My 2nd year as Hon Chairman has been dominated by the campaign to stop the proposed development of more than 5,000 houses & industrial units at Salden Chase, just the other side of the Bletchley boundary line.
From our newsletters, you may recall that committee members have attended a number of meetings to put forward the reasons for our opposition to the development. We also distributed a series of notices to both Association members & non-members; we enlisted the support of politicians from the main political parties, council officers & other residents associations, culminating in my speaking against the development at the AVDC meeting last September when my theme was “I before E” infrastructure before expansion which was picked up by AVDC councillors. Helped by the change of government and change in regional development policy, the Salden Chase development will not take place (for the time being, that is). However, we recognise that housing is required in this region, but we must have the infrastructure first – roads, hospitals, schools etc. to support any development so as not to put undue pressure on neighbouring areas & existing facilities.
BPARA joined COBRA in 2010
Not the Government committee to deal with national emergencies but the Consortium of Bletchley Residents Associations. Sadly, meetings of this organisation are a bit and hit and miss, and when meetings do take place, they are somewhat disorganised. However, your Committee will continue to support COBRA and, hopefully, help it to become a creditable voice for all Bletchley residents.
CGR traffic calming & WB Traffic Review
After many years of campaigning, & thanks to WBC, we now have the traffic calming measures & improved street lighting in place in CGR, although MKC was a bit slow in ensuring that the relevant signage was in place.
There has not been much progress, however, in relation to the WB Traffic review, although notices have recently appeared on lamp posts to indicate that some of the waiting restrictions may shortly be introduced. The lack of activity may be partly due to the Bletchley Transport Strategy Review – more about that later.
At a time when church congregations seem to be diminishing, St Mary’s Church continues to grow & operates from three bases. The Association has worked with the Church in their attempt to acquire Rivers School as a base for many of their activities – unfortunately, MKC had 1st call on the site which is being used for adult continuing education.
The Association also works closely with Old Bletchley NAG on transport, parking & anti-social behaviour issues. Commuter & student parking in the approach road to St Mary’s Church, Elmers Park, Downing Close & Girton Close continues to be a problem. We met with MK College in January and it was apparent that they are trying to address the issue of student parking. One suggestion was for students paying a special rate to park in the rail station car park. Following that meeting, OB NAG wrote to London Midland Railways to suggest that the part of the railway car park (which has around 250 unused parking spaces each day) could be used by college students – sadly, there has been no response to date, and we will continue to lobby the rail company on this matter.
BP Development – Dementia unit
Towards the end of last year, the Committee attended a meeting of WBC when the proposed development of a Unit for dementia suffers on BP land was discussed. Unfortunately, some of the residents in the new houses on BP were misinformed about this development, and we arranged for them to meet the developers & WBC & their concerns were addressed.
Website & social media
The Association website has now been in existence for a year and we also try to sensibly use social media networks such as Facebook & Twitter to aid our communication process.
I would now like to hand over to Chris who has been working as Hon Secretary over the past year as we struggle to find a permanent Secretary.
Bletchley Transport Strategy
Last summer, the Association was invited to be a stakeholder in the Bletchley Transport Strategy Review – yet another transport strategy review. The declared vision of this review is to make Bletchley an attractive, connected and convenient place to live, work and shop.
Committee members attended workshops at Bletchley Park last September, followed by further meetings with MK Council officers & local councillors, plus general public consultation to provide input, and the proposals were given the name of transport intervention schemes, and included the Stage 1 report
presented to MKC. In March, MKC published the 60 page Stage 2 report which you can view on the Council’s website. Section 8 which starts on page 32 sets out the potential delivery programme.
The Bletchley Strategy forms part of the MK Transport Vision & Strategy – whilst some of the transport intervention schemes (which include a possible new bus station site, Southern Bypass or Southern Distributor Road, review of Rickley Lane traffic calming) are subject to further study. However, these proposed schemes can only become a reality between now and 2031 if there is the funding to enable them to happen. Now that the local elections are over, COBRA will be holding a meeting with local councillors & MKC officers to consider the report.
