Issues and Options

Sustainable transport will only be taken seriously when there is proper connectivity of the current disjointed network. Look the Holland and other European countries to see how they have integrated cycle/walking routes alongside roads. Sustainable transport needs to be safe, secure and attractive to use. It must allow door to door connectivity without large gaps in the middle. A sustainable transport network needs to link the home to workplace/shops. It should also emphasis the health and wellbeing aspects to make it an enjoyable experience.

The existing environment policies are fairly comprehensive, but unlike new build house/employment development policies, do not seem to have the “teeth” to enforce them. Developers always skimp and err on the bare minimum they can get away with because catering for environmental impact eats into their profit margins. If you have regulatory policies, then they must be enforced with vigour, and not just pay lip service to an ideal. Developers must be held to account, no matter how difficult and time consuming it may be.

Fast food outlets proliferate everywhere. The culture they encourage is not just an unhealthy lifestyle, but food wrappings once taken outside the food outlet, are often indiscriminately discarded for someone else to pick up. You only have to look along road verges and hedgerows to see literally tons of discarded drinks cartons, cans, bottles and food wrappers to observe the problem. We need to keep our green spaces clean and not contaminated by rubbish. Perhaps a “take away packaging tax” needs to be applied to fast food outlets, and money gained used to fund a clean up. Rural health centres need to be fully supported and funded. Medical Hubs serve a wide area, not just the local village. Cross county boundary ties need to be reviewed where medical centres are close to the borough perimeter. This should include shared funding with adjacent councils where the catchment area crosses borders. Emphasis should be given to health and wellbeing, and linking up sustainable transport networks.

Regarding integrating East-West Rail into the Local Plan, I believe the announced preferred route is seriously flawed. The use of Bedford Midland Road Station may support foot access to the town centre, but requires a northern passage between Bedford and Clapham, which demands traversing the most steep and undulating terrain in the Borough. This would be a massive civil engineering undertaking when there is a far better option. Route A may be the simplest and closely follows the original varsity line alignment that fell to the Beeching cuts. Routes B & E give a northern passage via Camborne. Routes C & D give a “swan neck” mixture through Bassingbourn. At consultation, Route E was said to be the most expensive. From a topology aspect, Routes D & E are the most challenging as there is only a very narrow window from which to leave Bedford. From the “broad brush” consultation maps, this has to squeeze between NW Bedford (Brickhill) and Clapham. It would traverse probably the steepest slopes in this borough, opposite the old Water Works and through Clapham Park, to swing round between Cleat Hill and Sunderland Hill, heading for south Ravensden/Wilden area before clipping the north of Great Barford Parish. Then likely drop between Great Barford and Roxton, or cross the A1 near the Black Cat junction, and on towards a station between Tempsford and Little Barford. The passage between Bedford and Clapham has a vertical difference of around 30m in less than 1km. A gradient approaching 1 in 30, even with a significant deep cutting. The contour heights between the old A6 Clapham Road, Ravensden Cross Roads and south of Wilden vary between a low of 30m and high of 65m several times, making this a very undulating route that would require significant cut and fill over 5 to 6km – a major civil engineering undertaking. It should be noted that the steepest gradient on mainline UK rail is the 1 in 37.7 grade over 3km at Lickey Incline, south of Birmingham. The problem with steep gradients is that if the rain should stop, traction would be difficult starting on an up incline. The design guides would suggest a maximum grade of 1 in 80 for passenger trains, and a shallower 1 in 125 for heavier freight trains. I doubt either design maximum grades would be achievable realistically on a route north out of Bedford. Bedford Midland Road Station site is very constrained with little or no room for expansion. Car Parking facilities are also very restricted, making any commuter passenger increase problematic for vehicle access. Pedestrian movement between the Midland Road Station and town centre shopping / work is not appealing. A Bedford South Station to serve the EW Rail would be less constrained. It could have a train shuttle service for passengers wanting onward travel to the Midland Road Station, or a bus link in to town that could be incorporated with a Park and Ride facility to support visitor / worker access to the town centre. A Bedford South rail / transport hub could support growth of both housing and business development along the A421 corridor towards Stewartby and Milton Keynes. The St Johns Station could provide pedestrian access to Bedford Town Centre, in an area that is already earmarked for redevelopment. Traditionally, railway alignment has preferred the route of least resistance, and often follows contours associated with the side of valleys. There is a good reason why Watford Gap has RAIL, ROAD and CANAL passing through it. Reduce the civil engineering challenge and inherent cost, and go for a flatter route that can be achieved. I believe Route B is the only realistic compromise, allowing a southern Bedford station / transport hub and feeding on to Cambourne without encroaching on Bassingbourn and Wimpole Hall sensitive areas. And it would still allow the Tempsford / North Sandy Station. In the current (post) Covid-19 economic climate, it is hard to see government funding being available for this project. It would need significant private investment, or should be deferred pending UK financial recovery. With improvements already agreed and underway for A421 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet improvements and expressway, the big question has to be “is there still an economic / logistic / business demand for the EWR ?”

Tranquil villages are attractive because of their timeless quaint appeal. Don’t kill them by forcing new development on them, or the village will morph into a small town with the inadequate infrastructure that evolved from medieval origins. If you want a modern village then create a new purpose designed sustainable Garden Village, with fully integrated infrastructure and green credentials. The Bedford town centre has evolved around a Victorian ethos before the dominance of personal transport and the freedom gained by the motorcar. As such the town centre is no longer an attractive experience for many visitors as it does not meet the requirement of easy access for the car. Out of town retail parks dominate shopping footfall as they are accessed directly door to door, home to shop, by car, with easy on-site free parking. Unless the town centre is reinvented to mimic the convenience of out of town shopping, there will be no appeal to encourage larger shops back into the town. Niche shops by their very nature cater for a limited market, and being prone to the current fashion / flavour of the day can be short lived. Cater for the car and shopping visitors will return. Punish the motorist, and the shoppers will stay away.

Yes

To support the Oxford to Cambridge Arc, employment and business development should be concentrated close to easy to access transport links. The A421 corridor to the west of Bedford provides an ideal opportunity to coordinate road and rail infrastructure to directly interface with distribution networks within a short distance of manufacturing and supply business opportunities. Housing development can be closely associated with this Bedford South/West area within a green corridor to promote sustainable transport regimes to get to work without reliance on vehicular commuting. Walk and cycle routes need to be integrated into a green transport network.