February 2025: What Has Changed?

With the introduction of new documentation in February 2025, there are limited changes to the Furtho Development Plan. However, you must renew your objections/comments to ensure they are considered.

Transport/Traffic

• The site plan has been altered, but developers have obscured the number of loading bays on-site. We maintain that there are 78 bays unless they provide clarification. Until the unit is sold, the exact number will remain unknown.

• There’s no change regarding access to the site (policy criteria is to provide a new roundabout junction from the A508). This is still depicted as a T-junction with a right-turn access lane from the west. No road widening is proposed—the slip road is integrated into the current road width, mirroring the existing Cosgrove turnings. Traffic will still back up to the roundabout.

• The developers have shockingly predicted negative traffic growth and, alongside WNC, agreed to assess any traffic issues only after 2031!

• Pedestrian and cyclist access will be shared with vehicles on Old Cosgrove Road raising safety concerns.

• The developers’ consultants claim employees can use Old Stratford Road bus services, which were discontinued years ago!

• Cyclists are expected to use the Grand Union Canal towpath to reach Milton Keynes.

Flooding

• Developers propose enlarging the culvert under the canal, disregarding the Environment Agency’s warning that this would worsen flooding risks by accelerating water flow to the Ouse.

• They boldly claim the development will “reduce” flood likelihood, a claim refuted by the Environment Agency.

• The increased culvert is presented as a standalone solution to reduce flood risk, so they no longer recommend the flood storage function in its current form, though this remains an option.

• Any flood storage scheme will function as a reservoir, requiring ongoing certification and maintenance by site owners.

• The ‘reservoir’ will still be an earth bund with “engineering fill.”

Ecology

• BioScan’s 2023 submission highlighted major technical errors and omissions in the developer’s surveys. These concerns have now been validated by changes to the latest survey results.

• Developers claim the rare mosaic habitat of insects and wildlife can be relocated to the new park. This is wholly unrealistic. They previously dismissed this habitat as poor, low-quality land.

• Of the 565 invertebrate species identified on-site, 35 are scarce or threatened, and 24 are truly scarce. This is an ecologically rich area—impossible to offset.

Country Park

• Developers have returned to a previous plan of creating a ‘wetlands’ area in the vicinity of the Dogsmouth Brook, presumably to solve the issue of water released from the Flood Storage Area directly above. 

• It is unclear how much this wetlands area will affect levels in the River Great Ouse, but as this land lies higher than the river it will inevitably drain into it - once again a concern in times of heavy flooding. 

Employment

• Developers continue to tout this as a “mixed-use” development (B1, B2, and B8). However, there are no B1 (office) or B2 (small industrial) buildings—only B8 warehouses. Their claims of “office spaces within warehouses” are misleading, as the end user will dictate usage, not the developers.

• There are still no small- or medium-sized buildings to encourage mixed employment opportunities, as requested in the original Local Plan.

Heritage 

• The original Heritage Statement missed the fact that there would be attenuation ponds within the country park. They have amended this in their most recent submission, Feb 25. 



You can access further information on all these aspects on our Reasons to Object page using the link below: