Mowsbury Golf Course & Rugby Club Lined Up for Housing

Putnoe Liberal Democrat councillors have reacted angrily to proposals from the Council that seek to turn a large part of Mowsbury Golf Course and the Wentworth Drive Athletic Rugby Ground into housing.

A letter received from a Property Development Officer at the town hall informed the three Lib Dem councillors that the Council, as the landowner, would be submitting these two sites in Putnoe for consideration as an allocation for residential development. This is part of the Allocation and Designation Plan process to allocate sites for development in the period up to 2021.

Cllr Sallyanne Smith said "We have already lodged our strongest objection to this proposal. Both sites are important leisure and sporting facilities that should not be lost. But even more fundamentally than that, both sites provide the open aspect link from the urban area to the open countryside beyond. They link with the very important Mowsbury Park and Mowsbury Wood and any housing development on either site would damage the overall natural, open environment in this part of Bedford."

Cllr Myrtle Stewardson said "Wentworth Drive is the natural barrier to housing development in this part of Bedford, and from Mowsbury Park down to the end of Wentworth Drive, the only development on the north side is that of Mark Rutherford school - itself surrounded by playing fields. To build housing here would be totally out of keeping."

Cllr Michael Headley concluded "In the 2002 local plan both these areas are defined as Areas of Special Restraint, and for good reason too. The development of either of these sites would be damaging to the local environment and should not be pursued further. We will be fighting this every step of the way."