4.2.1. Beck Row is a village with a population of approximately 5,902 (2019 mid-year estimate for Beck Row, Holywell Row and Kenny Hill). It is located in the north-western part of the district, around five kilometres from Mildenhall and 18 kilometres from Brandon. RAF Mildenhall is immediately to the south of the village. The settlement has a range of facilities including a primary school, a pre-school and nursery school, a convenience store and leisure facilities.

Constraints and opportunities

• Aspal Close County Wildlife Site (CWS), the majority of which is also identified as a local nature reserve (LNR), is located in the centre of the settlement.
• There is at least an hourly bus service from 9am (at the latest) to 5pm (at the earliest).
• There are aircraft noise constraints to the north and south of the settlement as a consequence of aircraft landing and taking off from both RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) airbase is located adjacent to Beck Row.
• The United States Air Forces in Europe is located on the edge of West Mildenhall positioned between Mildenhall, Beck Row and West Row.
• The A1101 forms a physical boundary to the south and confines any further development in this Airbase safeguard zones exist to the south and the west of Beck Row.
• To the west of the settlement there are areas of land within flood zones 2 and 3. There can be localised surface water flooding in periods of high rainfall.
• There is a high potential for encountering heritage assets of archaeological interest in and around Beck Row.
• Growth in Beck Row needs to be considered in conjunction with growth in Mildenhall as their infrastructure is closely related.
• Coalescence should be avoided with the settlement of Holywell Row which lies to the east of Beck Row.

Preferred allocations

4.2.2. Two sites are proposed as preferred sites for residential development in Beck Row providing an indicative capacity of 160 dwellings. The level of development proposed is influenced by the overall housing requirement and the settlement strategy. This determines the distribution of development across the district as well as the existing environmental and physical constraints and the overall capacity for growth in the settlement. Further information on how housing numbers have been derived can be seen in part one of the local plan.

4.2.3. Further information on alternative site options considered but not taken forward can be seen in the table of omission sites in appendix B.

4.2.4. An existing established employment area has been identified for Beck Row. Further details can be seen in chapter 7 employment. The site is identified on the policies map.

4.2.5. Information on infrastructure can be seen in the draft infrastructure delivery plan (IDP) (2022) which sets out baseline data for each settlement.

Beck Row settlement constraints map

Beck Row preferred allocations map