The safety of local residents and drivers was raised in the House of Commons today by South West Bedfordshire MP, Andrew Selous. With massive new house building to the north of Houghton Regis and the east of Leighton Buzzard, as well as across Dunstable, many residents are living on unadopted roads, which often have no speed restrictions, no traffic, calming, and no pedestrian crossings. There can often be a stand-off between the developer and Central Bedfordshire Council about roads becoming adopted, which can go on for decades.
The exchange in the House of Commons today was as follows
Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire)
Hundreds of thousands of people live on unadopted roads, with no speed restrictions, no traffic calming and no pedestrian crossings. On Fraserfields Way in Leighton Buzzard, there have already been a number of accidents. To me, it is a road safety no man’s land, with the answer lying somewhere between Barratt Homes, the developers, and Central Bedfordshire Council. Will the Government act to minimise the amount of time that residents have to live on these dangerous roads, so we can prevent accidents?
I thank my hon. Friend for raising this important matter. Usually hon. Members do so in the wake of an accident, so I congratulate him on getting ahead of that and trying to prevent one from happening. I understand his concerns and I will certainly make sure that the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Transport Secretary hear his remarks. I also suggest that my hon. Friend might like to raise this on 10 July with the former, who is likely to be able to assist him in his campaign, which again I congratulate him on.
Speaking afterwards, Andrew Selous said “I met with two Eggington parish councillors this week who raised with me their safety concerns about Fraserfields Way in which they have already been a number of accidents and cars have been recorded travelling at 80 miles an hour. It is not yet clear to me how Barratt Homes, the developers and Central Bedfordshire Council can urgently get the necessary road safety measures in place.
Next Friday, the 30th of June, I will be meeting with senior managers from Barratt Homes, David Wilson Homes, Persimmon, Bellway Homes and Taylor Wimpey, along with officers from Central Bedfordshire Council to try to make progress on these issues as well as many other issues which residents face on new estates such as street light failures, lack of parking enforcement, lack of litter, dog and grit bins and lack of access to children’s play facilities and allotments even where these are specified in the section 106 agreements.
In advance of my meeting on the 30th of June, I would be very grateful if any of my constituents who are facing these issues could contact me on
andrew.selous.mp@parliament.uk
so that I can raise these issues directly with the developers concerned, the officers from Central Bedfordshire Council and hopefully the portfolio holder from Central Bedfordshire Council, who I have also invited to the meeting.