Fuming locals slam Starmer's plan to turn historic hamlet into mega-city with 350,000 new homes

Keir Starmer

Residents in a small village have been left furious after plans to house as many as 350,000 people were submitted

Google maps/ PA
Georgina Cutler

By Georgina Cutler


Published: 06/08/2024

- 13:03

Updated: 06/08/2024

- 15:09

The report states that the area is 'probably the best-connected greenfield site in Britain'

Residents in a small village have been left furious after plans to house as many as 350,000 people were submitted.

A thinktank put forward the proposal to increase the population of Tempsford, Bedfordshire, from where it currently stands at 600.


According to UKDayOne, the area is "probably the best-connected greenfield site in Britain" to help the Labour Government achieve its housing targets.

However, locals have branded the proposal a "joke" and warn that the new properties would "decimate everything" in their "wonderful" rural home.

Keir StarmerResidents in a small village have been left furious after plans to house as many as 350,000 people were submittedGoogle maps/ PA

The new area could be created at the intersection of the East Coast Main Line and the planned East-West Rail line, the New Towns for New Britain report suggests.

Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner has slapped down claims that Labour want to "concrete over" the countryside - amid plans to deliver 1.5million new homes over the next five years.

"It is a complete joke," Tempsford resident Mark Cleary told the Daily Mail.

"There's nothing wrong with a few new houses but to turn a village with historic connections to the Doomsday book into a city is mad.

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"I cycle for miles every day and I see all of the wildlife, deer, rabbits - it's wonderful.

"I've got sympathy for the need for new homes but to expand here is crazy."

Paulette Smith, 64, has lived in Tempsford since 1996 added: "The big boys come in and do it anyway, no matter how much we shout and scream about it.

"It doesn't matter what government it is, they're all the same.

Tempsford

A thinktank put forward the proposal to increase the population of Tempsford, Bedfordshire from 600 to as many as 350,000 people

Google maps

"I just can't envision more than quarter of a million houses in this beautiful little village.

'They'd need a GP, a dentist, schools and a shop and we don't even have that now - all we've got is a farm shop."

Despite the outcry, the report claimed there is an "exceptionally strong case" for building the supertown and it has "every prospect of becoming a major economic centre".

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