Bedford Borough Local Plan 2040 Plan for Submission

Affordable Housing

Housing for sale or rent, for those whose needs are not met by the market (including housing that provides a subsidised route to home ownership and / or is for essential local workers); and which complies with definitions in the NPPF for affordable housing for rent, starter homes, discounted market sales housing, other affordable routes to home ownership.

Allocations

Sites specifically identified in the development plan and on the Policies Map for development.

Bedford and Milton Keynes Waterway Park

A proposed new broad beam canal set in a green corridor that will link the Great Ouse in Kempston to the Grand Union Canal in Milton Keynes, and connect the Fenland waterways to the central waterway network. The project is led by a Consortium of local authorities including Bedford Borough Council, together with the Environment Agency, Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust and others.

Bedford and Milton Keynes Waterway Trust

A non-profit group established to promote the development of a waterway park to link the Grand Union Canal in Milton Keynes to the River Great Ouse in Bedford.

Bedford River Valley Park

An area to the east of Bedford designated on the Policies Map for a new area of multi-functional greenspace.

Biodiversity

The variety of life on earth or in a specified region or area.

Biodiversity metric

A tool produced by DEFRA in which to assess an area's value to wildlife and calculate a biodiversity value.

Climate Change

Long-term changes in temperature, precipitation, wind and all other aspects of the earth's climate. Often regarded as a result of human activity and fossil fuel consumption.

Commitment

Where planning permission has been granted or there is a resolution to grant planning permission awaiting the finalisation of a legal agreement. This term can also be used to describe existing development allocations.

Conservation Areas

Under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, local planning authorities are able to designate as conservation areas any "areas of special architectural or historic interest, the character of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance".

Corporate Plan

The Council's plan for 2022-2026 which sets out actions to focus the Council's work on helping to achieve the potential of the borough. The plan includes four goals which are to support people, enhance places, create wealth and empower communities.

Countryside

Land outside Settlement Policy Areas and the built form of the defined Small Settlements.

Design Codes

A set of specific rules or requirements to guide the physical development of a site or place. The aim of design coding is to provide clarity as to what constitutes acceptable design quality and thereby provides a level of certainty for developers and the local community alike that can help to facilitate the delivery of good quality new development.

Design Guide

A series of general principles that allows for the creation of high quality places and buildings. Design guides often constitute the 'first step' in understanding acceptable design for a place, with design codes (see above) providing more detail for specific sites or areas.

Designations

Areas shown on the Policies Map to which specific policies apply (not allocations). These may be areas where development is prohibited or restricted.

Development Briefs

Adopted by the Borough Council as a detailed statement of its planning policies for a particular site and its aspirations in terms of uses, layout and design principles.

Development Plan

Under the Planning Acts, this is the prime consideration in the determination of planning applications. The development plan includes local plan(s) and neighbourhood plans.

England's Economic Heartland

Covers an area from Swindon to Cambridgeshire. Brings together political and business leaders to realise the region's economic potential whilst working towards net-zero. Provides the region's voice on strategic infrastructure.

East West Rail

A new railway service and railway lines from Oxford in the west through to Cambridge in the east.

Environmental Net Gain

Biodiversity net gain plus natural capital gain

First Homes

Houses which are discounted market sale homes which must be discounted by a minimum 30% against the market value and are sold to persons meeting specific eligibility criteria. There are restrictions on the title to ensure that the discount is passed on and must be sold after discount at a price no higher than £250,000.

Forest of Marston Vale

One of twelve community forests established throughout England by the Countryside Commission and Forestry Authority. These multi-purpose forests on the edge of towns and cities will provide opportunities for recreation, forestry, education and the creation of wildlife habitats.

Green Infrastructure

A combination of natural and planned, accessible open spaces and amenity areas including recreation and sports facilities, pathways and routes, natural and historic sites, canals and water spaces, accessible countryside and other open areas that create a network and contribute to the character of towns and villages.

Green Wheel

A vision to develop and enhance the existing network of traffic free paths and quiet routes around the Bedford urban area for use by pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders where possible.

Gypsy and Traveller Pitch

The space required to accommodate one household with their caravans, parking and manoeuvring space and usually a day room.

Health Impact Assessment

A tool to measure the potential health impacts of a proposed project or plan on the wider population. This assessment is to appraise both the positive and negative impacts help to achieve better policies and developments.

Heritage Impact Assessment

A document outlining the historic and / or archaeological significance of a building or landscape within its wider setting. The document also includes an assessment of the proposed development on the setting of the heritage asset and a mitigation strategy.

Housing Trajectory

An illustration of the expected rate of housing delivery over the plan period

Historic Environment Record

An information source maintained by Bedford Borough Council for the whole borough covering historical assets such as archaeological sites and finds, historic landscapes and historic buildings.

Infrastructure Delivery Plan

A plan outlining the future infrastructure requirements over the lifetime of the local plan to support future development.

Innovation Hub

A grouping of uses in a highly accessible location providing high quality, local employment opportunities, potentially linked to academic activities which will facilitate a more skilled and prosperous borough.

Issues and Options

The first stage of the local plan process whereby the public is consulted on a number of different spatial options for the scope and detail of the Plan. Sometimes known as 'Regulation 18' consultation. May include more than one consultation.

Key Service Centres

Large villages with a good level of services identified in the Local Plan 2030 as Bromham, Clapham, Great Barford, Sharnbrook, Shortstown; Wilstead, Wixams and Wootton.

Landscape led design

Designing development considering the existing landscape and the relationship between nature, communities and people.

Listed Buildings

Under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport has a statutory duty to compile lists of buildings of special architectural or historic interest. Buildings are graded I, II* or II to reflect their importance and permission is required for works which may affect their character as buildings of special architectural or historic interest.

Local housing needs assessment (LHNA)

An assessment of housing needs for a local authority using the government's standard method for determining the level of housing in plan period.

Local Transport Plan

A five-year strategy for the development of local, integrated transport, supported by a programme of transport improvements. It is used to bid to government for funding transport improvements.

Master Plan

An overarching planning document that provides a conceptual layout to guide and structure future growth and development.

Mixed Use Development

A development that promotes the integration and diversity of a number of land uses resulting in benefits such as reducing the need to travel and deterring criminal activity by generating different activities at different times of the day.

Mobility hub

A mobility hub is a recognisable place with an offer of different and connected transport modes supplemented with enhanced facilities and information features to both attract and benefit the traveller.

https://como.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Mobility-Hub-Guide-241019-final.pdf

National Highways

A government owned company which plans, designs, builds, operates and maintains England's motorways and major A roads (known as the strategic road network – SRN), formerly Highways England.

Natura 2000 sites

A Europe-wide network of sites of international importance for nature conservation established under the European Community Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora (92/43 / EEC 'Habitats Directive'). Following the UK's exit from the EU in January 2021 the Government has created a new national site network within the UK replacing the Natura 2000 sites but comprising the protected sites already designated.

National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)

National government policy for planning in England and how these are expected to be applied, introduced in 2012 and updated 2021.

Neighbourhood Plan

A plan prepared by a Parish Council or Neighbourhood Forum for a particular neighbourhood area (made under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004).

Non-designated Heritage Assets

These are buildings, monuments, sites, places, areas or landscapes identified as having a degree of significance meriting consideration in planning decisions but which are not formally designated heritage assets.

Oxford to Cambridge Arc

The area between Oxford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge. It includes the ceremonial counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire.

Previously Developed Land

Land which is or was occupied by a permanent structure, including the curtilage of the developed land (although it should not be assumed that the whole of the curtilage should be developed) and any associated fixed surface infrastructure. This excludes: land that is or has been occupied by agricultural or forestry buildings; land that has been developed for minerals extraction or waste disposal by landfill purposes where provision for restoration has been made through development control procedures; land in built-up areas such as private residential gardens, parks, recreation grounds and allotments; and land that was previously-developed but where the remains of the permanent structure or fixed surface structure have blended into the landscape in the process of time.

Policies Map

Illustrates policies and proposals in the development plan.

Renewable Energy

Energy derived from sources that are available in an unlimited supply.

Rural Service Centres

Centres which have fewer facilities than Key Service Centres (above) and provide a more localised convenience and service role to meet day to day needs of residents and businesses in the rural areas. These are defined in the Local Plan 2030 as Carlton, Harrold, Milton Ernest, Oakley, Roxton, Stewartby, Turvey and Willington.

S106 agreement

Section 106 (S106) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 allows a local planning authority to enter into a legally-binding agreement or planning obligation with a landowner or developer in association with the granting of planning permission. These agreements are a way of delivering or addressing matters that are necessary to make a development acceptable in planning terms. They are used to support the provision of services and infrastructure, such as highways, recreational facilities, education, health and affordable housing.

Scheduled Monuments

Archaeological sites and monuments of national importance legally protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 (as amended). These monuments are given legal protection by being placed on the 'list' and once on this schedule, Scheduled Monument Consent is needed before any works can be carried out that would affect the monument.

Self-build and custom housebuilding

Defined in the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015 (as amended) as "self-build and custom housebuilding means the building or completion by (a) individuals, (b) associations of individuals, or (c) persons working with or for individuals or associations of individuals, of houses to be occupied as homes by those individuals".

Settlement Policy Areas

A line drawn around the main built up part of a village in a local plan document.

Small Settlements

Settlements that do not have a defined Settlement Policy Area but have a definite built form. Small Settlements comprise a distinct group of buildings and their immediate surroundings that include 30 or more dwellings.

Site Specific Flood Risk Assessment

An assessment prepared by an applicant at the planning application stage to demonstrate how flood risk from all sources of flooding to the development site itself and flood risk to others will be managed and taking climate change into account.

Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (SFRA)

Prepared by or on behalf of the local authority, a study to inform the preparation of Local Development Documents, having regard to catchment-wide flooding issues from multiple sources which affect the area. The SFRA provides the information needed to apply a sequential approach in identifying land for development, with areas at the least risk of flooding being sequentially preferable to areas with higher risk.

Stepped trajectory

A trajectory which reflects step changes in the level of housing expected to be delivered across the plan period.

Sui Generis Uses

Certain uses that do not fall within any use class are considered 'sui generis'. Such uses include: betting offices / shops, pay day loan shops, theatres, larger houses in multiple occupation, hostels providing no significant element of care, scrap yards, petrol filling stations and shops selling and / or displaying motor vehicles, retail warehouse clubs, nightclubs, launderettes, taxi businesses, casinos, public houses, drinking establishments with expanded food provision, hot food takeaways, live music venues, cinemas, bingo halls and dance halls.

Supplementary Planning Documents (SPD)

Documents which add further detail to the policies in the local plan. They can be used to provide further guidance for development on a specific site or on particular issues such as design. Supplementary planning documents are capable of being a material consideration in planning decisions but they are not part of the development plan.

Sustainability Appraisal (SA)

A social, economic and environmental appraisal of strategy, policies and proposals that is required for all Development Plan Documents and Supplementary Planning Documents. To be undertaken jointly with Strategic Environmental Assessment.

Sustainable Development

"Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." (World Commission on Environment and Development 1987).

Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS)

A scheme for delivering a natural approach to managing drainage in developments.

Transport Assessment

A comprehensive and systematic process that sets out transport issues relating to a proposed development. It identifies what measures will be required to improve accessibility and safety for all modes of travel, particularly for alternatives to the car such as walking, cycling and public transport and what measures will need to be taken to deal with the anticipated transport impacts of the development.

Travelling Show People Plot

A 'plot' has been taken to be the space which typically provides for a mixed residential and business use, to enable on-site accommodation together with space for the secure storage, repair and testing of significant amounts of equipment. The site is traditionally the 'winter quarters' to which Show People return at the end of the show season, however sites may be occupied by some members of the family permanently.

Urban Open Space

Designated areas of open space within the Urban Area boundary which relate to Policy AD43 in the Allocations and Designations Local Plan 2013.

Viability Appraisal

An assessment of the financial implications of a development, often to determine whether a policy compliant scheme would result in an acceptable return to the landowner and would therefore go ahead. Informs negotiations on S106 agreements.

Vitality and Viability

Essential elements in the stability and future prosperity of town centres. They stem not only from a variety of retail uses but from the range and quality of activities in town centres and their accessibility to people.

Windfall sites

Sites which have not been specifically identified as available in the Local Plan process. They normally comprise previously-developed sites that have unexpectedly become available.