Bedford Local Plan 2040 to be scrapped after planning inspector warned it needed major changes

Members heard this was a process complicated by the council’s need to assess the potential impact of the proposed Universal Studios theme park.

At last night’s Executive Meeting (Wednesday, July 9) councillors were told that the planning inspector had raised serious concerns as far back as November 2023 over key elements of the plan, including housing need, employment growth, and strategic infrastructure.

The inspector advised that substantial further technical work was needed before any modifications could be considered by the announcement of Universal’s proposed entertainment resort in December 2023 and the developer’s engagement with the council in spring 2024.

The scale of the proposed theme park, particularly its impact on infrastructure and employment, meant the council could not meet the May 2025 deadline agreed with the inspector.

As a result, the inspector wrote to the council on June 10 recommending that the plan be formally withdrawn.

Priority projects consultant Sam Fox told the meeting: “We really are at the end of the road for the 2040 plan… the inspector has made it very clear.”

He added that continuing with the current plan would likely result in it being found unsound, but with additional cost to the council and no progress towards adoption.

Councillor Marc Frost (Conservative, Wixams and Wilstead) said: “I’m very concerned about where we are because of the speculative development that’s already hitting my ward.

Mr Fox said: “I don’t want to predetermine any applications that come forward to the planning committee.

“We do still have an ability to refuse schemes that we believe don’t make the tests and aren’t right for the area.

“There are policy tests that we still have in place, so it’s not that we would have to just accept everything.

“If there are genuine planning reasons that we can back up at appeal, then we’d certainly be looking at those if those developments aren’t acceptable.”

Full Council will now be asked, at a later date, to agree the inspector’s recommendation to withdraw the Local Plan 2040 from the Examination process

And that the head of planning & building control be authorised to commence work on a new version of the Local Plan to 2046, taking into account the advice received from the Inspector, and “any other current circumstances”.