Central Bedfordshire is set to benefit from £32.7 million of government funding to provide a vital new link road, enhancing accessibility and easing congestion in north Luton, Roads Minister Baroness Vere announced on 17 October 2021.

The project, supported by the Department for Transport (DfT) and led by Central Bedfordshire Council and South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP), will see the construction of a new 2.75-mile road link between Junction 11a of the M11 and the A6, forming a north-western bypass for Luton.

Not only will the new road connect the east and west of north Luton, opening the area up to economic growth and easing the transport of goods between the M1 and Midlands, it will also support the development of up to 3,600 new homes and around 2,800 new jobs.

The scheme will reduce congestion in north-Luton communities, improving journey times, air quality and road safety.

It’s not just motorists who will benefit from the works, as the project hopes to cut carbon emissions and encourage active travel by including a 3-metre-wide foot and cycle path on the south side of the link road.

Roads Minister Baroness Vere said:

Residents in Bedfordshire deserve quicker and easier journeys and I know many have been frustrated by poor east-west connections north of Luton.

That’s why I’m pleased to be backing the new link road, which will support the construction of new homes and jobs, drastically improve accessibility and make the area more attractive to new business.

The announcement comes as the government continues its drive to build back better from the pandemic and level up transport links to boost regional economies right across the country.

Leader of Central Bedfordshire Council, Councillor Richard Wenham, said:

We are delighted to have secured funding from the Department for Transport for this key link road, which will deliver improved east-west connectivity across Central Bedfordshire and the wider area and facilitate the delivery of up to 3,600 new homes and a Rail Freight Interchange, which are important in meeting a wider housing need and strengthening our economic offer.

Executive Member for Planning and Regeneration at Central Bedfordshire Council, Councillor Kevin Collins, said:

The funding provides us with a welcome opportunity to improve connectivity between towns in Central Bedfordshire, especially east-west linkages, whilst also easing congestion in the villages and areas north of Luton.

It will also facilitate the delivery of growth envisaged in our adopted local plan and will provide homes, jobs and necessary supporting infrastructure for Central Bedfordshire and the wider area.

Hilary Chipping, Chief Executive at SEMLEP, added:

This major infrastructure project will facilitate economic growth in Central Bedfordshire and improve east-west connectivity within the South East Midlands and wider Oxford to Cambridge Arc.

The link road will open up employment land to support new job opportunities and enable new homes to be built for the benefit of local people. It will also help to alleviate congestion locally.

Construction of the road is due to begin in January 2022 and be completed by January 2024.

The total cost of the scheme comes to £60.248 million with a contribution of £32.750 million from DfT. The remaining sum will come from local private developer contributions secured by the Council.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for taking part in this fantastic Summit.

We have seen what the United Kingdom has to offer as a modern high-skill, low-tax global hub.

The British brand is one of the most known and respected around the world.

And our flag flies as a symbol of openness, freedom and reliability.

With almost £10 billion committed just today we are showing the UK continues to be the best investment destination in the world.

And as we recover from Covid, I am determined to show that the best way forward lies in free trade, free enterprise and free markets.

That is why we are seizing new opportunities to level up our country with more jobs in the industries of the future.

And it’s why we are reinforcing our domestic economic strength with diplomatic and security partnerships around the globe. They are vital to the network of liberty that we want to build worldwide, championing the cause of enterprise and freedom.

We are at our best when we are open to new ideas and opportunities. And Britain is at our best when we’re open to the world.

The free exchange of goods, services, capital and ideas has made our nation great. And that’s why we have gone from transporting cotton along the Manchester Ship Canal in the 19th century, to exporting global brands like Manchester City and Manchester United in the 21st.

It is why our great Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher embraced international investors in the 1980s, helping companies like Nissan find their home in Britain. Cars like the Qashqai are now as quintessentially British as the Vauxhall Astra or the Land Rover Discovery.

Following in the footsteps of Adam Smith, John Bright and Richard Cobden, we now have a new generation of British trailblazers here at this Summit…

Sarah Gilbert, whose Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is literally saving the world.

Emma Walmsley of GSK – whose industry is delivering life-saving products.

Or Poppy Gustaffson of DarkTrace, who is using AI to build our defences against cyber attacks.

The United Kingdom is a science and tech superpower – open to ideas, open to investment, working to create opportunities and improve lives.

We are determined to be bolder, more competitive and more forward-leaning than anywhere else on earth.

At the heart of this is a fundamental belief – which I know everyone in this room all shares – in the power of free enterprise.

When people and businesses are free to use their imagination, initiative, ingenuity and ideas, they deliver the best results. We’ve got to harness this innate potential.

That’s what this summit is all about.

And this spirit is the jewel in our crown, as the United Kingdom… and key to making us a sceptred isle for investment.

It will deliver more growth, more jobs and higher wages. But it is only one important part of our positioning as a global hub for trade and enterprise.

We’ve got the super-deduction for companies investing in new plants and machinery, announced by my friend the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak. It’s the biggest two year business tax cut in modern British history.

Our Office for Talent is working across government to cement our place as the natural home for the best and brightest.

We signed agreements with partners like India, Australia and Japan to make it easier for their professionals to live and work here in the United Kingdom.

Openness has long been key to our national success. It is how Mrs Thatcher’s Big Bang turned London’s Docklands into the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf that we can all see today.

And that spirit of openness drives us today to create new freeports across the country, from Plymouth to Liverpool to Teesside. It is not just about creating the so called Singapore on Thames but it’s about Singapore on Tees as well, and much more… and we want to harness investment to create jobs in the United Kingdom.

That is what our Office for Investment is achieving under the leadership of Lord Grimstone, with a £10 billion investment from Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company into life sciences and tech. It has also secured deals like Nissan’s £1 billion expansion in Sunderland and created a hub for electric cars – another industry of the future.

We are also working to deepen our economic relationships through trade, striking deals so far with 68 countries plus the EU and there are even more in the pipeline.

My colleague and friend Anne-Marie Trevelyan is looking forward to launching negotiations on deals with India and the Gulf, as well as completing our accession to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

This is the kind of country we want to be: open to opportunity, positive… proud of our history and looking to the future.

I believe fiercely that free enterprise is the way forward for the whole world – now, more than ever.

We are unashamedly pro-business, and couldn’t be happier to say we want your investment here in the United Kingdom.

Making profits and delivering for shareholders creates opportunities and improve lives.

We are reaching out to help developing countries build back better from Covid too.

We are working with like-minded allies such as the US and Japan to finance clean infrastructure that is reliable and trustworthy.

This is going to be vital to delivering success at COP26 in just a few days’ time.

Enterprise is needed not just as a tool of economic recovery, but it’s also a tool for human progress.

This belief in free enterprise and in business underpins our vision for a network of liberty.

But the world must also be a safe place for free-enterprise loving nations. That’s why we must be hard-headed in defending our interests – building new diplomatic and security ties as well as deepening our economic partnerships.

This is how we will champion openness, freedom and prosperity worldwide.

As we come out of the pandemic, investment has never been more important. We have to reject the declinist and protectionist voices. And we have to believe that our best days lie ahead.

That is why you will be making the right choice by investing in the United Kingdom as a low-tax, high-skill global hub for investment.

You are choosing a country that is trusted, reliable, honest and open. A country that is committed to free enterprise and innovation.

You can bet on Britain. And together, we will make that bet deliver like never before.

Thank you.

A series of mini-documentaries and reports on the MDP have featured on BFBS channels ahead of and during the week that followed the Force’s 50th Anniversary on 1 October 2021.

Three spotlight features on specialist MDP teams at HM Naval Base Devonport were released to coincide with the half-century milestone. These followed a mini-documentary focused on a firearms training exercise and coverage of a special 50th Anniversary Pass Out Parade, both at MDP HQ, earlier in September.

At Devonport, Forces News reporter Briohny Williams joined the marine unit during a firearms training exercise afloat, followed our Project Servator officers out on deployment and met puppy Harri and the dog section.

Chief Inspector Darrell Barber, MDP Senior Police Officer at HM Naval Base Devonport, said:

“We were very pleased to spend time with Briohny and the BFBS crew, in support of the MDP’s 50th Anniversary campaign, to show a flavour of the Force’s specialist policing capabilities used at the sites we protect across the UK, and to explain more on our role in keeping the Naval Base here in Plymouth safe and secure.”

Watch the MDP Devonport Forces News reports

Marine

Video

MDP has the largest marine policing capability in the UK and supports national policing operations for events and incidents when required.

The MDP Devonport Marine Unit (DMU) is responsible for ensuring waterborne policing and security at the naval base, escorting naval ships and other vessels, and working with the Queen’s Harbour Master on general police patrols.

Members of the DMU regularly practise marine firearms tactics simulations, as seen in the Forces News report, to ensure they’re prepared to respond to different security threats.

Project Servator

Forces Net video

The national policing tactic Project Servator is used by the MDP at Devonport, and at other locations across the UK, to disrupt criminal activity while providing a reassuring presence for the Defence community and public in the surrounding area. Project Servator officers are specially trained to identify tell-tale signs of criminal activity, during highly visible deployments that can happen at any time, anywhere. These are made up of a range of resources including: uniformed and plain clothes officers, armed police officers, police dogs, marine police units, vehicle checkpoints, CCTV and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR).

Police dogs

Video

The MDP Dog Unit represents the second largest police dog capability in the UK and recently became the first non-Home Office police unit to achieve national accreditation for police dog training.

At Devonport the MDP has more than 15 dogs used in a range of protective and deterrent roles, and to detect and intercept suspicious activity and criminality, for example using specialist drugs or explosives dogs.

Training the dogs is a gradual process and Forces News gained insight on what’s involved during their time with the MDP Devonport Dog Unit and puppy Harri.

More information