Greater Cambridge Local Plan: Proposed Submission

Local planning authorities across Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire and beyond need to work collaboratively alongside National Highways to undertake transport modelling to assess the cross-boundary impacts of Universal United Kingdom Resort and where necessary define appropriate mitigations. This may require the integration of existing models across Cambridgeshire, Bedford and Central Bedfordshire and updates to the Greater Cambridge Transport Strategy which accompanies the plan.

To satisfy the tests of soundness (positively prepared and effective), Greater Cambridge cannot treat Universal as an isolated or irrelevant issue. The baseline evidence must be updated to ensure cross-boundary travel, housing and infrastructure implications are properly evaluated and mitigated.

In line with national policy on strategic cross-boundary planning and effective joint working, future evidence base work would need to incorporate the transport impacts of the Universal development into the strategic highway modelling and assess the implications across the wider strategic transport network. This should evaluate wider network implications, specifically assessing:

- shared infrastructure corridors, including East West Rail and the A428/A14 corridor;

- cross-boundary impacts within Greater Cambridge; and

- required mitigation measures or infrastructure upgrades to support sub-regional growth.

Whilst discussions are ongoing in relation to a statement of common ground and Bedford Borough Council welcomes the cross-boundary cooperation which is underway the plan is currently unsound on the grounds that it is not positively prepared or effective.

Universal United Kingdom Resort

Following the approval and implementation of the special development order on 12 January 2026, the Greater Cambridge Local Plan’s evidence base needs to be updated to consider the socio-economic and transport infrastructure impacts of the Universal theme park. With planning permission formally implemented and construction having commenced in early 2026, the emerging Local Plan currently fails to address the strategic cross-boundary impacts of the Universal United Kingdom Resort, which need to be assessed now.

Omitting a major regional employer opening in the early years of the plan period (2031) risks underestimating commuting flows and transport bottlenecks across the shared functional economic area.

The scale and sub-regional significance of this development is well-established, with extensive public data, economic impact modelling and transport assessments already available. Indeed, the strategic weight of the Universal scheme was so significant that Bedford Borough Council withdrew its own Local Plan 2040 on the recommendation of the Planning Inspectorate (in light of inspector’s McCreery's letter dated 10 June 2025) to ensure its growth strategy fully aligns with the resort's sub-regional impact through the new Local Plan 2050. PINS considers the Universal resort to be a ‘game changer’ of such significant strategic scale that an emerging Local Plan in the wider catchment area cannot simply ignore it or push it into a later review.

With an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 direct operational jobs, around 8.5 million visitors in its opening year and up to £50 billion in economic benefits, the scale of the resort will fundamentally alter the sub-regional labour market, travel-to-work areas and supply chains spanning Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and the broader Oxford-Cambridge region.

These official figures are derived directly from the economic impact assessment, environment assessment and transport assessment published in support of the Universal United Kingdom Resort SDO. The SDO clearly establishes that Greater Cambridge falls directly within Universal’s primary labour, visitor and transport catchments.

Travel-to-work area / labour catchment: The economic assessment states that Greater Cambridge (and South Cambridgeshire) sits comfortably within the 45–60 minute commuting catchment, particularly via the A421/A428 corridors and the East West Rail route. Moreover, the economic modelling explicitly assumes that a proportion of the 8,000–10,000 operational staff will commute from the eastern Oxford-Cambridge corridor, which includes Greater Cambridge.

Visitor catchment: The environmental statement defines a primary visitor catchment of a 2-hour drive time (encompassing all of Cambridgeshire) and highlights key regional transport gateways, including Cambridge railway stations and Stansted Airport/M11 access routes.

Despite these established links, the strategic transport modelling and economic evidence supporting the emerging Greater Cambridge Local Plan currently fail to account of the additional employee, visitor and supply chain trips arising from the resort, which will extend significantly into Cambridgeshire.

Tempsford new town

We recognise that the government has not formally confirmed or funded the proposed new town at Tempsford and, as such, it cannot be treated as a committed allocation at this stage.

Nevertheless, the current planning application at Little Barford represents an early component of the wider vision and highlights the importance of continued engagement on cross-boundary transport and infrastructure matters.

We therefore welcome ongoing dialogue with neighbouring authorities, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority and National Highways to help understand emerging issues and support coordinated long-term planning across the region.