1. Marston Vale 2050 MMETAG Conference - Marston Vale 2050
Your Vision for the Future
Alan Apling – CPRE Bedfordshire

2. Conservation and Economic Development
MMETAG Conference - Marston Vale 2050
Conservation and Economic Development
Mutually Exclusive?

3. MMETAG Conference - Marston Vale 2050
If what we are trying to Conserve is “The Countryside” and if Economic Development demands new-build that reduces or degrades our stock of countryside then- Yes, they are mutually exclusive.

4. MMETAG Conference - Marston Vale 2050
Making the case for the countryside when it is threatened by development is vital because the dynamics of change are biased.....

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The built environment expands - today’s development is tomorrow’s baseline for further development. The countryside contracts – projects that increase rural character at the expense of the built environment are rare.

6. What to do when Development threatens Countryside
MMETAG Conference - Marston Vale 2050
What to do when Development threatens Countryside
Challenge the case for development.
Use the Planning System and be alert for attempts to side-step planning law.
Establish the value and benefits of the countryside to stand against the case for development.

7. Challenging the development case
MMETAG Conference - Marston Vale 2050
Challenging the development case
See
Arguments

8. Challenging the development case
MMETAG Conference - Marston Vale 2050
Challenging the development case
CPRE’s 10 Tests for Eco-Towns.
...affected communities fully consulted?
...proposal tested through Regional Spatial Stategy and Local Development Frameworks?
...evidence that proposal is most sustainable option compared with other options?
...efficient use of land?
...genuinely carbon neutral?

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...foster sense of community, achieve CABE gold standards, prioritise pedestrians and non-motorised transport?
...subject to independent Landscape Character Assessment and conserves resources?
...complete communities fostering sustainable lifestyles?
...well connected by public transport and with local supply networks?
...does not provide an excuse for other development not meeting the highest environmental standards?

10. Use Planning System and Law
MMETAG Conference - Marston Vale 2050
Use Planning System and Law
Regional Spatial Strategy and MKSM Sub-Regional Plan only identify Northern Marston Vale as a growth area, cf Eco-Town Sustainability Assessment which interpreted the whole Vale as being a growth area.

11. MMETAG Conference - Marston Vale 2050
Legal opinion for CPRE on the draft Planning Policy Statement on Eco-Towns.
By identifying selected sites outside the development plan process “and requiring that they be given ‘material weight’ the Government would be usurping the function of the local planning authorities and distorting the plan making process”.
Released by CPRE Monday 6 April.

12. Establishing the value of the countryside
MMETAG Conference - Marston Vale 2050
Establishing the value of the countryside
Independently
Within Local Development Frameworks.

13. Bedfordshire’s countryside
MMETAG Conference - Marston Vale 2050
Bedfordshire’s countryside
Why is it worth protecting?
Samshill Harlington/Towards Upper Gravenhurst parts and of Greensand Ridge (?)
Questions: Why is it “small” - with respect to what? Small county or countryside?
Name the slides? I really like this slide but think it just needs to deliver a clear message about the justification for saving countryside.

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Greensand Ridge
Wavendon Heath South
Husborne Crawley from Hulcote

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Houghton House and
The Greensand Ridge
Houghton House across Marston Vale/ Hulcot towards Husbourne Crawley-Greensand Ridge
Do you think that beautifulness and threats should be separated more clearly? Marston Vale is not part of Greensand Ridge. Expansion of Ampthill/ Flitwick and other large villages - Silsoe, harlington threatens Ridge.
Marston Vle faces different threat of ultimtely being a linear city whose development will finance the forest and the canal as well as other things.
Wood End and
Marston Thrift

16. Landscape Character Assessments
MMETAG Conference - Marston Vale 2050
Landscape Character Assessments
...according to Central Bedfordshire; “A LCA is a method used for understanding what the landscape is like, how it came to be like that, and how it may change in the future”

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...contd. “The purpose of a LCA is to help ensure that change and development does not undermine what ever is characteristic or valued about a particular place, and ways of improving the character of a place. LCA aims to provide a strong and robust evidence base to help ensure future change and development conserve and enhance rather than erode landscape character.”

18. MMETAG Conference - Marston Vale 2050
....contd. “Stakeholder views are critical to the success and potential influence of a LCA. Local comments strengthen understanding about what is important and valued about a landscape and the reasons why. This understanding can, in turn, help ensure that future management respects valued characteristics, elements and features of a landscape.”

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What do you think of the portrayal of the North Marston Vale in the Mid Beds LCA?
Does it reflect fully the value of the countryside you want to conserve?
Does it convey adequately how the value of the Marston Vale countryside could increase?
Are you content for the current LCA to stand as the coutryside case to set against any development that threatens it?

21. MMETAG Conference - Marston Vale 2050
If not, seek to get the LCA up-dated to -
Establish the countryside value of the Marston Vale,
Set out a vision for how the Vale’s countryside value can be enhanced,
Contribute to the evidence base to help ensure future change and development conserve and enhance rather than erode landscape character.

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