Hello! Weekly news from Bedford, England

Back on duty! In the meantime, for the sake of continuity, I've posted abbreviated news for the previous weeks. I hope this is helpful.

Some weeks ago I mentioned a poll that was being undertaken within Bedford, call BedfordBID. For further details, see http://www.bedfordtowncentre.co.uk/

This poll has now been completed, and a delighted Mo Aswat has concluded that over three quarters of all respondents responded positively to the initiative.

The concept is based on a hugely successful American model where businesses come together, agree improvements to their trading environment and fund it through a small levy on their business rates. The proposals go to a vote and if a majority are in favour in number & rateable value all business in the defined area pay. The money raised will be spent by an independent company
controlled by businesses.

After a month long ballot that ended on March 30 2005 77% of Bedford Town Centre business voted YES to have the BedfordBID. 81% were in favour in terms of rateable value.

Mo Aswat, Executive Director of the Bedford Town Centre Company which has promoted the BedfordBID said

“The BedfordBID has taken two years in the planning - from persuading the National Body that Bedford should be one of the 22 allowed to pilot the scheme, to winning the backing for it from businesses. Uniquely businesses chose to support it with a slightly higher levy to ensure they had the projects they wanted, and also without the large public sector subsidies or resources that other areas had available.

“Obviously businesses did not initially rush into paying a new levy - but once they had been to the meetings and heard the facts the mood was positive and the support was strong which led to a resounding Yes for the BedfordBID. We are now at the beginning of exciting times and need to make sure that we repay the trust the businesses have placed in us”

Frank Branston, a leading businessman and the elected Mayor of Bedford said

“I have supported this from the start as a businessman and as Mayor. Town Centre development is a top priority for me and with major investment in areas such as the Bus Station taking shape it is great to see businesses coming together and showing their confidence in the future”.

Patrick Hall, MP for Bedford & Kempston & Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Town Centre Management who were instrumental in getting the legislation passed added his support:

“ This is a splendid result – a vote of confidence in our town centre. Not only will we benefit from two additional Community Support Officers to make the streets safer, but this result heralds co-operation between local businesses which is essential if are are to meet the challenges of the future. I congratulate the Bedford Town Centre Company and all concerned”.

BoS leads with the visit by the Health Secretary Dr John Reid to Bedford Hospital.

Dr Reid swung into town to celebrate the success of Bedford Hospital, which has gone from zero stars to three stars in two years - but received a lukewarm reception from staff and patients.

In a question and answer session with staff Dr Reid said he is sick of people sniping at the NHS. Revealing that his 86-year-old mother died last year after contracting pneumonia in hospital, he told staff that sometimes people die and it cannot be avoided but it does not mean the NHS is doing a bad job.

Bedfordshire Police have named their first woman Chief Constable.

Gillian Parker was appointed on Friday by Police Authority chairman Adrian Heffernan. She is set to take over from current Chief Constable Paul Hancock on July 4.

Mrs Parker has been the Deputy Chief Constable in Suffolk since October 2000. In 2003 she was awarded the Queen's Police Medal for services to policing at both a local and national level. She joined Suffolk as Assistant Chief Constable in November 1998 after nearly 20 years with the Leicestershire force.

She studied at Loughborough University of Technology between 1973 and 1977, where she gained an honours degree in chemical engineering and a diploma in industrial studies. In July 1999, she gained a master's degree in applied criminology at Cambridge University.

Residents, BoS claims, have been left fuming over a burst water main that has been leaking for almost a month.

The pipe on Shakespeare Road, Bedford, was damaged on March 14 and water has continued to seep up through the tarmac causing problems for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians.

Kenneth Richards contacted Anglian Water when the problem occurred, but has heard nothing since. He said:

"Anglian Water told me that they were going to report the situation and look into it. Six months ago we had a similar problem and that took two months to be resolved.

When cars drive through the water, it splashes all over people walking by and some have had to run over my garden to stay out of the way. It's ridiculous."

A father has been jailed for cruelty to his baby daughter and failing to get her medical attention.

The little girl was almost six months old when she was taken to hospital after a fit and doctors discovered a brain haemorrhage and bruises on both cheeks which later turned out to be her father's teeth marks.

Exactly how the injuries were inflicted is unclear. Experts said the brain injury was consistent with non accidental shaking, but the father would only accept that he had roughly handled the child one night when he was angry with her mother.

The following day she suffered a fit, but he failed to get her medical help then because he was afraid what social services might do. But when she suffered another fit the following day, April 2 last year, he called an ambulance.

He explained the marks on her cheeks as coming from a game he played with her 'tickling her with his teeth' which made her giggle.

The 26-year-old Bedford man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to cruelty at Luton Crown Court on Thursday and was jailed for two years and three months.

Christopher Donnellan, prosecuting said both the girl's parents had been drug addicts and were on a methadone programme at the time. She had to be detoxified at birth and spent her first few months in hospital.

But the decision was made that her parents could look after her with supervision.

He said the baby was thriving well until the incident. She has since recovered well. The child is now in foster care and will be adopted.

The County Council's new head of communication has lasted just one day in her job.

Carol Lamb was fired on Thursday morning following revelations about intimate images of her and her husband that were discovered on a work computer at her previous job with Knowlsey Borough Council.

Mrs Lamb, who had been in her former role for just over a year, said:

"I am sorry if I caused any embarrassment to colleagues. The whole incident has been quite distressing for me because the photographs weren't intended for others.

They were intimate photographs of a personal nature which I wouldn't choose to share with anyone other than my husband."

Bedfordshire's former head of communications Mike Brown left the council recently and Mrs Lamb was hired through an agency to replace him.

Residents who have long been concerned about scruffy, untaxed vehicles littering their road were delighted this week when the DVLA took clamping action.

Bedford Borough Council has received repeated complaints about several vehicles including a lorry, a van, cars and a horse box left in laybys and at the road side in Norse Road, Bedford.

Earlier this week the DVLA paid an unannounced visit and clamped several vehicles.

They returned on Thursday and one car was taken to the pound but a lorry which had been clamped was released as it is full of rubbish and must be removed by the council. A DVLA spokesman said:

"One car was taken to the pound but a lorry was found to contain hazardous material and was deemed abandoned - so we have informed the council about it."

A borough council spokesman said:

"We are working with a number of agencies to try and resolve the problems at Norse Road and hope to remove the untaxed vehicles from the area shortly."

One near neighbour who asked not to be named said:

"We have made repeated complaints about this problem as it's not fair that the whole area should be taken over by these vehicles.

I am very glad to see that the DVLA has taken action and I just hope that the council follows up on this and gets rid of the rest of these vans and things."

Bedfordshire Police are being taken to the Police Complaints Commission for allegedly leaving a community to 'live in fear'.

Residents of Queen's Park, Bedford, are sick of intimidation and violence by a local drug dealer and convicted criminal. They have told Bedfordshire on Sunday that they have lost their faith in the police.

Following a gang attack last year that saw an entire family besieged in their home, two family members received hospital treatment for injuries.

A relative of the victims asked the police to apply for an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (Asbo) on the ringleader, whose name is known to BoS.

He was told that until the Crown Prosecution Service had reached a decision on whether or not to prosecute, no Asbo proceedings could begin.

The family member was informed in writing on March 2 that the CPS did not consider there was sufficient evidence to bring charges.

He then contacted the police to pursue the Asbo, only to be telephoned by an officer a fortnight later to be told that the CPS had not, in fact, reached a decision.

Since then he has heard nothing and says he is rapidly losing faith in the police and has reported the Bedfordshire force to the Police Complaints Authority.

Other Queen's Park residents have told of incidents involving the drug dealer including beatings, kinfe attacks, abductions and attempted abductions.

Victims are 'living in fear' according to one local homeowner.

Gang members allegedly use threats of violence to silence witnesses, including bursting into a local mosque during prayers and shouting threats to worshippers.

Muslims are not allowed to interrupt their prayers and the worshippers were therefore unable to stop the incident. One man told us:

"The situation has become a joke. We have told police to put a restraining order on the ringleader.

They know him but they just don't care. They brush it under the carpet."

Another resident said:

"I would like it if this man was not around. He is not a good person."

If police do nothing, it brings shame upon the witnesses, because they have been humiliated.

The general feeling in Queen's Park is that the police might have behaved differently if we were white."

A police spokesman said:

"We have undertaken a full investigation relating to this incident and forwarded the case file to the Crown Prosecution Service for a decision.

If anyone is unhappy with the service they receive from Bedfordshire Police they should contact a senior police officer at any police station and make a formal complaint.

Bedfordshire Police does not discriminate and treats everyone fairly and the same."

Would-be councillors of all parties are flocking to join badly-performing Bedfordshire County Council as local elections loom.

The UK Independence Party is fielding a candidate in Putnoe and the Green Party is running candidates in several seats including Queen's Park and Kempston.

The Better Bedford Independent Party is turning its attention from Bedford Borough Council and has seven candidates standing in Bedford divisions including Mayoress Marlies Branston.

The sudden rush for seats coincides with ten of the longest-serving councillors standing down.

These include Labour's Tony Mitchell and Cathy Moorhouse and Liberal Democrats Liz Ledster, Menzies Muir and Nick Hills.

Conservative council leader Angela Roberts and her husband Cllr Peter Roberts are also standing down after 20 years.

But the grand-daddy of them all is the outgoing Cllr Alan Burnage, who joined the county council at its creation in 1972.

When the borough council's in-house analysis showed a great improvement in staff performance, the Mayor wrote to all Town Hall staff thanking them for their excellent work.

Bedford and Kempston MP Patrick Hall read about the performance improvement in the council's newspaper and asked for his congratulations to be passed on as well, which Branston did in the form of a handwritten PS.

Tory leader Nicky Attenborough was enraged and sent a letter of complaint to chief executive Shaun Field saying North East Bedfordshire MP Alistair Burt would have added his congratulations if asked and requesting that Mr Field remind the Mayor that there are three constituencies.

She did not mention Mid Bedfordshire MP Jonathan Sayeed, presumably reckoning that his congratulations would not necessarily be appreciated.

Branston's response was a predictable raspberry.

"Patrick offered his congratulations - Alistair didn't. No doubt he would have if asked, but if Nicky thinks I'm going to run around soliciting compliments she's got another think coming."

And this only three days after the official announcement of the election. Children! Children!

A multi-million pound state-of-the-art crime recording system is being launched by Bedfordshire Police.

The new £3.5 million Crime Recording Unit, which has taken two and a half years to develop, will see a complete overhaul of the way crimes are recorded.

Instead of police officers writing up a report at the end of their shifts, they will phone the 24-hour unit and give the details of the crime immediately while still at the scene.

The details are then logged straight into a computer system, while victims are handed an information pack as well as crime reference number on the spot.

As of tomorrow, all victims will receive a new 'Victims of Crime' information pack, which leaves them a record of the reported crime.

The unit contains 27 staff, who have spent the last seven weeks training for tomorrow's launch.

Crime Recording Unit senior manager Andy Gilks said:

"The old system where officers write reports at the end of their shifts has been going since 1989, so we needed a new one.

There'll be less paper work, which means officers can spend more time out on the street and that in turn means more crimes can be solved.

It's such a big change for the force - 1,800 people will be using the system as of tomorrow, so it's a big project.

People want to see more officers on the street and this system will help do that.

But it is important for members of the public to know the changes in procedure only affect the police side - victims do not do anything differently when they report crimes."

A drug addict who has confessed to 234 car crimes across the county has been banned from every car park in England and Wales.

The man, aged, 25, of Westdale Walk, Kempston, targeted cars in pub car parks, roadside restaurants, sports centres, colleges and supermarkets, an earlier hearing at Luton Crown Court heard.

A number of his crimes were committed in the county.

He would attempt to steal valuable laptops or sets of golf clubs from the boot and detectives estimate his crimes netted property worth about £40,000 and caused thousands of pounds' worth of damage.

On Tuesday he appeared in court to be sentenced after pleading guilty to nine offences of theft or vehicle interference. He asked for 225 offences to be taken into consideration which were committed in a five-month period before his arrest.

Laura Davidson, prosecuting, said Chand, who was on licence from his last prison sentence, was arrested on January 21 this year.

He was remanded in custody and told police he wanted to own up to everything.

Of the offences he admitted to, 161 had been reported to police.

For the next 18 months he will be under a drug treatment and testing order but living in the community.

But Judge Richard Foster said as a safeguard to the public he was also making him subject to an Antisocial Behaviour Order, prohibiting him from entering any private or public car park in England and Wales for the next five years.

The only exception will be if a supermarket has no other access except directly from the car park.

Judge Foster told him:

"This is an appalling case in terms of the volume of thefts committed by you.

Some people may think I am being lenient in view of your history, but it is up to you to prove this opportunity is justified.

If you don't take this lifeline you will be back before me and receive a long prison sentence."

He had been assessed as suitable to undertake the drug treatment order, which involves regular testing for drugs and review hearings by the court.

SIR - Last week I wrote a letter which you printed about the poor condition of the roads in Bedfordshire.

I read the letter from Liz Goodyear from Sandy about nominating a road in Bedfordshire.

I think that it is a good idea, but where do you start because there are so many roads in such a bad state of repair?

I will nominate The Embankment. Why? Because it is supposed to be a feather in Bedford's cap.

The area has the river that could be used more, the gardens that are very nice to look at and to sit by and the lovely houses, and the cart track that runs alongside them.

I drove along the Embankment on Tuesday of this week and it really shakes the car even at 30mph or less.

So can you guys and gals at the council please get your act together.

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SIR - If anyone who damages their vehicle in pot holes thinks they have any chance of making a claim against Bedfordshire County Council; You'll be lucky!

Having had the misfortune to damage one car about five years ago in Oxfordshire and another last year in Bedfordshire due to the councils' failure to maintain our roads to a suitable standard, I thought I had the making of a claim.

More than £100 in the first case and £150 plus due to a written off wheel and tyre in the second.

On attempting to claim from Oxfordshire County Council I filled in a form with supporting repair costs.

I received a letter from Oxfordshire stating the council did not accept responsibility as it has a statutory duty to inspect the roads at set intervals, which had been done and, as nobody had reported the pothole in between the last inspection and my damage, the council could not be aware of it and was therefore not liable. I had to pay my own costs.

Fast forward to last year, when I tried to claim from Bedfordshire Council I received a near word for word refusal.

Now, whenever I see a large pothole, I immediately ring the highways department and report it, making sure I take a note of the reference number given.

I suggest we all do the same.

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Major drainage work has affected High Street, Great Barford in recent months and this has at times required road closures. The road is due to be resurfaced in May which will also require road closures. To minimise disruption the closures will take place during the school holidays.

Sue Brooks suggests taking nominations for the worst road surfaces. The county council carries out regular inspections of Bedfordshire's roads network. In addition we have two dedicated teams actively seeking out and fixing potholes. Each town and parish council is given prior notice of an inspection so they can report any potholes.

Your readers can help us too by reporting dangerous potholes on the Highways Helpline, 01234 228661 or via email at highways@bedscc.gov.uk

Martin Freeman
Network maintenance policy development manager
Bedfordshire County Council

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SIR - When I read the letter from June Newman in Wilstead this morning I just had to respond.

I find it hard to believe that even a smoker thinks they should still be allowed to smoke in a hospital of all places.

Cigarettes kill more people and are the cause of more disease than cannabis and yet it is cannabis that is banned and not cigarettes.

As the cause of so much of the burden on the NHS it is only right that it should be banned from medical institutions.

The fact that doctors who are fully aware of the risks of smoking still go ahead and do it totally disgusts me.

I'm sorry June, but it is you who are wearing the blinkers. You choose to poison yourself but the people around you are not given that same choice, it is forced upon them.

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SIR - On Friday evening, April 1, I was walking my dog on the field at Southfields by the fire station in Kempston when I had a bad fall, probably brought about by a Meniers attack.

Apparently two teenage boys who were playing basketball nearby came to my aid and went and informed the firemen and fetched my husband.

I would like to thank the boys for their quick action and also the fire and ambulance crews who helped me.

I was taken to A&E at Bedford Hospital and everyone there was also very kind and helpful.

When people retire, it's an opportunity for them to "do their own thing." One former colleague of mine, a historian, is studying all the grave stones he can find, and aims to develop a massive data-base.

Now Trevor Marriott, who has spent 10 years investigating the notorious Whitechapel killings, believes the Ripper may have murdered as many as nine women.

Mr Marriott, who used to work for Bedfordshire Police, is to present his findings during a lecture at the University of Wolverhampton next week.

The murders of five prostitutes in London in 1888 have never been solved.

But the killings have inspired scores of sleuths to try to work out the identity of the Victorian killer.

Mr Marriott said: "Having worked as a detective, I am fascinated by the idea of re-investigating and trying to solve a crime which has mystified the police and the British public for over a century."

The event takes place at the University's Millennium Lecture Theatre on 19 April.

"Make Poverty History" is currently making the news, and there was a large gathering in Bedford last week to exert pressure on (any) government to relive the third world of its enormous debts.

Amongst those who gave brief speeches were Councillor Kahn, The Bishop of Bedford, and Patrick Hall, MP.

Thanks to those who have written asking for more pictures of Bedford! One problem is that after a bit one begins to run out of ideas! I took some along the Embankment a few days ago, but looking at previous pictures I realized that they were almost identical. But I'll still go looking, time permitting.

These were taken at - well you know where!

And this is Bow Hill, in Putnoe

Finally, there is Twickenham fever in Bedford, as tomorrow an estimated 4,500 will be travelling there to see Bedford play Plymouth for the Powergen Shield.

Only a fortnight ago Bedford beat Plymouth, but the latter will want to exercise revenge!

Win or lose, it is going to be a great day. Fans abroad will be able to tune in to the commentary, as it is being streamed on the Internet. For further details see HERE.

Week ending 16 April 2005