Six Leighton-Linslade path and cycle schemes sit in the plan's unfunded appendix. Central Bedfordshire's transport plan to 2040 is open until 20 September.

Central Bedfordshire Council is asking residents what it should do about roads, buses, paths and cycle routes for the next fourteen years, and the questionnaire closes on Sunday 20 September 2026. (Local Transport Plan 2026 consultation, Central Bedfordshire Council)

The draft is the council’s fourth Local Transport Plan, covering 2027 to 2040. It replaces LTP3, which was adopted in 2011 and expires this year. The consultation opened on 29 June and is a statutory duty under the Transport Act 2000. (Consultation on the fourth Local Transport Plan, report to Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee, 10 September 2026)

Councillors get their turn first. The draft goes to the council’s Sustainable Communities scrutiny committee at Priory House in Shefford at 9.30am on Thursday 10 September, where members are asked to comment on it as part of the same consultation.

Six Leighton-Linslade schemes are in the appendix, not the programme

The part of the plan worth reading locally is Appendix E. During the drafting the council collected scheme suggestions from the public, then split them. Those it judged viable went into the works programme. The rest were listed in Appendix E with the reason they did not make it, under a promise to “seek opportunities to progress the investigation, and if viable the delivery” of them during the life of the plan.

Six of those schemes are in Leighton-Linslade:

  • A4146 to Mentmore Road, Linslade: create a pedestrian link between the two. Not captured in the walking and cycling plan process, and the land is not the council’s.
  • Between Albany Road and South Street: realign National Cycle Network Route 6 to remove a blind corner. The land is not the council’s.
  • Between Finch Crescent and Wyngates: create a surfaced path. The land is not the council’s.
  • Hadrian Crescent: create a walking and cycling link to Chartmoor Road. The land is not the council’s.
  • Parsons Close Recreation Ground: widen a well-used path. The land belongs to Leighton-Linslade Town Council, which owns and maintains it.
  • Riverside Walk: build a footbridge over the River Ouzel connecting Vimy Road and Windsor Avenue. Too expensive for the plan to deliver, and the land on the western side is not the council’s.

Five of the six are blocked by the same thing. Central Bedfordshire does not own the ground the path would cross. That is a constraint the consultation cannot fix on its own, but it is the reason the schemes are not funded, and it is stated in the document. (Draft Local Transport Plan 4, Appendix E: Additional infrastructure aspirations)

One nearby scheme did clear the bar. Walking and cycling infrastructure along the A505 from Thorn Turn to Leighton Buzzard is recorded as captured in the council’s Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan process. So is protected cycle lanes along West Street in Dunstable, about nine miles south.

What the plan promises, and the money behind it

The draft commits the council to three things: reviewing and writing policy, a prioritised core programme of smaller schemes, and major projects where funding allows.

The money is the limit. The only funding tied directly to the plan is the Local Transport Grant, formerly the Integrated Transport Block. The report states the council has received around £1.3 million of it a year for over a decade. A scheme only counts as “major” once it costs more than £5 million.

Four major schemes were carried over from LTP3, three of which are being delivered now. The example the council gives of a new one is a relief road to the south-east of Arlesey, about 20 miles east of Leighton Buzzard. Closer to home, the plan commits the council to lobbying National Highways to reroute the A5 around Hockliffe, away from the village centre, and to support improvements at M1 junction 13.

The vision the council is consulting on is that by 2040 Central Bedfordshire will be “a place where people have access to a sustainable and future proofed transport system that provides a variety of attractive and realistic travel choices”. Under it sit four themes and nine objectives, and the council says the sequence is not a priority order.

What LTP3 actually built

Bar chart of the 258 local schemes Central Bedfordshire delivered under its third Local Transport Plan: 171 active and sustainable travel improvements, 72 general traffic, parking and freight schemes, and 15 school safety zones.
Graphic by Leighton Buzzard News. Source: draft Local Transport Plan 4, Appendix A.
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The draft counts what the last plan delivered: 258 local schemes since 2011. They break down as 171 active and sustainable travel improvements such as cycle and footway works, zebra crossings and bus shelters, 72 schemes for general traffic, parking and freight, and 15 school safety zones.

Above that sit the larger jobs the council delivered or took part in, including the Luton to Dunstable busway, the A5 to M1 link road, the dualling of the A421 to M1 junction 13, and, the plan says, overseeing construction of new distributor roads in Biggleswade and Leighton Buzzard.

What it means for you

The questionnaire is open to anyone, not just people who have followed the plan. You can answer on the specific proposals or on the document as a whole.

  • Deadline: Sunday 20 September 2026.
  • Respond: through the council’s Local Transport Plan questionnaire.
  • Read first: the consultation page carries the draft plan, the appendices and the equalities, habitats and sustainability assessments.
  • Alternative formats: call 0300 300 8000 or email consultations@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk.

If a path, crossing or cycle link near you is one of the six in Appendix E, the consultation is the point at which to say so, because the appendix is the council’s own list of things it would like to see built and has not funded.

For what is happening on the roads right now, see our Leighton Buzzard roadworks and travel page. Car park charges and free-parking windows are on our parking in Leighton Buzzard page, train times and fares on our trains to London page, and applications in the town on our planning news page.

Sources