Central Bedfordshire already has great road links with the M1 and A1. We also have three railway lines running through our area as well as Luton Airport close by. The prospect of an East West Rail link will improve east west connectivity across Central Bedfordshire and will include upgrades to the Marston Vale line and potentially a new train station at Tempsford.
Through the Local Plan we can ensure new development takes advantage of our great road and rail connections and improve them further, as we have with the A5-M1 Link Road north of Houghton Regis.
We want the new Local Plan to help give people genuine choice in the way they travel, ensuring new homes and jobs connect to sustainable transport routes. The Local Plan, through new development, can provide for ‘walkable neighbourhoods’ by providing more walking, cycling and wheeling routes to local facilities and sustainable public transport so residents have a genuine choice and are encouraged to change how they travel as much as possible.
The new Local Plan can also help to support existing bus services across Central Bedfordshire by locating new growth along existing routes and by encouraging new routes and connections into new developments when they are delivered.
Sustainable travel routes within and between our villages and towns will not only allow people to move around more freely and get to where they want to go, it will also help reduce the impacts of climate change and help tackle some health and wellbeing issues caused by rural isolation, loneliness and inequality.
We have been asking residents and businesses about transport improvements we could make as part of our work to develop Local Walking and Cycling Improvement Plans and the new Local Transport Plan. This feedback will be used to inform our new Local Plan too.
Your voice matters
- How important is providing more walking, cycling and wheeling routes to local facilities?