People living in Biggleswade, Sandy and Potton are being encouraged to have their say on the future of housing, transport, facilities and employment across the district after Central Bedfordshire Council’s Local Plan consultation kicked into gear today.

The consultation – which runs for seven weeks – focuses on the broad locations across the district for new homes and jobs up until 2035.

Councillor Nigel Young, who is responsible for regeneration at the unitary authority, said: “Central Bedfordshire is a great place to live, so it goes hand-in-hand that we have an ever-growing population.

“This is also due to a continued high birth-rate, people living longer and more and more people living on their own.

“All of this means we need to build more high-quality homes, but we want to do so much more for the people that live here, their futures and their children’s futures. We want to build communities, with schools, jobs, health provision and good transport links.

“We want do this in a structured and considerate way, which retains what is best about our towns and villages, so we need to plan for this through developing a Local Plan together.

“As part of this, we have highlighted broad areas for growth and we would like residents to let us know what they think; whether we have got this right, or whether we have missed anything.

“I’d like to get as much feedback as possible so that we have a greater chance of developing a Local Plan that can work for everyone.”

Paper consultations of the Local Plan are available in the libraries of all three towns or you can view the proposals at www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/localplan.