Introduction

Welcome to Pledge Office Chairs’ consultation website. Here, you can find out about the firm’s plans to relocate, and to develop their existing factory at the Millstream Works on Mill Road, Leighton Buzzard, LU7 1BA. An application seeking Outline Planning Permission will be submitted to Central Bedfordshire Council to use the site for residential purposes. This will allow Pledge Office Chairs to move to a purpose-built facility near Leighton Buzzard.

The site at Millstream Works no longer meets their needs and the proposed move would allow the firm to be more efficient. It will secure jobs for current staff and create new job opportunities, potentially setting up a second shift. The redevelopment of the site for residential uses would better reflect the surrounding area, and provide 92 new homes for Leighton Buzzard.

We hope you find this information useful, and we would like to hear your views about our revised proposals, so please do fill in our feedback form or contact one of our redevelopment team via the Contact Us.  

For more information about Pledge Office Chairs, please visit www.pledgechairs.co.uk. 

The Proposal

An outline application was submitted last year which proposed the redevelopment of the site. That earlier application was withdrawn, but we have taken account of the comments that were received and developed a revised proposal. Significant changes have been made and these are summarised below.

An amended application will be submitted seeking Outline Planning Permission for redevelopment of the site to provide up to 92 residential units. As this stage, the application by Pledge Office Chairs only aims to establish the principle of development.

Matters of detail, such as the layout of development and the design of the proposed houses, will all be considered through later applications. However, illustrative plans have been prepared to show that the site can accommodate the number of houses that are proposed and meet all of the Council’s requirements.

The key elements of the proposal are described below:

• Demolition of all existing buildings;

• The provision of up-to 92 houses with a mix of 50 family homes, 36 one and two-bedroom apartments, and 5 bungalows;

• The scheme will include affordable housing, self-build plots and bungalows to meet the Council’s policies;

• Significant open space covering approximately 40% of the site (excluding private gardens);

• Landscape and ecological benefits, expected to provide 60% improvement to biodiversity;

• The area of Green Belt land at the northern end of the site remains undeveloped;

• Drainage will be provided in the site, with attenuation ponds;

• The existing vehicular access will be used;

• Redevelopment will result in the removal of 50 lorry movements per day;

• Parking spaces will be provided for the new homes, based on the Council’s standards;

• Footpath links would be provided would be created to the existing riverside walk.

Consultation

Although Pledge Office Chairs’ proposed development is not a major development in planning terms, we believe it is important that local residents are aware of what is happening and are given an opportunity to comment. As such, we have started consultation on our revised proposals with residents, councillors and other stakeholders. 

Information about the revised proposals has been made available on this website.  We will also be sending a letter to nearest residents and Leighton-Linslade town council, a newsletter to c.300-400 nearby residents, as well as promoting the website on local social media, distributing a press release and press advert, and putting posters on notice boards, in shop windows etc. Community groups and residents will also be offered briefings via video call or telephone.  

We welcome your feedback and views on our revised proposal. Feedback will be gathered via this website, a Freephone number and an email address. Please see the Online Feedback Form and Contacts for more details. 

These are the key dates in the planning process:

• The online public consultation process will run from 24 March until 21 April 2022

• The deadline for feedback on our revised proposal is 21 April 2022

• We will then review all feedback and submit an update to our planning application highlighting the key points.

Latest Traffic Assessment

A revised traffic assessment has been produced to accompany the outline planning application, and this has data for total traffic flows following surveys of actual vehicle movements recorded over a number of days, as well as projections on the likely number of vehicle movements should the redevelopment go ahead.  

It should be noted, that in our initial consultation materials, we stated that the number of lorries visiting the site was between 60-70 vehicles per day.  This figure was taken from a previous report and this is the maximum number of goods vehicles, rather than the average.  We apologise for this error.  The most recent traffic assessment shows that the actual 5 daily average is 47 goods vehicles per day.   The proposed development would still see the removal of the goods vehicles from the local roads.  

With a move from manufacturing to residential use, the timing of vehicle movements would change over the day.  Currently, most goods vehicles visit the site during the day and not during peak flows in the morning and evening.  Also,  the current site operations normally end, and traffic flow stops, around 5pm i.e. before the evening peak hour.

As a result, the new traffic assessment identifies an increase in vehicle movements during the morning peak hour of 22, and 36 in the evening peak hour.  This is less than one additional vehicle every two minutes in the morning peak flow, and less than one additional vehicle every minute during evening peak flow.  The report also demonstrates that the projected traffic flows are within the capacity of the neighbouring road network.