East West Rail build to bring years of disruption to Bedford

The building of the East West Rail (EWR) line will bring benefits to a main town despite major disruption set to last years, one of its bosses says.

The £6bn link, connecting Cambridge and Oxford, will see homes demolished, main roads realigned and the construction of a viaduct - all in and around Bedford alone.

Will Gallagher, the chief development officer at EWR, said the company would "work with communities to keep disruption to minimum".

He said the plans need "to strike a balance between delivering something that is cost effective for the tax payer that fits into the local environment".

EWR said the overall number of properties likely to be acquired and demolished, or lose part of their land, had increased from 66 to 75, with 37 full homes expected to be knocked down.

The company has announced that St John's station will need to be relocated to the site of Bedford Hospital's car park and main arteries into the town will need to be realigned.

A 1.1km (0.69 mile) viaduct will be built over the A6, the Paula Radcliffe Way.

Ampthill Road, Cauldwell Street, Ford End Road, Bromham Road and A6 Great Ouse Way, will all need to be realigned and Ampthill Road and Cauldwell Street bridges may need to be rebuilt if they are "not high enough to accommodate overhead line equipment," EWR added.

Mr Gallagher said: "There will be disruption, what we are working really hard on is how we keep that to an absolute minimum."

He said the project was "huge" but it would improve connectivity, which aims to get more people out of their cars and on to the railways.

"I completely understand if you live broadly in the area there is going to be construction work that happen and that will be disruptive," he added.

He said there would be issues with "construction, impact on traffic and transport, impact on the environment".

"All those things, even if the route is broadly set, it's an opportunity for people to feed back and tell us things we can do to improve, which helps us to develop the design," Mr Gallagher said.

In-person events would take place locally over the coming weeks, he added.

"We are there to listen to answer questions and we are required to take this feedback into account and publish a report on how we've done it, we want to take it into account as it helps us improve the scheme," he said.

Julia Virdee, whose home in the Poets area of Bedford is due to be demolished, said: "Everyone around here is going to be affected by the noise, the dust the vibrations the construction traffic, everything.

"It's not just Poets, it's the whole of Bedford that's affected."

The Crown care home on the corner of Britannia Road will be taken down, gardens in Palgrave Road will be temporarily impacted - and EWR will acquire a strip of land along the western edge of Alexander Sports Hall playing field, on Sidney Road, including the pavilion in the corner of the playing fields, which will need to be relocated.

EWT said it had established a "Need to Sell Property Scheme" for anyone who had been left unable to sell their home and they would also benefit from "statutory blight provisions".