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Borough of Bedford

Unitary authority area in Bedfordshire, England

Summary

Unitary authority area in Bedfordshire, England

Field	Value
name	Bedford
other_name	Borough of Bedford
settlement_type	Borough and local government district
<!-- images and maps ----------->	image_skyline	{{multiple image
border	infobox	perrow = 1/2/2	total_width = 300	align=center
image1	Bedford Bridge On The River Great Ouse.jpg
image2	Kempston Church End.jpg
image3	St Peter's Sharnbrook - geograph.org.uk - 4552211.jpg
image4	The Gate House at Turvey House - geograph.org.uk - 4423858.jpg
image5	Lakeview Village Hall, Wixams.jpg
image_caption
image_blank_emblem	Bedford arms.svg
blank_emblem_type	Coat of arms of Bedford Borough Council
blank_emblem_size	150px
image_map	Bedford UK locator map.svg
map_caption	Bedford shown within Bedfordshire
subdivision_type	Sovereign state
subdivision_name	UK United Kingdom
subdivision_type1	Country
subdivision_name1	ENG England
subdivision_type2	Region
subdivision_name2	East of England
subdivision_type3	Ceremonial county
subdivision_name3	Bedfordshire
government_type	Unitary Authority
leader_title	Governing body
leader_name	Bedford Borough Council
leader_title1	Executive mayor
leader_title3	MPs
leader_name3	Richard Fuller (C)
Alistair Strathern (L)
Mohammad Yasin (L)
seat_type	Administrative HQ
seat	Borough Hall, Bedford
established_date	1 April 2009
unit_pref	Metric
area_total_km2
population_as_of
population_footnotes
population_total
population_density_km2
population_rank	[](list-of-english-districts-by-population)
population_density_urban_km2
demographics_type1	Ethnicity (2021)
demographics1_footnotes
demographics1_title1	Ethnic groups
demographics1_info1	{{Collapsible list
<!-- demographics (section 2) -->	demographics_type2	Religion (2021)
demographics2_footnotes
demographics2_title1	Religion
demographics2_info1	{{Collapsible list
timezone	GMT
timezone_DST	British Summer Time
coordinates
blank_name	ONS code
blank_info	00KB
blank1_name	NUTS 3
blank1_info	UKH22
blank2_name	ISO 3166-2
blank2_info	GB-BDF
website

Bedford, or the Borough of Bedford, is a local government district with borough status in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. It is administered by Bedford Borough Council, a unitary authority. The council is based in Bedford, the borough's namesake and principal settlement, which is the county town of Bedfordshire.

The Bedford built-up-area is the 71st largest in the United Kingdom and also includes Kempston and Biddenham. Away from the Bedford built-up area the borough includes a large rural area with many villages. 75% of the borough's population live in the Bedford built-up and the five large villages which surround it, which makes up slightly less than 6% of the total land area of the borough.

The borough is also the location of the Wixams new settlement, immediately south of Bedford, which received its first residents in 2009.

History

The ancient borough of Bedford was a borough by prescription, with its original date of incorporation unknown. The earliest surviving charter was issued c. 1166 by Henry II, confirming to the borough the liberties and customs which it had held in the reign of Henry I. The borough became a municipal borough under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835.

The District of Bedford was formed on 1 April 1974 as a merger of the existing borough of Bedford, along with Kempston Urban District and Bedford Rural District. In 1975 the district was granted a royal charter granting borough status as North Bedfordshire. The borough changed its name back from North Bedfordshire to Bedford in 1992.

Bedfordshire's administrative structure was reorganised as part of the 2009 structural changes to local government in England, meaning that Bedford Borough Council became a unitary authority in April 2009. Bedford Borough Council assumed responsibility in areas such as education, social services and transport which were previously provided by Bedfordshire County Council.

Governance

Main article: Bedford Borough Council

The council is based at Borough Hall on Cauldwell Street on the banks of the River Great Ouse in the centre of Bedford. The building was previously known as County Hall and had been the headquarters of Bedfordshire County Council prior to 2009. The unitary authority area is divided into 28 wards for elections to the Borough Council.

Parishes

Most of the area of the pre-1974 municipal borough of Bedford is unparished, although the parish of Brickhill was created within that area in 2004. The rest of the modern borough, including Kempston (the borough's only CP with a town council), is parished. The parishes are:

Biddenham
Bletsoe
Bolnhurst and Keysoe
Brickhill
Bromham
Cardington
Carlton and Chellington
Clapham
Colmworth
Cople
Cotton End
Dean and Shelton
Elstow
Felmersham
Great Barford
Great Denham
Harrold
Kempston
Kempston Rural
Knotting and Souldrop
Little Barford
Little Staughton
Melchbourne and Yielden
Milton Ernest
Oakley
Odell
Pavenham
Pertenhall
Podington
Ravensden
Renhold
Riseley
Roxton
Sharnbrook
Shortstown
Stagsden
Staploe
Stevington
Stewartby
Swineshead
Thurleigh
Turvey
Wilden
Willington
Wilshamstead
Wixams
Wootton
Wyboston, Chawston and Colesden
Wymington

Freedom of the Borough

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough of Bedford.

Individuals

Etienne Stott: 11 December 2012.

Military Units

Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment: November 1955
RAF Cardington: 16 July 1959.
287 Regiment Royal Artillery: 5 May 1963.
1st Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment: 1980.
201 (Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire Yeomanry) Battery Royal Artillery (Volunteers): 3 May 1986.
RAF Henlow: 26 September 1992.
774th USAF Airbase Group: 15 December 1994.
134 (Bedford) Squadron Air Training Corps: 1 August 1999.

References

{{English district population citation
"Bedford Local Authority".
"Bedford Built-up Area".
(1912). "A History of the County of Bedford: Volume 3". British History Online.
"Bedford Borough records introduction". Bedfordshire Archives.
{{LondonGazette. (31 October 1975)
(1993). "Bulletin of changes of local authority status, names and areas, 1 April 1992–31 March 1993". Department of the Environment.
[http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/714230 Unitary solution confirmed for Bedfordshire – New flagship unitary councils approved for Cheshire – Corporate – Communities and Local Government] {{webarchive. link. (22 November 2008)
[http://www.bedfordtoday.co.uk/bed-news/County-council-to-be-abolished.3850489.jp County council to be abolished in shake-up – Bedford Today]
[http://www.bedford.gov.uk/unitary/ A New Beginning] {{webarchive. link. (24 February 2009)
"Wards and polling district maps". Bedford Borough Council.
"Election Maps".
(11 December 2012). "Olympic canoeist Etienne Stott given freedom of Bedford". BBC News.
"RAF Cardington Camp".
(22 July 2014). "In pictures: Royal Anglians march through Bedford". BBC News.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

borough-of-bedford local-government-districts-of-bedfordshire local-government-in-bedfordshire unitary-authority-districts-of-england english-unitary-authorities-created-in-2009 boroughs-in-england

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