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Parish and ward information Parish: Houghton Regis (Houghton Hall Ward) Ward: Houghton Regis West Number of councillors 5 Electorate as of 1 May 2025 7,487 Forecast electorate for 2030 7,968 Current ratio of electors to councillors 1,497 Forecast ratio of electors to councillors 1,594 Variance from average across the council 350% Parish and ward information Parish: Houghton Regis (Parkside Ward) Ward: Houghton Regis East Number of councillors 4 Electorate as of 1 May 2025 4,072 Forecast electorate for 2030 5,218 Current ratio of electors to councillors 1,018 Forecast ratio of electors to councillors 1,305 Variance from average across the council 269% Parish and ward information Parish: Houghton Regis (Tithe Farm Ward) Ward: Houghton Regis East Number of councillors 5 Electorate as of 1 May 2025 4,885 Forecast electorate for 2030 6,218 Current ratio of electors to councillors 977 Forecast ratio of electors to councillors 1,244 Variance from average across the council 251% Houghton Regis parish has a town council. It is warded and has 14 seats on the council. The forecast planned development to March 2030 is estimated at a further 1,741 dwellings which will generate approximately an additional 2,960 residents over the next 5 years.
The parish boundary adjoins the neighbouring parishes of Chalgrave, Chalton, Dunstable and Totternhoe. The parish is coterminous within the district wards of Houghton Regis East and Houghton Regis West.
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Seats and candidates
Year Number of candidates Number of seats in Houghton Hall Ward 5 2023 8 2019 13 2015 12 2011 10 Year Number of candidates Number of seats in Parkside Ward 4 2023 11 2019 5 2015 7 2011 8 Year Number of candidates Number of seats in Tithe Farm Ward 5 2023 15 2019 6 2015 11 2011 8 As can be seen from the tables there have been contested elections across all the wards since the creation of Central Bedfordshire.
Statutory changes since the 2017/18 review
The Central Bedfordshire (Electoral Changes) Order 2021 amended the number of councillors for the parish of Houghton Regis (Houghton Hall Ward from 6 to 5 and Tithe Farm from 4 to 5).
Parish council initial proposal for consideration for the 2025 review
At the HRTC town council meeting held on 14 May 2025 its formal response to CBC on this initial CGR consultation, reflecting on the deliberations of the nominated councillors and the discussion held with Chalton parish council. The following resolution was agreed:
Alteration – Houghton Regis Town Council (HRTC) wishes to suggest that that part of Chalton Parish Council’s land bounded by the Houghton Regis parish boundary, the Luton Borough Council boundary, the M1 motorway and the A5-M1 link road (Dunstable Northern Bypass) be transferred into the parish of Houghton Regis.
Number of councillors – to ensure adequate demographic representation given the population growth of Houghton Regis it is requested that the number of Houghton Regis parish councillors be increased to 16 (from 14).
Parish warding – given the recent growth of Houghton Regis, a fourth ward to cover the growth area of Bidwell would support suitable demographic representation. This new ward should be named Thorn Ward as it is reflective of the historic name for this area. The suggested ward boundary would be from Bedford Road following the line of the public right of way to Blue Waters.
At this time HRTC are unable to comment on how 16 councillors should be split across the four wards (as proposed) as CBC have not released population or electorate data in support of the CGR process. HRTC request that HRTC councillors be split across the proposed four wards as evenly as possible such that each councillor represents the same number of electorate.