Bourne End Mills Industrial Estate update

At yesterday’s meeting of the Development Control Committee, the application to redevelop Bourne End Mills was rejected.  To be more precise, the rejection was of the application to enable 24 hour working and remove the height restriction on the buildings.  Consideration of the plans themselves was therefore deferred.

Despite the recommendation for approval by the planning officer, not one member of the committee was prepared to propose the application.  They had clearly taken on board the view that this specific application would have resulted in a building and activities which would have dominated our village and the surrounding area.

It looked rather bleak when the planning officer recommended approval.  What made the difference?  Probably not one thing but a combination of

•         the well-reasoned objections from so many of you;
•          Mike Pritchard’s clarity in presenting the case;
•         the petition;
•         the support of Gbola Adeleke, Jack Organ and Richard Roberts, our councillors,
•         and the strong objection from the Chiltern Society and concerns from CPRE.

But let’s not forget we are still left with the problem of the industrial estate.  We share with the council and presumably the owners of the land, the desire to make the estate viable without damaging further the area we live in.  We have already had constructive conversations with the council planning officer and we aim to continue this dialogue.