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Central Bedfordshire Council

As part of its Local Plan review, Central Bedfordshire Council is calling for landowners with brownfield sites to submit them to the Council for an assessment until 2^nd December 2024. If this exercise fails to secure enough land to meet the potential needs in the plan period, the Council would launch a full Call for Sites on 9^th December which would include greenfield sites.

The brownfield Call for Sites is being undertaken to request sites for the following uses:

• Housing
• Employment
• Gypsy and traveller pitches
• Green energy sites
• Green spaces (Strategic Alternative Greenspaces (SANG) sites as required by the Beechwoods Mitigation Strategy, Local Nature sites, Biodiversity Net Gain sites)
• Education sites
• Cemeteries
• Freight rest areas

Once submitted, sites will be subject to an assessment of their suitability, availability and achievability for the development type proposed.

Huntingdonshire District Council

Information on the Council website advises that although the main Call for Sites has closed, it is recognised that circumstances change and some people may still wish to put sites forward for consideration as allocations in the Local Plan update. Any sites submitted now will be taken into account in the preparation of the Preferred Options consultation scheduled for autumn/winter 2025.

Bedford Borough Council

The Planning Inspector who presided over the examination of the Bedford Local Plan 2040 hearings raised significant concerns about the soundness of the Plan, meaning that the Plan cannot progress to the modifications stage.

Regarding the projected housing land supply, the Inspector reckoned that there would be an overall shortfall of at least 2,000 homes in the Plan period and as such, the Council was advised to find ways to make up for the shortfall. One of the options is to consider the possibility of additional sites.

Should the Council take forward this option, there might be an opportunity to promote land with potential for housing development. We would be happy to advise you further should the Council call for sites for housing development.

Please contact us in the first instance if you need assistance to promote your land.