Bedford Borough Council Outline Their Plans For Universal Studios United Kingdom

Bedford Borough Council has outlined its key plans to help both Universal Destinations & Experiences and the UK Government in its endeavours with the brand new theme park.

As much as the project is ‘government-led’ according to Laura Church, the council’s chief executive, they maintained that the local council still had a vital role to play, according to a recent BBC report.

The council has been working with Universal for ‘quite a while’, and will play a key role from an infrastructure perspective, on issues such as road flooding. The A421 road adjacent to the site was notably flooded in September 2024, closing for three weeks, before reopening in mid-October. The park is also expected to be supported by two train stations, which should also have extensive council involvement.

Church also noted that the disruption caused by the theme park’s construction, expected to last for five years before its 2031 opening date, would try and be kept to a minimum.

The park is expected to be a large boost to both the local and national economy, creating 28,000 jobs in total – 20,000 from the park’s construction, and 8,000 in the creative and hospitality sectors once the park opens. It is expected to generate £50 billion for the UK economy by 2055.

Church also highlighted that the council is already working with large construction companies to help grow the workforce for the park, as well as potentially working with the local colleges to the area to train the ‘workforce of the future’.

The key challenges outlined would be for providing additional housing and health services, given the extra strain that an estimated 8.5 million visitors per year to the park could present. This is an issue that was recently echoed by callers into a local radio phone-in on The JVS Show on BBC Three Counties Radio – the most listened-to show on BBC local radio.

On this, Church stated that they wished for the council to work ‘with the health service’ to support work with them, and access to GPs’.

Read more about everything we know about Universal Studios United Kingdom.