Weekly news from Bedford, UK

BoS leads with the report that thousands of homeowners are about to discover their houses are unsaleable.

This is the result of new maps drawn up by the Environment Agency depicting areas at risk of flooding.

These houses are now almost impossible to insure.

Carmela Lattarulo lives with her husband Silvio in Brook Drive, Kempston. In the 19 years they have been there it has never once flooded.

With their grown up children having left home, they decided to sell their £210,000 home and move into a bungalow in Bedford.

They had no problem selling the house, to a teacher, but when he tried to get a mortgage he was turned down. He was unable to get buildings insurance due to the house being designated at risk of flooding.

There are plans to build 2,700 houses around the new Bedford bypass between Bromham and Kempston but the Environment Agency has no objection to this development.

Carmela Lattarulo, 52, said: "It seems we are stuck here and cannot sell our house. We have never flooded. I have tried phoning insurers myself and every one has turned me down because of the new maps. We had been planning this move and so looking forward to it.

“I am heartbroken. All we have left is a huge solicitor's bill.”

An Environment Agency spokesman said: “The maps have been sent to insurance companies but they are meant to be a first step. I am surprised if this information is being used in this way. There should not be a blanket refusal to houses in the blue area.”

A spokesman for the Association of British Insurers said: “There are three bands with flood risk: low, moderate and significant.

“Significant is where flooding is likely more than once every 75 years. If there are not flood defences or the like, such properties may not get insurance.

“The technology has improved so such factors are easier to weigh up these days. All is not lost as the British Insurance Brokers Association has a list of specialist insureres who may be able to help.”

Kenny Pruden, manager of Gatehouse Estates, who acted for the Lattarulos, said: “The buyers were gutted. No company would insure them. I have never come across this before. I am totally at a loss. They just type in the postcode and say no.”

Conservative councillor for Kempston, Nicky Attenborough, said: “When I argued against the high development on land west of Kempston and the bridge that will be built in the Water Meadows, I was told that my concern was unfounded and there was no risk of flooding affecting Kempston.

“It would seem that the major insurance companies disagree, as a Kempston resident this week has found out. What use is a house that you cannot insure against flood damage?

“Someone should have to answer for this grave error before it is made worse by yet more house-building in a vulnerable area.”

Inflicting life-threatening injuries on another man has earned a 23-year-old an indefinite jail term.

Kirk Foster, of Greycote, Shortstown, was given a newly-introduced sentence for offenders considered a danger to the public.

Although Foster has no previous convictions for violence, he admitted to a probation officer that he had 'flipped' on previous occasions and lashed out.

Recorder Barry Kogan told him: "I believe you are a considerable risk to the public particularly when disinhibited by drink."

The indeterminate sentence means it will be up to the parole board to decide when it is safe for Foster, who admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent, to be released on licence. The earliest he can apply for parole is in two years four months.

David Stanton, prosecuting at Luton Crown Court, said that on June 18 this year, Foster and Clive Williams, 42, were at the same party at a social club in Shortstown and were drinking heavily.

He said as Mr Williams began walking home Foster launched a sudden and unprovoked attack on him. One punch floored him and he began kicking him on the ground.

People tried to pull him off and Mr Williams managed to get up and head towards his home.

"But once again Foster punched him from behind knocking him to the ground, and then stamped on his chest," said Mr Stanton.

The prosecutor added that Foster then bragged to a girl: "I kicked him in the head a couple of times, mashed his face up and stamped on his chest."

The victim had serious head injuries, a collapsed lung and broken bones and was put on a life-support machine.

Sally Meek, defending, said the attack may have been provoked by Mr Williams 'slagging off' Foster's family and challenging a 14-year-old boy to a fight.

"But he accepts there was no justification for what he did and has always accepted responsibility.

"He recognises he has some problems that need treatment and has been seeking help for anger management and alcohol control in prison.

The county council has spent nearly £2 million with a web site provider whose parent company is now in financial difficulties.

So far no new web site has been forthcoming although the council says it is confident the company will see the contract through.

Hyperwave is an Austrian company that specialises in software packages for websites.

Bedfordshire County Council has bought into a package from the firm which allows all local government authorities to be on the same website address, and makes access easier for browsers.

The viewer looks through a 'portal', which offers a variety of sites, including Bedfordshire.

There have been technical difficulties with the provision of the site.

Now the parent company, Hyperwave AG, has filed for preliminary insolvency.

The company is keen to point out that Hyperwave Ltd(UK) is continuing to operate as normal.

County Cllr Paul Walley, cabinet member with responsibility for communications, commented: "Senior officers in the council have met with the managing director of Hyperwave Ltd UK who has confirmed that it continues to trade and operate as normal.

"The council and its partners will continue to closely monitor the situation, but currently plans to continue using the Hyperwave software to help deliver improvements to services for Bedfordshire's citizens."

At the time of going to press no-one from Hyperwave Ltd (UK) had responded to our calls.

Bedford's famed River Festival will take place two weeks later than normal next year, so it doesn't clash with the football World Cup.

The event, which takes place every two years, when up to 200,000 visitors descend on the county for three days of water-based antics and on land entertainment.

It is usually organised for the first weekend in July but in 2006 will take place over the weekend of July 15 and 16 as the World Cup quarter finals are expected to take place on June 30 and July 1 and the final will be played on July 9.

The move means the town's police will be available to deal with any football related incidents without the added burden of the River Festival.

A borough council spokesman said: "This decision was actually taken after the last River Festival in August 2004 so it's not a recent thing. We foresaw the difficulty back then and planned ahead for it."

A shoplifter has been jailed, given a two-year ASBO banning him from every shop in Bedford town centre and had his bicycle destroyed.

Joseph Murray, 26, of Abbots Crescent in Kempston, appeared at Bedford Magistrates Court and admitted to stealing £150 worth of children's computer games from Woolworth's in Midland Road last Saturday.

The bench sentenced him to a total of six months in prison for the theft plus breach of a previous conditional discharge and breach of a previous community service order.

They also ordered destruction of his bicycle, which was used while committing the offence.

Sergeant Peter Byrne, from the Bedford Town Centre Unit said the court's decision to issue an ASBO hopefully sent a very clear message to other people intent on stealing from shops in the town.

"Mr Murray will not only have to serve six months in prison but, on his release, be prevented from entering any shops within the town centre, which will hopefully stop him from re-offending permanently," said the officer.

SIR - I would urge Mayor Frank Branston to push ahead with the proposed planning application for additional warehousing at Cardington.

The regeneration of the area plus the creation of hundreds of jobs must be the way to go.

As a long time member of the group, Friends of Cardington Air Station (FOCAS), we needed £1million to repair Hangar One 15 years ago. To now read that £4 million is on offer to fix the home of the R101 is great news. To my eyes it is winners all round.

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SIR - How many times do we have to read and suffer the preposterous proposal of Frontier Estates and their application to build a monstrosity next to these grand old buildings and the land they stand so proudly in?

How many times must they be reminded that these Hangars are our local and indeed national heritage?

How many times must we defend the delicate balance Cardington Hangars will play in our towns future years?'

It is fortunate that we have Mayor Frank Branston with the foresight to see that there is a far greater potential than this Canadian company is trying to sell us.

Our town is in the process of great changes in the coming years with Nirah and other projects. Cardington Hangars will play a strong role in these plans for our town with the correct guidance and vision. It's up to us as the town's citizens and representatives to collectively show our pride and voice our opinions before we are bullied into something we will surely regret in the future.

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SIR - Steve Lowe's article about religious faith being responsible for all manner of serious ills in society is wholly inaccurate.

Any credible journalist would have found extracts contradicting his examples from Faithworks News on www.faithworks.info via Google

For those who are more inspired by acts of selflessness than Mr Lowe's rantings, please contact your local faith-based group or NBCVS on 01234 354366 to find out about a host of projects, faith-based and otherwise, who urgently need your help

Faithful service of others is a life-changing endeavour.

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• SIR - The research Mr Lowe refers to does not prove anything.

A majority of people in the US may purport to believe in God but that does not mean they live their lives accordingly.

The fact is that all through history, civilisations that lost their moral compass disappeared soon afterwards (Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome, for example). Compare those to the Red Indians, who traditionally observed strict codes of practice in matters of sexual morality - and are still around at the present day.

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• SIR - I enjoy reading every Sunday Mr Lowe's reflection on the world and trying to understand his angle on the issues of the day.

I would like to respond in a Christian viewpoint.

Mr Lowe refers to research suggesting a correlation between religious belief and the incidence of high murder rates, abortion and suicide.

On this issue, I would like to explain that the people I meet who have lived through someone being murdered, someone that they love committing suicide or seeing the person after experiencing an abortion, or coming to see me unsure whether to have an abortion or not - are rarely coming to see me because of their religious beliefs, and their actions are rarely because of a religious faith.

Mr Lowe states that we in this country are a Godless bunch. This is another area where he is inaccurate, or biased against religions, and I would be sad if that affected the readers' viewpoint.

According to the recent census 70 per cent of the British population stated that they believed in God. I don't regard that as a Godless bunch!

The statement that 'there is little more evidence that believing in God improves society than a creator exists at all'. It needs reminding that the whole structure of our British society originates from a Christian Foundation, and our Monarch, legal and moral law, festivals and weekly structures are from this foundation.

The Bishops of this land were the first members of the House of Lords and are still there today in guiding the foundations of society.

I find it offensive to read about areas which he obviously knows little about, especially in this age of religious respect and tolerance.

Attacking faith today in my mind is arrogant naivety, whereas it was once the Christian faith that was beyond criticism, now it is atheism itself.

Atheism was once a stimulating and vigorous challenge to lazy Christian presumptions about the world.

It is now the atheist whose intellectual arteries have begun to clog up through lack of exercise. They could learn a lot from our England football heroes!

The Rev Jeremy Crocker

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SIR - I was delighted to read that things are starting to move forward on our museum and the wonderful Cecil Higgins Art Gallery.

For me it has been one of my sources of 'Pride in Bedford' for a long time.

For the gallery to be listed in the 'Top Twenty' in Mark Fisher's 'Britain's Best Museums and Galleries' - only the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge is higher in the East of England - does Bedford great credit.

I eagerly look forward to the day when all the plans become reality and my 'Pride in Bedford' all the greater!

As readers will see, this is a hastily put together version, because Jill and I have only just returned this afternoon from a week in sunny Malta! Sorry for the brevity of this newsletter!

May I wish you a restful week ahead

Robert

Week ending 22 October 2005