Access to new and improved green space and nature

By considering the environment and biodiversity from the outset we can ensure developments include more green space for recreation and for nature.

Having a variety of green space to exercise, play football, have a picnic, walk the dog etc. helps to make somewhere a desirable place to live and provides for a high quality of life and wellbeing. We can help to ensure country parks, woodlands, meadows and public Rights of Way are integrated into new developments through the Local Plan.

The Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Park is a project to link the main UK waterway network with the Fens waterways of East Anglia. A new waterway would need to be created to link Bedford to Milton Keynes. The waterway would create a green corridor at the heart of new developments, providing improved opportunities for recreational uses such as boating, canoeing, fishing, walking and cycling, helping with flood and water management and enhancing biodiversity. As well as attracting visitors and tourism it could provide an ecologically rich corridor and a space for recreation and healthy living.

Over 80% of Central Bedfordshire is countryside. Wherever you are in Central Bedfordshire, you are never far from being in the open countryside. By planning carefully for growth in the right places, we can make sure the countryside continues to be in easy reach for residents.

And of course, we’ll be protecting important areas like the Greensand Ridge, the Forest of Marston Vale, the Ivel Valley and the Chilterns National Landscape, enhancing these and increasing access, where possible. Planting, landscaping and creating green space between built up areas can help to limit the impact of development and create great places.

We want the new Local Plan to have an increased emphasis on the environment, sustainability and biodiversity, aligned to our objectives as a Council. We are already preparing a Local Nature Recovery Strategy which will define opportunities to protect and enhance nature across Bedfordshire. Areas can be left to recover, or they can be actively planted to aid this (e.g. planting woodland). The idea is to create a network of wildlife rich areas benefiting biodiversity, climate change and improving health and wellbeing. This strategy and the areas identified within it will help to inform some decisions about future development. New development could also help to deliver some of the recovery through developer contributions.

Developments are also required to offset their impacts on nature and our Biodiversity Net Gain Strategy sets out our approach. The Local Plan can help to push this further and make developers provide land for biodiversity net gain.

Development in specific zones in the south of our area must provide strategic alternative natural green space. If a developer cannot provide alternative green space, they have to give the Council money to use to invest in green spaces.

The approaches outlined above help to put nature first. We have an opportunity with the new Local Plan to ensure our environmental policies are as strong as possible and more specific with quantifiable targets.

Protecting and enhancing green spaces and nature helps to contribute towards our sustainability, climate change and health and wellbeing objectives.