e-petitions - Don't let CBC sell the land at Watling House

"Stop the disposal of the site known as Watling House, located at High Street North, Dunstable, LU6 1LF, and retain the land for use that has benefit to the community of Dunstable and the wider area."

Supporting details:

The present concern is that Central Bedfordshire Council (CBC) will sell the land on the open market and the land will be host to a new development of low-quality housing that is unaffordable to Dunstable residents.
Dunstable and Central Bedfordshire have various public service needs that this site is ideally situated and sized to address, perhaps simultaneously. To name just three:

1) There is a real and pressing need for housing relief for Dunstable’s poor and vulnerable, this site, well placed on bus routes and near the town centre, would be perfect for this. According to CBC documents, Dunstable’s housing stock is “an area of intense pressure." Other CBC documents state that the homeless rate in Dunstable in 2020 was 14/1000, double the rate of homelessness across the rest of the Central Bedfordshire Council area. Furthermore, many Dunstable residents are being priced out of their town and moving away from their community and support networks. Any other kind of housing built here would be very unlikely to be genuinely “affordable”. Council Housing is an investment in our community that is long overdue.

2) According to CBC documents, Central Bedfordshire spends £5.5m on "Out of County (school) Placements" which is partly due to a lack of adequate provision for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in CBC. This site could be used for a SEND school to tackle the £10m Deficit within school funding.

3) A precondition of any new developments should always be whether the existing infrastructure can accommodate new residents. The site is located in the Dunstable North area, which is currently underserved by a lack of GP practices and other public services and is an area with high levels of deprivation. It has the highest population density of all of Central Bedfordshire.

Member of the CBC Executive and Portfolio Holder, Independent Cllr Steven Watkins, stated: "The market will decide if there's a need for housing." If you believe Dunstable, not the market, deserves to decide its own future and be better served, please support this petition.

Sign this e-petition