After the 22^nd February the draft Plan and all the comments made will be sent to an Independent Planning Inspector.  The Inspector will hold a Public Inquiry to consider the Plan and the objections made, and will then recommend whether the Council should make any changes to the Plan before they can formally adopt this.

Once adopted the Plan will determine how Central Bedfordshire will be developed over the next 15 – 20 years so it is really important that you have your say on this now.  

The Draft Plan is proposing significant development across the District – nearly 40,000 homes by 2035 together with employment uses.  There are also proposals to significantly increase these numbers if the proposed Oxford to Cambridge rail and road links proceed.  It will be essential to make sure this scale of development is justified and is in the most appropriate locations.

We will be producing a high level commentary with our initial views on the Plan shortly but in the meantime you should be aware that:-

• The comments made on the previous plan last year will not be sent to the Inspector so you need to comment on this Plan for your voice to be heard.

• This Plan contains recommendations on which sites should be developed – the previous one showed a long list. 

• The Council will group the comments under certain headings when they are looking at the response but you should feel free to comment on any aspect of the Plan you have concerns about or are in favour of.

• If you want to speak at the Inquiry you must make this clear on the comments you submit – this does not commit you to speaking, you can decide later if you want to do this or just rely on your written response.

The link below will take you to the Local Plan section of the Council’s web site, where you can read a summary of the proposals, view the actual plan and the other technical documents on which the Plan is based and see more about how to make comments on this.

http://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/planning/policy/local-plan/overview.aspx

This link will take you straight to the Draft Plan and Technical documents.

https://centralbedfordshire.jdiconsult.net/localplan/

For details of future planning events please click

http://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/planning/policy/local-plan/community-planning/next.aspx