16-10-25 Update - please wade in and object in support of having a rail link east of Bedford please. Enquiries info@brtarail.com
re: 25/01839/EIASCP Environmental Scoping Request Application
Re: Land to the North of Bedford Road, Willington Bedfordshire
On behalf of the Bedfordshire Regional Transport Association (BRTA) and as BRTA Bedford Area Rep, I wish to object to this development principally:
1. It could block the former Bedford-Sandy/Cambridge course of the old railway and make reopening more difficult. This route and variation east of it (avoiding Willington or recovering the former route and relocation of some leisure outlets and back extended gardens for example unless it is bypassed) was studied in Report issued by Bedford Borough Council; please see and scroll down webpage:
https://brtarail.com/ewrail/2. We want the corridor kept 'open' for a new rail link east of Bedford via St John's as it would require less demolitions and we wish to keep it open, as opposed to the Northern Route E which wants 60 houses demolished at least.
3. This rail link corridor is flatter and more versatile than Northern Route Route E albeit certain technical issues need leadership, champions and lobbying to ensure dispensations on infrastructure like a level crossing where a bridge over the railway is not feasible due to adjacent New Cut water course at Priory for example would deter a railway.
4. The development itself at 2.5 cars per average household, next or on a flooding area perennially adds to problems down stream on the River Great Ouse and congestion on the busy A603 combining with all other traffic into Bedford and vice versa (Bedford Midland and Wixams emergent being the principal rail access for things like commuting, airport access and leisure travel by rail), means that this location should put the railway first and tailor access and development where responsibly opportune.
5. The former Willington Rowing Lake was found, I recall, to court development to pay for it and facilities courting 500 houses, tagged onto Willington, now this development is more than double that annexes the village to urban cordons.
This is not our final word on the matter, but if this and similar developments along this corridor go ahead, it means Northern Route for East West Rail East of Bedford or a possible southern route which avoids the town and principal Bedford Midland Interchange Railway Station completely, Bedford losing footfall, spend and visitorship/social capital banking on the range of outlets the town has to offer (need I expand?).
Please loop me in on progress and end date of objections, representations and updates generally.
10-10-25:
Going, going, gone! That is the stark reality for our rail link east of Bedford via St John's if development sprawl is allowed to block and savage the former Bedford-Cambridge rail route towards Willington.
The reality is no constructive and inclusive of us comparative study has been done on which route Northern Route bE or our preferred route or indeed going via Sandy with a south-of new-build south of Potton and Gamlingay and linking to the Hitchin-Royston rail link near Addenbrooke's new station (Cambridge South) would require less houses being demolished than Northern Route E which comes in at least 60 houses, albeit not as expensive ones as at say Blunham for example (realignment may be possible) - no evaluation was done, only whittling down a maverick 33 routes to a top 5 (none of which in 2019 included the old rail route with amendments as an option for the public and £10 million was paid for this botched consultation job to present routes alien to the people of Bedford.
Please wade in an object to the development west of Willington - all details are on our Blogspot (scroll down).
Thank you. BRTA will state its position, but if our route goes and Northern Route E is deeply unpopular, then bypassing Bedford or the unacceptable spectacle of Cambridge and East Anglia being disenfranchised from the Oxbridge Arc core rail-based transport infrastructure, undermining any claims of inclusion or sustainability.
Time is running out and a lack of joined-up Government signals makes us despair rather than hope that Big Brother really knows what it is doing.
BRTA CEO
https://brtarailvolunteer.blogspot.com/ and https://brtarail.com/ewrail/ and to email your local MP: https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons?sort=1
09-10-2025:
re: https://www.bedfordindependent.co.uk/major-development-submitted-for-1000-homes-at-bedford-river-valley-park/
Ref: The reference number from Bedford Borough Council for the application to the Land to the North of Bedford Road Willington is 25/01839/EIASCP
Development at Tempsford without infrastructure like new A&E Hospital, sewage works and an east-west rail link, will be unsustainable. Biggleswade, Potton, Sandy and now Tempsford will bloat and harmogenise to a big urban new town area exceeding 100, 000 people in a very short space of time. That is land take and unless we set aside land for a rail link for example as well as the usual bog standard Section 106 (school, shop and community centre for example) where will the railway go? This is not being thought through cohesively, it is just a development dumping ground like Wixams, to fulfill quotient housing stats - yes a real need, but communities need other things beyond mere 'estate' development.
Likewise, west of Willington blocks our rail route and access, lacks facilities, puts a strain on the A603 into Bedford and parking/existing railway station for commuting and with the precarious and controversial Northern East-West Rail Route in jeopardy/opposed by the Conservatives and everyone else (consensus at last! But for all the wrong reasons!); the default is either an orbital rail route that disenfranchises people and does not serve the town centre of Bedford, resuscitating through footfall and spend, the heartlands of the town and what it has to offer - many hidden gems!
I have spent myself trying to reach out to politicians.
The rail link lacks champions, any kind of visible leadership, direction and timescales of implementation are hard to come by. Loads of unsuited people on the board, loads of secrecy and a lack of transparency, accountability and democracy, cripples proper integrated nurturing and trust.
Our rail route is available now but it is an 11th hour situation. There's a whiff of a lack of faith, vision and sense of direction. Public majoritively want a rail link; but local government has failed the people through dithering, other agendas and pontifications on routes than rail links.
I just wonder if any audit was ever done on how many houses and at what cost comparatively would be lost were the old route to be pursued and new linkages near Shepreth Junction (new linkage rather than Trumpington Junction) at the Cambridge end as East-West proposed to get people to Addenbrookes for example contrast the Northern Route? The old route blockages are most expensive houses than northern route, but I am still unclear about beyond Bedford urban cordon like Ravensden - will any demolitions be happening there or all in tunnel?
BRTA encourages the public who want a rail link to:
1. Join BRTA and offer to help, organise and get involved for the rail link we wish for: https://brtarail.com/become-a-member/ Donate time and money, this is a last throw of the proverbial dice and this is our town and its future gain or disablement! Government purports to be behind it all, where is the leadership and timescale of means and ways for implementation? They have yet to deliver the long promised passenger service between Oxford and Milton Keynes/Bedford nor the missing Aylesbury rail link, bringing South Buckinghamshire and links with Heathrow and Old Oak Common to the frame?
Unless there's action, discourse and leadership on Bedford-Cambridge rail link, it will be lost within a decade to us with great injury to the local Bedford scene. Politicians and Government have only themselves to blame, the people have spoken and we have held out to all who will work with us: https://brtarail.com/ewrail/ If one says one is 'green' but fails to support this rail link as foundational to underpinning all greenery beyond airbrushing and petty planting whilst macro developments sweep away habitat, food production lands and congestion proliferates with pollution, making water courses, public and wildlife sick; it begs whether such claims are worth of being called 'green', rather tepid at best and in denial at worse! This is decision and crunch time:
If we but go through motions and fail to deliver cleaner choices in a timely manner including mandating every council and agency to sign up to a Traffic Reduction Strategy (TRS) per area/region, with rail more for modal shift as a part of that; credulity is rightly to be questioned and whether we are better off without such outlets if they are failing the people, nation and planet we all rely on for basics and dailies?
BRTA is playing its part, but would welcome more engagement from all shades and the public getting behind rail alternatives more please.
re: https://www.bedfordindependent.co.uk/major-development-submitted-for-1000-homes-at-bedford-river-valley-park/
At the turn of the century, it was a rowing lake, which was found only viable if 500 houses were built. The project was certainly a clash, but also a blocking tactic too. Now this development which on a flood plain offers no rail link, blocks our rail route and locks-in either Northern Route, Southern route (avoids Bedford) or no route for a rail link.
Local councils have had decades to sort a route out, we and our predecessors have lobbied and been up and down hill on routes and met protracted vested interests and misconceptions on the benefits of rail, running scared of any financial risk and liability, when in fact the railway would bring flows of sustainable revenue to the heart of the County Town and surrounding areas.
Please email your MP's and join us in calling for local champions for our rail route and tailor development around rail corridors, not on top of them. Cycleway can be slewed with a fence between it and a railway. Speed is not everything, a local railway can beat congestion and deliver hundreds of people to what an area has to offer.
