REVEALED: Plan for thousands of new houses in Bedfordshire

Sites at Twinwoods,Thurleigh airfield, Sharnbrook and Wyboston are under consideration for at least one satellite development of thousands of homes.

Some 1,000 more houses and flats will be squeezed into the Bedford and Kempston urban area, while a cluster of surrounding villages are earmarked for hundreds of new properties apiece.

These villages include Bromham, Sharnbrook, Clapham and Great Barford.

A further 1,000 homes are planned for the brownfield former Stewartby brickworks site.

All the details were revealed this week with the first glimpse of the Bedford Borough Local Plan 2035.

A full report of the plan is due to be rubber-stamped next week by ruling Liberal Democrats.

Already Tory councillors are complaining they have been left out in the cold, and have slammed the Lib Dems for allowing less than 45 minutes to approve the massive document before the full council meeting – bundled in with the £10m plan to digitalise the council and make hundreds of redundancies.

“These are crucial issues. The Local Plan alone will change the character of our rural communities and countryside forever,” said Tory leader Stephen Moon.

To meet the plan’s target, 950 new houses would have to be built in the borough every year between now and 2035.

The report admits: “It is a challenging number but achieving it will be helped by the fact that we already have land with planning permission.”

The largest development – totalling up to 6,000 homes – will be the satellite settlement.

The council plans to develop “free-standing” employment sites to serve these new populations.

But it admits the strain of providing the necessary infrastructure and other services may mean not all the building is completed by 2035.

You can preview the full plan by clicking the link of our website, www.bedfordtoday.co.uk.