Buckinghamshire Local Plan: Callum Anderson MP - My statement

Before I begin, I would like to thank local residents for bearing with me. Hopefully you will understand that I wanted my response to this to be measured, considered, and crafted through consultation with local people.

First of all, I would like to reiterate that I support housebuilding - including the housing targets set for Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes City Councils - and have always been clear about that. Throughout my time as a parliamentary candidate and now as a Member of Parliament, I have spoken to countless young people whose aspirations of owning a home or finding an affordable place to rent in the communities where they grew up feel increasingly out of reach. I am not prepared to turn my back on that challenge simply because it may be politically difficult.

At the same time, supporting housebuilding does not mean abandoning our countryside and our rural communities. The two are not mutually exclusive. I live in a Buckinghamshire village myself and value the rural character of our communities. We can build the homes we need while protecting what makes Buckinghamshire such a special place to live.

I find it deeply regrettable that the Conservatives at Buckinghamshire Council have taken so long to bring forward a Local Plan at all. The Council had six years from its creation to prepare one. Instead, the Conservative administration allowed the situation to drift to the point where the Minister for Housing and Planning felt compelled to intervene and impose a deadline for the production of a Local Plan. That intervention should never have been necessary.

Over the past few months, I have heard loud and clear that this consultation has caused genuine distress across north Buckinghamshire, and I share many of the concerns that have been raised.

Outline planning application for 32 houses off Pond Close

At the end of June residents in the south west corner of the village were made aware of a pre-planning consultation for 35 houses on the field at the end of Pond Close, adjacent to the Gladman site on the corner of Westbrook End/Drayton Road. This proposal has now moved on to the next stage which is the submission of the outline planning application to Buckinghamshire Council by Edward Ware Homes Ltd & S Crocker (with Black Box Planning also listed):

"PL/26/06781/OA | Outline planning application with all matters reserved except access for the erection of up to 32 dwellings, including public open space, landscaping, sustainable drainage infrastructure, pedestrian links and associated access and infrastructure works | Land South Of Pond Close..." (Note that the number of houses proposed has been reduced to 32).

This application will be on the agenda for the next monthly Parish Council meeting which is on Monday 21 September at 7pm. We also have a parish council drop-in from 5-7pm on Thursday 3 September. Please do consider attending these events (which will be at the Free Church on Bletchley Road) if you want to share your views on the application and/or want any advice on how you can respond.

A similar message has gone out on Facebook and will now be going out as a Village Briefing email, and we will be putting letters through the doors of houses near to the site to ensure that residents are aware.

The documents submitted to Buckinghamshire Council can be viewed on their Planning Portal using the reference number PL/26/06781/OA

SOLAR FARM DEVELOPMENT - SITES PROPOSED BY BUCKINGHAMSHIRE COUNCIL FOR NEWTON LONGVILLE

Working through the Regulation 19 Draft Buckinghamshire Local Plan, it has become apparent that Buckinghamshire Council are proposing (Policy SP11) to make large areas of agricultural land in the north east of the county available for solar power generation. This includes the fields not designated for housing between the railway line and our boundaries with Newton Leys and Stoke Hammond.

While some might say "better solar panels than houses", much of the land proposed by Buckinghamshire Council for the 3,200 dwelling Beachampton NESS site consists of fields used for recently constructed solar farms. Medium to long term, we could potentially find solar panels swopped for bricks & mortar ...

This item, which clearly has serious implications for our parish, will be covered as part of the update on the parish council's work on the Draft Plan at the next monthly meeting on Monday 17 August (Free Church 7-9pm).

Public Meeting - Friday 17th July

Many thanks to everyone who attended the public meeting in Longueville Hall. We had about 90 in the room including from Buckinghamshire Council our two ward councillors, Jilly Jordan and Caroline Cornell, plus Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Transport Thomas Broom.

Subjects covered over the two hours or so included the latest on the East West Rail train maintenance depot, the draft Buckinghamshire Local Plan and the two pre-application consultations (Pond Close and Richborough, close to the Stoke Road/Drayton Road/Newton Road in Stoke Hammond parish). The slides about the draft Buckinghamshire Local Plan may be read or downloaded.

TRAIN MAINTENANCE DEPOT (TMD) - June 2026

EWR have provided further information on the layout options for the proposed train maintenance depot west of Whaddon Road, straddling Newton Longville and Mursley parishes. The most significant changes are arguably the addition of a third option (the 'Bow-Tie'), major increases in the estimated volume of excavated material that would need to be removed from the site, and the demolition and rebuilding of bridge OXD06 on Whaddon Road (Newton Longville) for layout options 2 and 3. EWR have also noted that they expect the majority of trains entering or leaving the depot to be coming from or going in the Cambridge direction (which favours option 2).