Dear editor,
At the recent meeting (8 December) of Bedford Borough’s Planning Committee, the Chairman of Bromham Parish Council spoke in favour of the application before the committee for Bromham Mill.
Read: New Bromham Mill plans approved despite concerns over heritage, parking and wildlife
She gave the impression that this, the second application for Bromham Mill, was submitted having listened to residents’ concerns. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The first application, approved in January 2024, would have decimated the ecology and heritage and over-commercialised a much-loved local site, within which are two Grade II listed buildings.
It was so overambitious that we formed a residents’ group to oppose it. We told them from the time of approval that it would be unaffordable. They didn’t listen or even acknowledge our existence despite having 600 plus supporters.
They did eventually agree to meet with us, with Richard Fuller MP chairing, in August 2024, but nothing came of this, with no commitment to alter course.
It wasn’t until February this year that we discovered that the cost of the first application was to be £6.5 million, over 35 times the annual income of Bromham.
When I queried this at the February Parish Council (PC) meeting, I was robustly challenged to divulge where I got this figure from, as it was confidential, and that the PC needed to instigate an investigation.
We felt residents should have known this figure, as it was potentially the residents’ money at stake. At this point in time, the PC stated that they were still committed to the original plan and that it could be done in stages.
It wasn’t until March 2025 that the first draft of the second, scaled-back application was published in PC minutes (few people read these). This was subsequently amended because of a shortfall of parking spaces, and the second application was eventually submitted in July.
Between this time, the PC could have published details of the revised scheme in two Bromham Broadsheets, have had a display at the Bromham Show, have met our residents group again or taken other steps to consult or inform residents.
They did nothing. It wasn’t until a few weeks after the application was submitted that the PC held an ‘engagement’ event on the August bank holiday of all time, which was not to consult but to tell residents what they were doing – a fait accompli.
So to claim the PC ‘listened’ to Bromham residents and that this is one of the reasons they submitted the second application is a distortion. They did it because it was way beyond their reach financially, as we told them from the outset.
Fine words at the meeting from our Chairman about being more ecologically respectful etc, but had they had £6.5 million in the bank it’s quite certain they would have created a business park, destroyed 30 plus trees, displaced a badger sett, built an overflow car park in valued green space (over the badger sett) and created a car park more in keeping with a supermarket, as the first application was to deliver.
Mike Cryer,
Bromham
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