For years, many councillors and residents across Bedford Borough have raised serious concerns about the previous Mayor’s Local Plan 2040.
They were right to do so.
The previous administration led the creation of the Local Plan. They passed it through Council, defended it in public, and ignored all the warnings.
The Planning Inspector, however, could not endorse this plan due to its weaknesses, unleashing planning chaos on the Borough.
In their letter, the Planning Inspector has now confirmed what we had warned about all along – the plan was fundamentally flawed and incapable of delivering the homes, jobs, and infrastructure our community needs. Now we have no plan and no protection from speculative planners.
My cross-party Executive and I tried everything we could to make the plan workable but, in the Inspector’s own words, “It is hard to see a credible future for the Plan as submitted” – it was too broken to fix.
The Inspector slammed the Lib Dems’ plan for being built on shaky foundations, overloaded with unrealistic assumptions, hollow promises of infrastructure, and a vision that simply didn’t add up.
Their refusal to stop and rethink came during central government reforms and mounting local calls to stop their madness. When I was a councillor, I called on them to pause, reflect, and plan smarter. They refused to do so.
But it’s not all doom and gloom; we now have the ability to make a fresh start.
With the old Local Plan set to be withdrawn, we finally have the chance to get the plan right for everybody and will bring consultations forward as soon as we can.
We also have the wonderful opportunity to plan for the extraordinary arrival of Universal Destinations and Experiences.
This once-in-a-generation development changes everything, and our new Local Plan will reflect that. We can be more ambitious, more community-led, and more focused on sustainable growth that improves lives.
That means putting the Town Centres at the heart of regeneration, supporting our rural communities, and building the infrastructure we need.
Together, we can deliver a new plan for Bedford – bold, forward-looking, and finally free of the Lib Dems’ planning chaos.
This is a monthly guest column provided by elected
Mayor Tom Wootton (Conservative). It is published unedited and
does not reflect the views of the Bedford Independent.
