Houghton Regis News Desk

Spring school term dates and school holidays in Central Bedfordshire
term starts on Wednesday, 3 January
half term from Monday, 12 to Friday, 16 February
term ends for the Easter school holidays on Thursday, 29 March

Summer school term dates and school holidays in Central Bedfordshire
term starts on Tuesday, 17 April
schools are closed on Monday, 7 May for the early May bank holiday
half term from Tuesday, 29 May to Tuesday, 5 June (schools are closed on Monday, 28 May for the spring bank holiday)
summer term ends on Friday, 20 July

Autumn school term dates and school holidays in Central Bedfordshire
term starts on Tuesday, 4 September
half term from Monday 22 October to Monday, 29 October
term ends on Wednesday, 19 December

Download Year Calendar

Illicit alcohol checks carried out at more than 50 businesses


Central Bedfordshire Council is on the hunt for premises selling illicit alcohol this party season.


As part of the build-up to Christmas and also the New Year’s Eve festivities, the council’s Food Safety Team has been out across the region checking that party-goers are getting exactly what they have paid for.


They have already carried out more than 50 on-site checks at businesses to make sure they’re not selling alcoholic drinks which have been watered down or swapped known brands with cheaper or fake alcohol.


And officers are continuing their checks throughout the festive season to ensure that revellers are not being ripped off.

The team is also advising drinkers to be aware of what they are buying and to use the ‘three Ps’ to spot fake alcohol:

Price – If a deal looks too good to be true then it most probably is;

Packaging – Poor-quality labelling, spelling mistakes and altered logos are all a sign of fake alcohol, genui…

The Houghton Hall Park Kitchen and Formal Garden restoration has won a National Award at the 2017 BALI National Landscape awards, scooping the prize in the Regeneration Scheme category. 

The BALI (British Association of Landscaping Industries) Awards are a celebration of all that makes the landscape industry great with the winners exemplifying professional landscaping excellence. 




IDverde UK carried out the landscaping works which included construction of a 2.2 metre high brick wall and eight large raised beds in the kitchen garden and creation of a new formal garden with new paths, seating and beautiful planting. 

The awards success comes two months after the brand new Houghton Hall Park Visitor Centre opened, courtesy of a £2.1million National Lottery grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and the Big Lottery Fund, together with funding from Central Bedfordshire Council and Houghton Regis Town Council.



The visitor centre – which is free to visit – and the kitchen and formal garden…

More information at http://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/waste/bins/collection-day.aspx

Vehicle seized in fly tipping crackdown by council


This week Central Bedfordshire Council has successfully convicted two fly-tipping offenders, securing fines of over £6,000 and seizing a vehicle that may be crushed.

One fly tipping offender was caught in the act by an observant member of the public. On 29 November 2016, a lady noticed a suspicious white flatbed truck on Millfield Lane in Caddington. She then watched the truck tipping rubbish onto the road as it was driving along. She made a note of the vehicle registration number and handed it to council officers.

The registered keeper of the vehicle was confirmed to be Simon James Whittle of Fletcher Way, Hemel Hempstead. Whittle was asked to attend a PACE interview and to reply to a Section 108 Environment Act 1995 questionnaire, which requested the details of the person who was driving the vehicle. Whittle attended the interview but denied driving the vehicle and stated that he had loaned his vehicle out to some friends for £60 a…

by Alan Winter
For anyone who looks forward to watching a video of Houghton Regis Town Council proceedings, this week’s will be recommended viewing, (and I’m told, with much-improved sound quality). For when it came to a controversial item being discussed, our local councillors chose the route of farce to decide it.

Before them was a recommendation to swap out one of the Labour councillors from committees, so that his attendance load would be reduced to attending only the full Town Council meetings.  At first, no one seemed willing to start a discussion on the proposal but as a  debate emerged it became clear that there was a division of opinion between the Labour group members on the one side, and the Independents, Community Independents and Liberal Democrats on the other.

The Debate:



When the vote was taken, 5 were in favour, 5 against, and 2 abstained.

Where such instances occur Standing Orders, in common with a majority of Standing Orders on other councils and organisations, allow…

A local environmental charity is looking for support to help it buy and maintain an area of heathland near Rushmere Park.

The Greensand Trust are trying to raise the £50,000 needed to buy Shire Oak Heath, a 17-acre site
neighbouring Rushmere Country Park. The Trust already runs Rushmere on a not-for-profit basis. Now, the Trust wants to secure the nearby site so that it can become part of the park. They hope to restore it to a thriving, well-maintained area of heathland and believe it would also provide a safer cycle route into the park.

The Trust launched an appeal to buy the site in July this year and has so far raised over £12,000 from public donations. It is hoping to secure a number of grants very soon which would take the total raised to around £40,000, leaving them a shortfall of £10,000 to ensure the future of the site.

Runners and volunteers of Rushmere park run, which takes place at the Park every Saturday morning at 9am, recently turned up dressed in purple to represent he…

Available to watch online is CBC's Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee (Thu, 30th Nov 2017 - 10:00 am) . WATCH NOW.

In the Housing Revenue Account a note mentioned delays to start of works on Houghton Regis Central. Houghton Hall councillor, Susan Goodchild, raised a query to try to get answers for the delay.

12. “The scheme received planning consent in November 2016 and it is proposed that construction will start on site in the summer of 2018. The reason for the revised start date is due to re-programming following the establishment of new governance structures. This will enable a comprehensive tender pack to be prepared and a robust procurement process to be followed. As a result, it is predicted that only £0.312M of the original budget of £2M will be spent in this financial year.”  Source:  HRA REVENUE ACCOUNT (HRA)

This is a transcript* from the relevant part of the meeting:

1:56 Cllr Susan Goodchild:  ... When you think about 200 families in temporary accomm…

A retrospective application to change a family house in Trident Drive, Houghton Regis, to a flat and a House of Multiple Occupation has been declined by the local planning authority. The terraced houses in Trident Drive were built as an overspill site for London in the 1970's. Many of the homes are town houses with limited parking spaces at the rear.

In a notice of refusal, the planning department at Central Bedfordshire Council says that the application was unacceptable in principle and that fundamental objections could not be overcome through dialogue.

The applicant was invited to withdraw the application and to seek pre-application advice prior to any re-submission but did not agree to this.

The Council followed its procedures as laid down in the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015, and refused permission.

Reasons for refusal are given as the development would be out of character with the locality and detrimental to the amenities o…