Bedford Borough Council charges for the following historic environment services:
Heritage assets are sensitive to change so certain types of development or alteration may not be supported by the Historic Environment Team.
If your development proposal could affect a heritage asset, directly or indirectly, please ask us for advice before making an application so that a forthcoming application based upon our advice can be supported by the Historic Environment Team.
A heritage statement is an assessment of the significance of heritage assets that may be affected by a development, including any contribution made to this significance by their setting, and the likely impacts of development upon this significance.
You must submit a heritage statement with your planning or listed building consent application if a heritage asset could be affected by your proposal.
You may also need to submit the results of an archaeological evaluation. Consulting the Historic Environment Record (HER) will reveal if any heritage assets are on, or next to, the development site.
You can also consult the Archaeology Team for advice on the archaeological potential of the site.
The Archaeology and Conservation Teams can provide initial advice in response to a pre-application enquiry for proposals with the potential to affect heritage assets and their settings.
The guidance and template aims to assist applicants or their agents in producing or commissioning the necessary heritage statement and impact assessment when submitting a listed building application or planning application for simple changes affecting a single heritage asset.
The brief is for more complex proposals, eg those that may have multiple effects on one or more heritage assets, requiring the services/input of historic environment specialists. The applicant should refer the specialist to the brief.
See the list of local validation requirements including heritage (PDF).
Visit Historic England for guidance on writing a heritage statement.
Please use our payment portal for charges linked to historic environment advice. Please obtain a reference number from our team before progressing with payment.
Pay for historic environment advice
There are separate charges for using and obtaining data from the Historic Environment Record (HER) and for providing archaeological advice (beyond that given as part of the pre-application planning enquiry response).
This further archaeological advice includes setting the requirements for and quality control checking of archaeological work, including providing written briefs outlining the scope of necessary work and monitoring by Planning.
See our Archaeology charging schedule (PDF)
Contact the Archaeology Team at: archaeology@bedford.gov.uk for HER data or further archaeological advice.