BRTA agrees there is a need for more housing, but the proposed development at Bromham is disproportionate to the narrow little access road of Lower Farm Rom Bromham for the 2-4 cars per household it will bring.
Likewise, the proposed development, unlike some others, will block the chances of a new-build Bedford-Northampton rail link, which not only would give Northampton and the Northampton-Birmingham corridors access direct to Bedford (footfall and spend for regeneration), but also 40 minute end-to-end direct access to the new Universal Theme Park and that of the expanding London Luton Airport. All of these bring traffic across Bedford and Shire roads and land-use demand for ever more parking, when better rail links help to reduce that demand and balance land use and the environment which affects us all - used better in stewardship terms.
Block this land with this development and the chance for the gains for a new rail link with Northampton is killed-off, locking in more road demand and blight to many areas.
Those making the decision on 28th September 2026 need to bear these things in mind. It is not just another development amidst pressures abounding, but a corridor needed for a future rail link and could be greenbelt interim, i.e not a waste or merely fallowed.
On behalf of BRTA I appeal for common sense and put the provision of the rail link, integrated with Thameslink and East-West Rail centred on Bedford, regardless of the debate on routing; would be a major contributor to revival of Bedford Town Centre as would out of town levelling up parking charges to make parking in the town centre to visit and shop, more competitive. It illustrates, decision made in the past, have rippled negatively to today and are going forwards unless we start thinking strategically, environmentally and tailoring all development to sustainable rail-based transport for people and goods.
BRTA has argued for the old route east of St John's to Willington and a new-build to the Tempsford New Town area, north or south of Station Road, requiring less than 10 houses relocated, contrasting the Northern Route of 60+ houses. The failure of local politicians to speak up for our route and indeed in the North East Constituency to make themselves known and act as a challenge to the rather anti rail views of Richard Fuller MP, leaves a deficit for a more balanced debate and support for a rail link, albeit revising the route and demanding government gets on with it. Dualling roads will attract more traffic and gridlocked urban areas will be even more polluting exacerbated. This is not green, it is not liberal and certainly not traditional one-nation inclusive conservative pragmatism, it is a sad self destructive deficit and a call for political leadership of all colours to work together more to deliver a geographically central location like Bedford, adequate east-west and satellite railway stations to give more modal choice as the population grows and land stewardship becomes ever more essential to strike a development, growing food and ecological-public health balance. I remind you, run-offs from road pollution, get into our water courses!
Please defeat this piecemeal development and let's make more and better rails an integrated part of a positive, brighter future for Bedford and surrounds please.
The Northampton-Bedford rail link could also be useful for employment, sporting and concert footfall fixtures and minus the traffic intrusions. Let people vote with their feet, turn down this planning application. ceo@brtarail.com
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Please engage with this consultation as well - rail links need to be at the heart of new sprawl planning: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-planning-policy-framework
If we are to mitigate the impact of large scale developments like and principally Universal Theme Park at 55, 000 people per month coming to the area from 2031 (5 years away) and associated developments like more hotels, infill business and residencies, unless we think rail now going forward, it all defaults to roads. There has been much made of the emergent A421-A428 Bedford-Black Cat Roundabout/A1-Cambridge dualling and associated works and the concept of free highway access being enhanced (no more delays) at great land take and carving up of countryside (farming land and wildlife habitats) - the fact remains that more road capacity will fill up with yet more volumes of traffic and when it turns up at Cambridge and Bedford urban areas, will just gridlock, as pints into quarts, there's nowhere for it to go/park etc?
That is why we need an east-west rail between Bedford and Cambridge. It gives modal choice and dilutes the pressure on local-regional roads. The cuts emissions and checks and balances of negative spin-off impacts. Then we come to rail routing:
1. BRTA wants a railway going east of Bedford via the St John's area through Willington and a new-build adjacent to the River Great Ouse south of Great Barford and via the pains of Tempsford north or south of Station Road, to have a physical connection with the main north-south main line (Peterborough/Stevenage/East Bedfordshire to Bedford and the Oxford corridor and vice versa - sustainable footfall and spend) and thence via the East-West Rail Company's route to Cambridge. Ideas of a new-build through Sandy and onward to link somewhere the Hitchin-Cambridge railway is an option and the EWRCos own route links to that very railway. The old railway went and junctioned at Trumpington Cambridge, but that is built on and the new Cambridge South (Addenbrooks) Station sits on that same land too, but has taken 110, 000 people using rail in the first month of opening, (so add Oxford-Cambridge and a new rail link to Haverhill, that would be a lot more people using rail).
2. Development is pressing in and potentially blocking all these routes, where and what options without compulsory purchase and relocation will be in 10 years time (2036) one shudders to think; but if gridlock and traffic management proves impossible and Climate Change is ever taken seriously; these blocking tactics are the wrong way to go; you get the rail choice planned and implemented and tailor development around it.
3. Government talks about Regional Mayors, Government restructuring and localism; but without the conceptual structural infrastructures necessary to make even a modicum of sustainability, land use stewardship and balance cross-county and all tiers need to realise the railway is essential.
4. Added to this, Northampton wants to have a new direct rail link with Bedford, Universal and the expanding Luton Airport and vice versa - town centre regeneration needs more rail links to make High Streets vibrant, but sorting the competitive free parking in out of town developments, so parism with town centre parking is more equitable is required. Kempston Retail Park is landlocked by roads, it is congested with confined spaces for parking, but a new station on the Bedford to Bletchley railway would bring new footfall and spend, as well as boosting the local shuttle service on the rails. It needs an updated study and push at this stage.
5. BRTA opposes withdrawal of the local Bedford-Bletchley shuttle railway service and wants all stations/halts to remain, be lengthened. The shuttle serves students, minimum wage workers, end-to-end users and more. East-West Rail will serve select stations and semi-fast services. We need both, as the corridor becomes ever more important and growing in population, businesses and people mobility terms.
6. Northampton should be welcomed for a direct link to Bedford and BRTA wants the elected representatives for the area to work congenitally and embrace it. It needs updated studies and one benefit would be integrated direct Thameslink style services between Bedford and Birmingham/the West Midlands and them to us. The A428 corridor between Bedford-Northampton has poor bus services, piecemeal developments and queues of commuter traffic at both ends. Without the railway, these trends will exacerbate. Please get involved and advocate policies and support for it in your own political colours. Stop the 93 dwellings at Lower Farm Road, Bromham which will need amending as they will block access to the Midland Main Line (MML) from the West. Ideally
7. Northampton-Bedford-Cambridge would be a South Midlands-East Anglia rail link as well, for passenger and more freight by rail as Northampton is a principal 'Golden Triangle' logistics and transport hub, but as it has no east-west rails and most lorry traffic comes from the Eastern area and vice versa, is constrained currently. We need councils, agencies, government and all tinkering of 'reforms' to be aware of these crucial rail corridors, protect, tailor and build up the importance and case for the rail to return and bear the brunt of sustainable growth, rather than road networks, rat runs and blighting people's lives.
8. Please give them and BRTA your support. Thank you. Speak up for more rail and as per last Fridays BBC Radio 4 Any Questions Programme Panel - be able to differentiate between a pudding and a tart! The programme came from Bakewell! The point is, grasping the local situation, not being helicopter views and if you do get it, rail is key to turn challenges to more inclusive opportunities!
Happy to engage with any Zoom/Teams meetings, not to argue, but to welcome support and actions to nurture a better deal for rail in the Bedford and shire areas, pivotally central to rest-of-region interests too.
Yours sincerely,
Richard Pill
BRTA CEO
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