Update 31st October 2026
The planning inquiry for this application will start on Tuesday 1st December, at Borough Hall in Bedford. Residents are welcome to attend the hearing which will start at 10 am in the council chambers.
Residents with concerns about this development should consider highlighting their views at the meeting by speaking at the meeting. One key concern which some residents have raised in comments on social media is that the development would be accessible from the A6. A new roundabout on the A6 could lead to other developments along the A6 corridor, further eroding the separation between Wixams and Wilstead.
If you wish to speak at the hearing, here are the instructions given by Bedford Borough Council:
Any interested parties may attend and, at the Inspector’s discretion, give their views. You will need to inform the Inspector on the day of the hearing / Inquiry that you wish to speak. Please contact planningappeals@bedford.gov.uk as soon as possible if you wish to register as a participant.
Update 29th June 2026
The developers of this site have now submitted an appeal to Bedford Borough Council which has the planning reference 26/00040/REF:
Two documents have been submitted in this appeal which include arguments in response to their reasons the applications was rejected in February.
- Land South of Wixams: Full Statement of Case
- Land South of Wixams: Overarching Statement of Common Ground
It’s recommended that residents review these documents and identify key aspects of the proposals which they wish to object to or support. You could also wait to see other comments made available on the planning portal to use as a basis for your own comments. Alternatively, if you already submitted comments against the main application (links below) you can submit them again under this appeal.
To comment on this appeal visit the page below and enter the reference number 6010279:
appeal-planning-decision.service.gov.uk/comment-planning-appeal/enter-appeal-reference
The deadline for comments on this appeal was 27th July 2026
Update 4th March 2026
This application was determined by planning officers at Bedford Borough Council on 27th February 2026. Their decision was to refuse outline planning consent to build up to 375 homes on the site. You can read the decision notice report linked below, the reasons for rejecting the application are listed on page 2:
24/02463/MAO Decision Notice and Officers Report.pdf
Original Post
The planning application to build up to 375 homes on a site south of Wixams has been re-submitted to Bedford Borough Council. The application was previously open for public consultation in January 2025, but it was rejected due to concerns raised with the application.
This resubmitted application includes a number of changes, most significantly after feedback that the development would be cut off from the main Wixams estate, access points have been included between the two developments.
We published guidance in January on the original application and the vast majority of the details there are still correct.
Planning Application: Land South of Wixams
Application Documents
The application is hosted on the Bedford Borough Council planning portal:
All documents associated with the application can be found here:
edrms.bedford.gov.uk/SearchResults.aspx?appNumber=24/02463/MAO
Please note that there are both the original and new sets of documents on the same site. The updated documents typically have an ‘A’ in the document number to denote a new version (e.g. V01 and V01A).
The main updated documents to review are:
- Revised contents List (list of all the documents)
- V01A – Site Location Plan – Revised
- V03A – Illustrative Masterplan – Revised (a cropped version is at the top of this page)
Changes for this Round
The developers have included a new addendum to the Design and Access Statement, which addresses comments received from key stakeholders and Bedford Borough Council officers and identifies changes to the design of the development in the updated proposals:
V74 – Design and Access Statement – Addendum
We are unable to give more detail on the changes since the last application so we recommend reviewing the documents yourself or reviewing the recent comments on the planning portal to see what other residents have said:
How to Respond
The original guidance page includes full details in how to respond to the application:
Planning Application: Land South of Wixams