Leighton Buzzard or Eggington? Consultation starts on Clipstone Park boundary issue

Residents are being invited to have their say on proposed changes to the Eggington Parish boundary during an eight-week consultation launched today (September 16).

People living in Eggington, and others who express an interest, will be able to share their thoughts on whether the new Clipstone Park housing within Eggington Parish should remain within the Eggington Parish boundary, the Leighton-Linslade Parish boundary is extended to incorporate the new development in Eggington, or whether a totally new parish should be created.

This consideration, called a Community Governance Review, was triggered by a request from Leighton-Linslade Town Council and will be subject to a consultation lasting eight weeks.

Cllr David Shelvey, Executive Member for Corporate Resources, said: “We’ll be writing to local electors in Eggington with all the detail about this. We’ve also put lots of information on our website so that other – especially local people - can contribute to the consultation. Go to www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/consultations. There, you’ll be able to read a lot of background about what a community governance review is and the options in detail.”

In short, the options are:

Option 1: Eggington Parish boundary remains unchanged.

Option 2: Leighton-Linslade Parish boundary is extended to incorporate certain areas of land and the Eggington Parish area would be reduced.

Option 3: A new parish is created. The process to create a new parish would follow on from this Community Governance Review and would have several steps to it.

A community governance review enables a principal council such as Central Bedfordshire Council to review and put in place, or make changes to, community governance systems and structures e.g.by creating, merging, abolishing or changing parish or town councils in the review area.

The consultation is open for eight weeks until 12pm on November 10, 2021, and can be viewed on the council's website. Paper copies can be requested.