In 2017 Central Beds invited partners in this venture to celebrate the opening, Highways Agency were a major partner to its success. It has delivered significant benefits to Dunstable by enabling the A5 through the town to be detrunked.

A project that started off with mixed reviews turned into a transport delight for many commuters, residents, visitors, travellers, visitors which connects Dunstable & Luton in about 11 minutes!

Central Beds Council has played a major role in attracting businesses to the area to bring significant local employment opportunities.  Eric Pickles visited Amazon with Andrew Selous, Cllr James Jamieson, Cllr Nigel Young and other guests to see the state of the art facility at Amazon in Dunstable.  11,500 jobs have been created in 2016 across Central Beds.

Central Beds Council's Housing directorate built a new £17 million 64 apartment scheme in Dunstable called Priory View.  It has won a number of awards and was opened officially in April 2017 by Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.  The Council  is now planning its 2nd scheme of £35 million 168 apartments in Houghton Regis to start in 2018.  Demographics of older people in Central Bedfordshire is set to rise over the coming years and providing good quality independent living is seen as one of the priorities of the Council.  It enables right sizing for older people wishing to move from larger properties which then become available for growing families.  The Council's ambition is to build 3,000 units of independent living over the next 10 years. The Council work closely with a number of housing associations and developers to promote this ambition. Aldwyck have delivered a similar scheme in Leighton Buzzard, called Greenfields.  

Central Beds Council is acquiring properties and building new housing, specialist accommodation for residents with disabilities, learning disabilities, care leavers, older people, transitional accommodation for homeless individuals and families.  The Council owns land and is looking to develop on this and some of its redundant garage sites (as per the site shown here which was a redundant garage site in Dunstable).  As well as building, the Council buys property and also has a proactive Empty Homes programme to work with owners and landlords to bring empty properties back into use for much needed local housing.

Central Beds Council is investing £21 million in its latest leisure facility in Dunstable, and proving that by doing so it will attract more visitors and members and become successful.  This has been the case with recent investment in a new £15 million facility at Flitwick, which has seen capacity soar in its first year of opening.  Improvements have been made at Tiddenfoot in Leighton Buzzard and Houghton Regis and the new facility in Dunstable is due to iopen in 2018.  

Central Beds Council launched a £4m fund for town centre regeneration in 2016, offering the opportunity to work with town councils on local initiatives to benefit the town and demonstrate regeneration outcomes -Bennetts Splash Park & Cafe in Dunstable is one of the projects locally to benefit from the fund together with architectural lighting to certain town centre buildings, and the addition of an extra Town Ranger to help street cleaning in Dunstable.  Similar initiatives were forthcoming from Leighton Buzzard who seized the opportunity to invest £100,000 in its market and relaunch this as a major attraction to complement the town centre retail offer. Houghton Regis did not participate in the scheme.

Markets are the responsibilities of the Town Councils.

As part of the Central Beds Market Town Regeneration initiative, there was a High Street Improvement Scheme of £1m specifically to encourage and incentivise local retailers to improve their shopronts, with grant funding.  The majority of shops in our local towns are privately owned and therefore the responsibility of their owners, retail groups etc. In 2017 a number of shops in Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard are progressing interest for the shop front improvement grants which offer 40%  contribution to the costs. These improvements go through bidding, architectural design, planning, procurement but should be visible in the high street soon.  Dunstable's Joint Committee also introduced a Shop Front Accreditation Scheme in 2016 to award Gold, Silver or Bronze certificates to shops who entered.  22 of the 200 shops participated in 2016 and 24 participated in 2017.  

Central Beds work with Dunstable, Leighton Buzzard and Houghton Regis through a Joint Committee with members from Central Beds and the towns and other local businesses and interest groups, organisations. In 2016 Dunstable's Joint Committee worked on a Special Saturday campaign to bring themed retail events to the town and raise special themed market activities, ending with a Christmas Festival involving a number of local organisations.  This committee also funded a new initiative in 2016 of a Light & Laser show as a finale to the traditional Town Council's Carol Service and Torchlight Procession, together with a week's hire of a synthetic ice rink.  Dunstable's Joint Committee have funded this again for 2017.

Central Beds has a regular maintenance programme for roads, improving road layouts and surfaces, repairing potholes. Residents can report potholes on the Central Beds website under the REPORT IT section.  In 2017 there is a major gully cleaning programme to clean all 44,000 gullies in Central Beds.

Road layout improvements have been made to:-

A5/M1 Link

Woodside Link

Poynters Road, Dunstable

Luton Road Gyratory around Sainsburys, Dunstable

Not only do the Town Councils in Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard do a superb job in terms of enlivening the towns with their floral displays, which invariably win prizes in the Anglia in Bloom competition, and Green Flag accreditation, the initiatives to reduce lorries in town, villages by Central Beds Council contribute towards a better and healthier environment. With the construction of the A5/M1 link this means Dunstable can be detrunked and HGVs will be banned from the town centre and re-routed.  Central Beds Council also have plans to enhance the high street on completion of the link road to complete the project works.

ASTRAL PARK, LEIGHTON BUZZARD

Astral Parks Sports and Community Centre opened its doors to the public in 2014. The project – which was funded by developer contributions and Leighton Linslade Town Council provides a community hall and two smaller rooms (which can be combined to make a single large space), a kitchen and 4 changing rooms. It is a multi-purpose facility which met the brief for a combined sports and community centre. 

Town Council has updated a number of children's play areas across the town - Billington Park, Weston Avenue, Danes Field and Mentmore Road.

HOUGHTON HALL PARK, HOUGHTON REGIS

Central Beds Council secured external funding for the redevelopment of this hidden treasure.  In 2017 a new Visitor Centre and Cafe was opened.  The Park enhancements also included a new pathway creating a trail around the park, new adventure style play equipment for children, a kitchen garden area and open green space for exercising and walking.  It is a popular place for dog walks too.

CREASEY PARK, DUNSTABLE

This joint venture between Central Beds Council and Dunstable Town Council continues its successful sport and leisure activities.  It is a superb local facility for football enthusiasts and clubs and includes hospitality areas, bar, changing rooms, disabled facilities and generous free parking.