Happy New Year

At this time, there is not much to say apart from Happy New Year.

District Disappointment

Yesterday at the South Beds District Council "Executive" committee meeting over 1,000 years of Leighton Buzzard history was destroyed over money in my opinion.

The running of the town market has been given to Wendy Fair Ltd and not the town council. Not to us under devolution of power, not to us as a result of our bid. Instead they sold our market for a very large sum of money and I am sure they will now spend the money in such a way as to ensure the public think they are spending our council tax wisely.

I feel let down by this decision. While I respect the issues our District Councillors face, and also that they have to make decisions based on the facts presented to them, I do feel the Town would have been better served if the markets remained in Council control of one form or another.

This market means a lot to those in the town and the decision taken by the Executive was against ALL members of the town council who voted for us to submit a bid. If they had devolved power sooner, the market would have been ours to decide on the future but it seems that SBDC just want to sell off all the assets they have but then why do we need a district council? What do they do apart from give out contracts to private operators?

They don't run the markets, they don't run the parking, they don't run the refuse collection. So come on South Beds, what do you do? Why do we have you? Why are people in my ward still paying hundreds of pounds a year to you in council tax?

I should point out that Leighton's Brian Spurr was the one councillor that voted in favour of us.

Cllr Norman Costin in Wingfield (Home Telephone: 01525 874 232), Cllr Philip Penman in Pepperstock (Home Telephone: 01582 455 185) and Cllr Tom Nicols in Toddington (Home Telephone: 01525 873 767) all voted for outsourcing control to Wendy Fair and I wonder if they fully understood the feeling of those living in the town and those that use the market on a regular basis.

This is quite possibly the worst decision the District Council has ever made. I am not against private companies, I have one myself but this is a local service that can be looked after very well by the Town Council and the decision is against the wishes of almost all traders, the majority of customers (1,000 of them signed a petition in support of the Town Council running the market), the Town Councillors and so many other people.

Even though, as Councillor Julian Murray pointed out, Wendy Fair Limited has a number of CCJs against them for some very large sums of money SBDC assures us they are the best entity to take over the markets.

Rest assured, we have to move on with the situation we have and I will be doing my best to ensure traders and customers remain happy with our market.

Alley Gating

Calling this post "alligating" would have been a snappier title...

Leighton Buzzard could see the first "Gating Order" in Bedfordshire under powers given to the Disctrict Council under The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 (View the act).

I, together with District officers and Councillors have been working on this as a solution to the problems of annonymous residents reported in the papers a while ago. There are always two sides of course and any gating order will affect respectful residents but having spent time in the neighbouring houses this particular alley is home to some terrible anti social behaviour and crime.

Having met on a number of occiasions now and hearing the arguments for and against the gating, I am hoping the details of a proposed order will be published soon.

If you have suffered from anti social behaviour please let us know as this new act gives a lot more powers for us to act.

Our car park is safe

Our West Street multi-storey car park has been awarded the Safer Parking Scheme Park Mark. The award is presented to parking areas that have successfully put measures in place to prevent crime and reduce the fear of crime on their site.

An assessor from the British Parking Association, Graham Wright, found that there had been no reported crime at all in the car park on West Street in the last year. His report highlighted that it is clean and well designed; has plenty of CCTV coverage and lighting and has high profile patrols and help points for customers. They were also satisfied that the car park is secure overnight and has well controlled and monitored entry and exit points.

Executive Member with responsibility for car parks at South Bedfordshire District Council, Councillor David McVicar, said: “The West Street multi-storey car park is an excellent facility. Receiving the Safer Parking Mark is testament to the hard work and detailed planning that went into ensuring the site is secure so that people feel safe leaving their car there.

“Thanks to our service partners, cleaners Mitie and parking attendants Vinci Park, who help us to maintain such a high quality facility.”

The Safer Parking scheme is managed by the British Parking Association on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPOs).

(The photo is of PC Matt Smees, Councillor Pat Hamill (SBDC Chairman), Development Manager at the British Parking Association, Graham Wright and Vinci Parking Attendant, Garry Stanley)