Bedfordshire in the ‘eye of the storm’ for planning

The CPRE Bedfordshire AGM was held on 11th September 2025 in Flitwick village hall.

The evening began with a welcome from our Chair, Martin Christopher, followed by a review of last year’s annual report, finances and the charities local activities. The current Trustees were all voted back onto the Executive Committee responsible for the charity. We also officially welcomed Glenn Hayward as our new Trustee taking on the role of Treasurer.

After the formalities, we had the pleasure of a presentation by our special guest speaker, Roger Mortlock, CEO of the national CPRE charity.

National and local challenges

Roger provided a brief history of the charity and the challenges faced by the country and local groups, including the necessity to have a broad perspective on our land use requirements and the current political arena. He commented that many counties were vying for the position of being in the ‘eye-of-the-storm’, but after a review of everything going on in Bedfordshire, the conclusion was that Bedfordshire, unfortunately, deserves that accolade.

Roger talked about some of the national initiatives and campaigns ranging from what is needed from the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, Hedgerow Heroes and the challenges of membership recruitment.

Looking forward

Finally, Roger looked forward to the plans for celebrating the charity’s centenary next year.

We were pleased to round off the evening with some interesting discussions on the back of members questions to Roger.

We would like to thank all the members and supporters who attended our AGM.