Case Study: Wixam Park

Wixam Park is a greenfield site south of Bedford which formed part of Central Bedfordshire Council’s
(CBC) Site Allocations Development Plan Document 2011. It had been identified as a potential
development site as early as 1999, having been identified as an expansion area in the Elstow New
Settlement Planning and Development Brief. Subject to a phasing restriction, the site was prevented
from coming forward before 2021.

The freehold landowners of the site, and our client, O&H Land, respected the phasing restriction and
didn’t seek to bring an application forward on this site until 2020.
Varsity Town Planning were successful in winning a competitive tender to prepare an outline
planning application at Wixam Park.  Working with the urban design team from David Lock
Associates, we prepared a pre-application for 1,200 homes and a primary school. This included
changing the use of existing farm buildings at the centre of the site, to be developed as community
buildings. VTP acted as lead consultant on the project and provided town planning services for the
preparation, submission and negotiation of the outline planning application.

We began by submitting a screening request to CBC to establish whether an Environmental Impact
Assessment would be required. It was not required in this instance, but we led a multi-disciplinary
team including expert ecologists, whose input was invaluable in developing the site with
environmental sensitivity and demonstrating Biodiversity Net Gain. The team also included
Landscape Architects, Archaeology & Heritage advisors alongside Transport Planners and Civil
Engineers.

During the course of 2020 we co-ordinated the preparation of the outline planning application and
submission to CBC in January 2021. During this process we had gone into partnership with CBC by
entering a Planning Performance Agreement.

During the consultation process, it was agreed to accommodate a wider need for a new secondary
school and the application was updated to propose 1,130 homes with land for the secondary school.
The application also included the primary school, community buildings and all the ancillary open
spaces, community and civil infrastructure that would be expected of this scale of development.
The application was successfully and quickly negotiated and we achieved resolution to grant
permission from the Development Management Committee at CBC in August 2022, approximately 9
months after submission. Section 106 negotiations continued and the application went through a
Financial Viability Assessment with planning permission being achieved in August 2023.
Varsity Town Planning have now being jointly appointed to produce the Site Wide Design Code and
Areas and Phasing Plan.

CBC Application Ref: 21/00148/OUT