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Four Acres, Astwood Road, Cranfield, Bedford, MK43 0AT

CB/25/04055/FULLFull ApplicationRefused
Full

Refused on 12 March 2026

Council decision: Full Application - RefusedDelegated (officer decision)3 reasons for refusal

Approximate location: the centre of the postcode, not the exact property.

Proposal

Change of use of land from agricultural to a residential caravan park, comprising of 8 pitches, each pitch consisting of 1 static caravan, 1 touring caravan, parking, cycle and bin storage and the associated infrastructure to be occupied by Gypsies and Travellers (retrospective)

Received
29 December 2025
Decision level
Delegated (officer decision)
  1. Received29 Dec
  2. Validated16 Jan
  3. Consult.25 Feb
  4. Target13 Mar
  5. Decided12 Mar

Decided in 55 days (council typically 56)

About this application

This is a full planning application for a change of use at Four Acres, Astwood Road, Cranfield, Bedford, MK43 0AT. Central Bedfordshire has handled 5,653 applications of this type. This one was decided in 73 days, 2 weeks longer than Central Bedfordshire's typical decision time. The site is in a conservation area. There are no previous applications recorded at this address. We hold 425 applications in total for the MK43 postcode area.

82% of full applications at Central Bedfordshire Council were approved. Across all application types, the council typically decides in about 8 weeks (median).

Based on decided applications received in the last 3 years.Planning something similar? See what gets approved on your street

Why it was refused

  1. The proposed development would be sited outside of a designated Settlement Envelope and would represent an unsustainable and harmful intrusion into the countryside, whereby there would be an increased overreliance on the private vehicle to access everyday services and facilities, and would result in detriment to the character and appearance of the rural area. The proposed development would thereby be contrary to Policies SP7, H7, EE5 and HQ1 of the Central Bedfordshire Local Plan (2021) and Para 26 of the Planning Policy for Traveller Sites.
  2. The proposal fails to demonstrate a safe and suitable access in terms of visibility, width, radii and construction and if permitted would lead to issues of damage to the public highway which will impact on other users of the highway and issues of inadequate driver/driver intervisibility and overall will lead to conditions of danger and inconvenience to users of the highway and the property. Insufficient information has been provided to accurately assess how the site is serviced and if there is adequate on site turning available to alleviate vehicles reversing into the highway contrary to Policy T2 of the Central Bedfordshire Local Plan (2021) and Section 9 of the National Planning Policy Framework (2024).
  3. Insufficient information has been provided to demonstrate that the proposed development is capable of providing net gains in biodiversity, in conflict with Policy EE2 of the Central Bedfordshire Local Plan (2021).

From the council's decision notice.

Application details

Postcode
MK43 0AT
Application type
Full Application
Scale / size
Small
Parish
Cranfield

Planning application dates

Date validated
16 January 2026
Consultation expiry
25 February 2026
Consultation start
16 January 2026
Consultation end
25 February 2026
Target decision date
13 March 2026
Decision issued
13 March 2026

Applicant and agent

Agent address
Wey Bank Alton Road Farnham GU10 5EL

Planning decision

Statutory period
56 days

Additional information

Documents
32

Site constraints

Checking the site
2/3
Council recordsAppealsFlood risk

Designations at the address point. Ones next to the site may also apply.

  • Flood zone 1: Low probability (rivers and sea)

Possibly incomplete for this council: tree preservation orders.

Also checked, none recorded (23)

flood storage areas, conservation areas, listed buildings, Article 4 directions, green belt, scheduled monuments, World Heritage Sites, World Heritage Site buffer zones, registered parks and gardens, registered battlefields, Heritage at Risk entries, nutrient neutrality catchments, national parks, National Landscapes, SSSIs, Special Areas of Conservation, Special Protection Areas, Ramsar sites, ancient woodland, national nature reserves, local nature reserves, heritage coasts and brownfield registers.

A guide only, from official open data; it is not a planning search. Flood zones cover rivers and sea, not surface water.

Data © Crown copyright and others · sources and licences

Contains public sector information from planning.data.gov.uk (MHCLG and local planning authorities), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

© Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. The Historic England GIS Data contained in this material was obtained on 2026-11-03. The most publicly available up to date Historic England GIS Data can be obtained from HistoricEngland.org.uk.

© Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

© Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2026. All rights reserved. Flood Map for Planning, Open Government Licence v3.0.

Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

Source: Central Bedfordshire

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