better Development and started a petition calling for a "community right of appeal" and the end to the "presumption in favour of sustainable development".

This issue is a crucial one for Central Bedfordshire, which has not been able to defend its five year housing land supply. This was apparent at a appeal last November ( APP/P0240/W/16/3154220), which granted approval for the development of land off Greenfield Road, Flitton, because the planning inspector judged that CBC did not have a five year supply of housing land. 

In the decision notice, the planning inspector felt that this was in part because despite permissions being granted for new homes on Green Belt north of Houghton Regis over a year ago, not enough homes were likely to be built there within the next five years.

So in Central Bedfordshire we’re seeing a situation where houses are not being built fast enough on land already granted permission, creating a shortfall in our five year housing land supply, which is weakening Central Bedfordshire’s ability to refuse large and undesirable developments on the edge of our villages and towns.

This month new appeals have been announced for up to 198 dwellings at Cranfield and up to 100 new houses at Stotfold. In both cases the developers are exercising their right to appeal CBC's refusal of their housing schemes, and CBC's five year housing land supply is likely to be crucial in the Planning Inspector's decision.

The local communities in Potton and Blunham, and many other rural communities around the country, are left without the right to appeal the approval of building schemes that will not only put additional strains on their schools and infrastructure, but change their communities forever.