Officers back up to 93 homes off Lower Farm Road on Monday. The same site lost a public inquiry in 2017, and 37 objectors and the parish council are against.
Planning officers have recommended approval for up to 93 homes on farmland at the edge of Bromham. The same developer applied for 93 homes on the same field nine years ago, was refused, and lost the appeal at a public inquiry.
Bedford Borough Council’s Planning Committee decides the application on Monday 28 September at 6.30pm at Borough Hall. Anyone who wants to speak has to register by 4.45pm on Friday 25 September.
The application is 26/00249/MAO, for land north of Lower Farm Road. The applicant is Kler Group Limited. It is an outline application with everything reserved except access, so the layout and the look of the houses would come later. Officers recommend permitting it subject to a planning obligation.
Officers say it breaks the plan, and recommend it anyway
The officer report does not soften what the scheme is. Its own opening line calls the development “contrary to the development plan, being major residential development, in the open countryside, in the rural policy area outside a Settlement Policy Area boundary”.
What has changed since 2017 is not the field. It is the rulebook, in two ways.
Bedford Borough cannot currently demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing sites. On top of that, the government published a new National Planning Policy Framework on 17 August 2026, and it introduced national decision-making policies that apply to live applications straight away.
Officers apply one of those new policies, S5(1), and specifically its paragraph J. That paragraph covers development addressing an evidenced unmet need, including housing where the council cannot demonstrate a five-year supply. Under S5(1) such schemes “should be approved, unless the benefits of doing so would be substantially outweighed by any adverse effects”.
The previous applications are listed in the report’s planning history:
- 16/02255/MAO, up to 93 dwellings, refused, and the appeal dismissed at public inquiry under reference APP/K0235/W/17/3167566
- 24/01006/MAO, up to 93 dwellings, withdrawn before a decision was issued
What officers accept the scheme would cost
The report sets out the adverse effects it expects, and how much weight each carries:
- the principle of the development conflicts with the spatial strategy of the Local Plan and with the Bromham Neighbourhood Development Plan
- an unsustainable location, because of substandard footways and the distance to the primary school, the main shop and a bus stop with a regular service. Officers give this “significant weight”
- the loss of well preserved ridge and furrow earthworks, a non-designated heritage asset. Officers describe the harm to its significance as substantial, then moderate the weight because the asset is of no more than high local to low regional significance
- local landscape harm from building on an open field
- the loss of roughly 4 hectares of Best and Most Versatile agricultural land
On walking distance, the report measures the site against the National Design Guide definition of a walkable neighbourhood, about 800 metres or a ten minute walk. It concludes the school, the library, the larger convenience store, the pubs and the coffee shop are all beyond that, and that the site “has been found to not be suitably served by a bus service”.
Against that, officers list the benefits: up to 93 homes towards the borough’s housing land supply deficit, 30% affordable housing equating to 28 dwellings, new public open space and play space, a new footway on Lower Farm Road with an uncontrolled crossing point on Oakley Road, and the economic activity of building and of new residents using village businesses. The housing itself is given “substantial weight”; the open space, highway works and economic benefits get moderate weight.
Bromham has already been given more than its plan asked for
The Local Plan requires 500 dwellings in Bromham, which is classed as a Key Service Centre. The Bromham Neighbourhood Development Plan, made on 9 June 2021, allocated three sites to deliver exactly that:
- Beauchamp Park, a minimum of 390 homes
- Stagsden Rise, a minimum of 80 homes
- Old Stable Yard at Hall Farm, a maximum of 30 homes
The report confirms outline permission has since been granted for 470 of those, with 80 at reserved matters stage and “development nearing completion”. The remaining 30 at Old Stable Yard are under consideration.
Separately, the report records that application 24/00810/MAO for 315 dwellings south of Northampton Road “was recently approved” because it sat next to an allocated site. Add Monday’s 93 and the village has 878 homes permitted or recommended against a plan requirement of 500.
Officers address that directly. They point out the neighbourhood plan contains a windfall policy, HA3, and conclude that “development in Bromham is not restricted to a maximum of 500 dwellings”.
The parish council and 37 objectors
Bromham Parish Council has objected. Its six grounds, as recorded in the report, are conflict with its own adopted Neighbourhood Plan, loss of high quality agricultural land, loss of open countryside, the impact on the ridge and furrow, poor highways access, and poor pedestrian access with safety concerns.
A total of 37 objections were received from the public. The report groups their concerns as the unsustainable location, increased traffic, highway and pedestrian safety, insufficient local infrastructure including bus services, conflict with the Neighbourhood Plan, loss of agricultural land, the rural character of that part of Bromham, ecology, heritage, light pollution and loss of privacy.
It is those objections that put the application in front of councillors at all. Under the council’s scheme of delegation, an application goes to committee when it attracts three or more objections, which here includes the parish council.
Two consultees are not satisfied. Milton Keynes City Council’s public health impact assessment officer says concerns raised in its original response of 12 March 2026 “still remain”, particularly about screening out the need for a Health Impact Assessment and about safe crossing arrangements over Oakley Road. The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust and the council’s own education team have both asked for financial contributions.
Also before the committee on Monday
Five other applications are listed for determination, all recommended for approval:
- 26/00173/MAF, Spinney View Farm, Chawston Lane, Chawston: change of use to storage and distribution, objected to by Wyboston, Chawston and Colesden Parish Council
- 26/00379/FUL, land adjacent 8 The Bury, Pavenham: one self-build house
- 26/00821/COU, 1 Church Road, Wilstead: subdivision and change of use
- 26/01202/S73A, 2 Postley Road, Kempston: retrospective retention of five floodlighting columns
- 26/00346/COU, 1 St Andrews Road, Bedford: change of use to a supported living care facility
A separate item asks members to note the effect of the new Framework on decisions already taken. Officers have re-checked 13 schemes where the committee resolved to grant permission but the decision notice has never been issued, because the section 106 agreements are still being negotiated.
Between them those schemes account for up to 1,779 homes, plus 13 supported living apartments by change of use. The two largest are 1,100 homes off Canberra Road in Shortstown and 500 off Milton Road in Clapham, the latter applied for in 2021 and still without a decision notice five years on. Officers conclude none of the recommendations would have changed under the new Framework, and ask for delegated power to update the decision notices.
What it means for you
If you want to speak at Monday’s meeting, register with RighttoSpeak@bedford.gov.uk by 4.45pm on Friday 25 September. The council’s Planning Committee page sets out the rules: registration closes at the end of the working day before the meeting, and everyone speaking on one application shares a single five minute slot, though the chair can extend it.
People who already commented in writing on an application are notified automatically when it is going to committee. If you did not comment, it is on you to watch the published agendas.
The meeting is at Borough Hall at 6.30pm on Monday 28 September and is webcast. The full agenda pack and the officer reports are on the council’s committee site, and applications can be viewed on the council’s planning register.
An outline permission is not a start date. If members follow the recommendation, the layout, appearance, scale and landscaping would all come back as a reserved matters application, and the section 106 agreement would have to be signed before the decision notice is issued. The item above shows how long that last step can take.
We will report the decision. More on development across the borough is on our Bedford planning news page, and the borough’s latest average prices are on our house prices page.
Sources: Bedford Borough Council, Planning Committee agenda and officer reports for 28 September 2026, agenda items 5 and 6, published 17 September 2026.
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