East West Rail: Early engagement events not used to shape current Bedford plans
East West Rail confirmed in a meeting with Bedford Borough Council that early engagement events in the borough were not used to shape the plans currently out for consultation.
Minutes from the meeting between Bedford Borough Council and East West Rail (EWR) held in December 2025 recorded that feedback from planned early 2026 engagement activity “will not be represented in consultation materials”.
The same discussion noted that the design being prepared at the end of December would be the version taken forward into consultation.
In a statement sent to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), EWR said: “The Design Update Sessions earlier in the year were designed to give more detail on the proposals we shared at the end of last year in our You Said We Did, and were not designed to shape the content of the current consultation.
“The feedback taken at those events will be assessed together with the feedback taken during this consultation which ends on June 9.
“The design for the whole route, including Bedford, was sufficiently developed by February to provide a clear and stable proposal for the current consultation.”
The LDRS asked why the names of EWR attendees to the meetings with the council were redacted.
The EWR spokesperson said “EWR requested the redaction of attendee names to ensure employees’ personal data is not placed in the public domain, particularly given the wider publication of meeting records.
“This is in line with our formal request that any publicly released materials are appropriately redacted to comply with data protection requirements.”
The current consultation ends on June 9, and feedback can be submitted online on the EWR website, and at in-person events.
The in-person event feedback forms can be also taken away and returned in the Freepost envelope provided.
EWR said: “We are keen to hear from as many people as possible during our latest consultation, as this feedback will help shape our final design which will be submitted in our Development Consent Order.
“Feedback is an essential part of our design process. Feedback from our last consultation held in 2024/25 delivered over 80 design changes across the route.”