Biggleswade Town Council has agreed to set up a working group to draw up a wish list of ideas linked to Universal United Kingdom Resort, with Biggleswade Today first reporting the move. The timing matters because the resort is currently scheduled to open in 2031, and councillors want Biggleswade to be ready to benefit from the visitor spend, transport demand and wider activity it could bring to the area.
The working group will look at practical ways the town might profit from the project, including tourism, hospitality, a museum, a tourist information centre and an orbital bus service to the resort site. A sustainable transport corridor is also being treated as a longer-term possibility. The council has made clear that it wants a small number of workable ideas, backed by evidence, rather than a long list of aspirations with no clear route to delivery.
Why Biggleswade wants to get ahead of the curve
Biggleswade has already been identified in council papers as geographically important to the resort, even though the town is around 12 miles from the proposed site at Kempston Hardwick. That is why councillors are looking beyond the opening date and towards how the town could capture day-tripper trade, encourage longer stays and position itself as a useful base for visitors to the wider Universal UK area.
Transport sits at the centre of that thinking. Councillors heard that a large part of the workforce may rely on public transport, and that many visitors are likely to arrive for day trips rather than overnight breaks. The working group’s task is to turn that broad opportunity into something Biggleswade can actually deliver, whether that is through bus links, visitor services or other town-centre ideas that could keep more spending local.
What happens next
The committee has now agreed to establish the working group and to invite a company representative to a future meeting once BTC has set out its objectives. For now, the final wish list has not been published, and the next stage will be deciding which ideas are realistic for the town itself and which would depend on Central Bedfordshire Council or other partners.
