Houghton Regis News Desk

A planning application has been submitted to turn the site of the former Norman King public house in Church Street, Dunstable, into a garden. The application by would create a new garden on the site together with a new boundary wall, new planting. Additionally, there would be an enhanced access from Kingsway providing a new access to the hotel.  The existing access to the hotel from Church Road would be removed and the hotel car parking would be rearranged. An existing remaining clunch wall to Church Road frontage would be retained. Plans show that new brick supporting piers would be constructed to help support the old wall. The wall would be integrated into the garden according to plan . Plans can be viewed at the CBC planning site and search for 18/01477/FULL. Comments on the application can be sent to planning@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk quoting CB/18/01477/FULL. The building was destroyed by fire on 10 August 2011. 40 firefighters, six fire appliances and two aerial pl

The nominations are in, and now it's up to the voting public to select their local winner of the Best Bar None Awards 2018. Eight licensed premises across Dunstable and Houghton Regis have been accredited after entering this year’s Best Bar None awards . The awards are designed to help cut alcohol-related crime and disorder in the towns by recognising well-run pubs, bars and clubs. This year’s Best Bar None is the biggest so far, with a record number of pubs, bars and clubs entering. Judging is based on a venue’s ability to meet strict standards in areas around licensing, crime and disorder. Councillor Ian Dalgarno, Executive Member for Community Services at Central Bedfordshire Council, said: “The Best Bar None Awards are a great way to recognise the efforts of pubs, bars and clubs who are working hard to make Dunstable and Houghton Regis an attractive place to enjoy a night out in. Not only do the awards recognise well-run venues, they also highlight areas where license

There has been speculation on social media over what the red-netting over the mini-lakes is for between Houghton Regis parish boundary and the M1. According to a HRN1 spokesperson, " the area over which the fence has been installed is expected to dry out over the summer when works are proposed in connection with the surface water drainage strategy for the HRN1 scheme and the Environment Agency’s flood alleviation works.  The fencing has therefore been installed as a precautionary measure to encourage ground nesting birds (which like open, unobstructed views) to establish their nest sites within undisturbed areas of habitat away from the proposed works." To find out more about the hrn1 scheme go to http://hrn1.co.uk To find out more about the Environment Agency flood alleviation scheme download this pdf file To find out more about major Planning Applications affecting Houghton Regis and surrounds try this Facebook Group

Guest Writers are Welcome on Houghton Regis News Desk Today An Open letter from pen-name  Anastasia Truth to Andrew Selous, MP. Andrew will know her true identity. Dear Andrew Selous As a member of your constituency, I am writing to you about the ongoing plight of Commonwealth or “Windrush” nationals which has drawn stark attention to the Government’s cruel “hostile environment” policy. The policy, which bars migrants from accessing vital services including NHS treatment, banking and employment, is having a devastating impact on the lives of migrants and BME communities living in the UK. What’s more, the policy places responsibility for border enforcement on doctors, nurses, teachers and employers. All without evidence that the policy is working. The Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration recently highlighted the Home Office’s failure to properly monitor and evaluate the scheme, but his recommendations were ignored. JCWI’s “dossier of failure” also documents the H

Hi there, I'm contacting you from Channel 4's Location Location Location. The programme is hoping to film in the Bedfordshire area early this summer and we are looking for chain-free house hunters who may need a helping hand finding their dream property to apply for the show. We have a flyer we'd love to distribute and I'd be grateful if you could please post this on your page. Any help would be much appreciated. Best wishes, Sarah https://www.shortaudition.com/Location-Location-Location

Local environmental charity The Greensand Trust is calling on Houghton Regis residents of all ages and visitors to Houghton Hall Park to get involved in a number of opportunities on offer at the park, made possible thanks to a joint venture by Central Bedfordshire Council and Houghton Regis Town Council and supported by Heritage Lottery and Big Lottery Funding. If you’ve visited Houghton Hall Park recently, you’ve no doubt seen evidence of recent investment made to improve this much loved recreational facility. To continue this work, the Trust needs the local community to get stuck in - it’s a great opportunity to try something new, so come along and give it a try! With your involvement The Greensand Trust will lead monthly conservation tasks with volunteers to improve Houghton Hall Park for wildlife and the local community who use it. Get involved with the “Green Gym” – a great way to exercise outdoors while doing something worthwhile, making friends and having fun. With you

Guest writers are invited to use Houghton Regis News Desk as a platform for discussion of local concerns. Today's guest writer prefers the public pen name  Anastasia Truth. It is an open letter to Andrew Selous, MP, who will know her true identity. Dear Andrew Selous So let me get this right, to date, industries either moving, considering moving, reducing capacity, or shutting up shop due to Brexit uncertainty and rising costs due to the weak £, now stands at; * Airlines. * Car factories. At risk 2.7 million workers * Financial services. 2.19 million workers * Component factories in aerospace and car tech. * Games tech companies, 40% of which are considering moving to the EU. * Restaurants & hotels - Jamie’s, Prezzo, Strada, Chimichanga, as people start to tighten their belts, middle range eateries suffer. 4.49 million workers in hospitality. * Retailers (ToysRUs, Maplin, gone already, New Look, House of Fraser, Debenhams, Homebase, M&S, restructuring) wi

Report by Alan Winter. An apologetic Assistant Director of Housing at Central Bedfordshire Council (CBC) attended a meeting of the Town Council's Planning Committee on Monday this week to tell councillors that works to prepare the site for the building might not start until February 2019. The building might be completed by the summer of 2021. Houghton Regis Central is the working name for a new development, which will dominate the centre of Houghton Regis. The development is intended to include 170 independent living units for older people, community spaces, a heritage offering, plus retail and associated car parking. The whole site to be developed includes the site of Red House Court in Clarke's Way, and land formerly leased to a retail store in Houghton Regis town centre. The scheme is mastered by Central Bedfordshire Council Housing Department, who are the freeholders of the site. Planning permission was approved 9 Nov 2016. At the meeting, Mr Tony Keaveney apolo

The old Dunstable tidy tip at French's Avenue closes down at 5pm on Sunday 22 April 2018. The new depot at Thorn Turn, the Houghton Regis and Dunstable tidy tip, is due to open from Monday 23 April 2018. CBC Tidy Tip sites are open Monday - Sunday, 9am - 5pm, including bank holidays. Closing time is when they go home, so, be sure to arrive well before 5pm. If cars are queueing you won't have time to empty the car out. Find out what the tidy tips will take NEW LOCATION: Grendall Lane (off Thorn Road) Houghton Regis Bedfordshire LU5 6GJ Thorn Turn is the area between the A5 Watling Street just south of Chalk Hill and Thorn Road which runs from the A5 to the A5120. The new A5-M1 link road is in this location. The development by Central Bedfordshire Council includes a new, bigger and better household waste recycling centre (tidy tip), a reuse shop, a salt barn for storing the salt used on roads in the winter, highways depot for vehicles and equipment, offices

Central Beds Local Plan Central Bedfordshire Council is taking its Local Plan to a Full Council meeting, to be held on Thursday 26 April, seeking authorisation to submit it to the Secretary of State. The Local Plan sets out how Central Bedfordshire will develop over the next 20 years. It outlines the strategy for ensuring that the growth needed is delivered in the right places and is of the right character and quality. It also ensures that this growth is delivered alongside supporting roads, schools and services such as health, as well as retail, leisure and community facilities. The Local Plan includes proposals for new villages at Marston Vale (up to 5000 homes) and east of Biggleswade (around 1500 homes), as well as town extensions north of Luton (around 4000 homes) and east of Arlesey (around 2000 homes). The council is aiming to submit their plan to the Secretary of State on 30th April 2018. This is in order to submit the Local Plan ahead of changes to national planning p

A building consortium is now moving into the next stage of the planning process which is to develop an Area Masterplan and Area Design Code for the first phase of development.  The first phase called Area Masterplan 1 (AMP 1) is located directly to the North of Thornhill Primary School. The AMP will include details on: building heights; house types; key streets and buildings; open spaces; access routes; bus stops; footpaths and cycleways along with play areas and Public Rights of Way. There will be two public consultation events. A Public Exhibition on AMP 1 will be held on Thursday 19th April, from 2.00pm until 8.00pm at the Central Atrium (outside the Library), Bedford Square Community Centre, Houghton Regis, LU5 5ES. Members of the project team will be on hand to answer questions and to hear your feedback. More information on the proposals is available on the project website www.hrn1.co.uk .

A course of three enrichment sessions on Autism is to be held at Jewels Arts and Crafts Centre in Bedford Square, Houghton Regis this spring. All the meetings will be held on Saturdays from 10.30pm until 12.30pm. The first session is on 14th April entitled "What is Autism?". The second session is on the 28th April entitled "Theories of Autism; Possible Causes". And the third session is on 12th May entitled "Connecting with People with Autism". Unwaged will be charged £5 per session, Waged £8 per session, with reduced prices for booking all sessions up front. To book please call at Jewels in Bedford Square.

If you are interested in what is happening around Houghton Regis, Houghton Regis News Desk has an associated Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/HoughtonRegisPlanning/ All Pictures ©A D Winter 2018 // March April.

Houghton Regis has just one election to consider this May, and that is for residents living in Houghton Hall - a six parish councillor ward - where one of the seats has become vacant due to the death of a councillor. Labour, Liberal Democrats and an Independent are standing. This election will be following the election timetable for scheduled local government elections in England and Wales [ link ].

The April 2018 issue of the Bedfordshire Educationalist newsletter contains an article claiming that the senior education chiefs in the county voted last year to change the value of the mathematical constant pi from 3.14159 to the 'Biblical value' of 3.0. In some ways Pi (π) is a really straightforward number – calculating Pi simply involves taking any circle and dividing its circumference by its diameter.   The article mentions that a professor in Mathematics at the University of Bedfordshire has started receiving hundreds of calls from people protesting about the ruling. The article explains that physicist Mark Boslough had noticed that the value of Pi has been gradually shrinking as the value of the £ has reduced. He noticed a particularly sharp drop in Pi following the EU referendum. Pi (π) is the first number we learn about at school where we can’t write it as an exact decimal - it is a mysterious number which has digits which should go on forever and has fas