Issue - meetings
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Meeting: 15/01/2025 - Council (Item 67)
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
To receive petitions, comments and questions from the public.
Decision:
Immediately before the respective Agenda Item, several presentations were received from members of the public regarding Agenda Item 6 – East of Luton Strategic Masterplan Framework.
Minutes:
Audio recording – 10 minutes 56 seconds
The Chair invited Ms Karen Jay to speak on Agenda Item 6 – East of Luton Strategic Masterplan Framework. Ms Jay thanked the Chair for the opportunity and provided Council with a verbal presentation, including that:
· Developers had encroached the greenbelt.
· The plan had been presented as a done deal with no scrutiny of the content.
· The open space plans were flawed as up to 10,000 people could live on the site. The Masterplan outlines that there would not be enough open space for 5,000 people, therefore developers would land grab for extra space.
· Woodland on the site had been included as multifunctional open space.
· If the housing mix was known at this stage, then there would be a better idea of the expected population.
· 1,950 homes on this site were to meet the unmet needs of Luton.
· Affordable housing was a NHDC policy, but Officers had advised that this could not be included until the planning stage.
· There needed to be confidence that the developers would deliver homes and not claim unviability.
· Luton Borough Council had built 1,100 homes of which only 7 were affordable.
· The final Masterplan would set a design framework for future applications, but this is not the right version and would lead to over population, cramped houses, lack of open space and three storey buildings.
· Developers cannot build until the Masterplan had been adopted, therefore Members should either defer or reject this Masterplan.
· Data from Luton Borough Council showed this was not required for their needs and therefore a scrutiny review of the process should be undertaken.
There were no points of clarification from Members.
The Chair thanked Ms Jay for her presentation and invited Mr David Dorman to speak on Agenda Item 6 – East of Luton Strategic Masterplan Framework. Mr Dorman thanked the Chair for the opportunity and provided Council with a verbal presentation, including that:
· The Masterplan outlined that building heights on the site would be predominantly 2 to 2.5 storeys to reflect the surrounding area. However, a 3 storey building would tower over the edge of Luton.
· The school proposed at Chalk Hill would be 3 storeys and would be a blot on the landscape from the east.
· There were no improvements planned to Chalk Hill, which was currently a single track road. However, as schools would provide for the villages west of Hitchin, this would be a key access point to the school and needed rethinking.
· Space had been allocated for a GP surgery. However, this was subject to input from the relevant providers and there was no guarantee this would be provided on site. There were concerns raised that existing GP surgeries would not be able to cope with the additional demand.
· There was no employment provided on site and limited public transport, therefore people would have to use cars to travel and the road provision was inadequate.
· The plans propose lifestyle engineering, rather than good housing and infrastructure which supports the ... view the full minutes text for item 67