Abandoned Cars

Bedford Borough Liberal Democrats are continuing their fight to get abandoned cars off the borough's streets.

"This is a problem that has been plaguing Bedford for some time." Said Liberal Democrat Leader Michael Headley. "In July last year we brought in a new policy to speed up the removal of these dangerous eyesores. The scheme has helped but the scale of the problem has grown enormously. The average time for removal is still 14 days and that isn't anything like good enough. The Liberal Democrats are not prepared to accept that for the Borough!"

"Yesterday we got the Council to agree to spend £12,500 a year on a new job to smash through the paperwork backlog that is delaying the cleaning up of our streets." Said deputy leader Dan Rogerson. "I was shocked when Labour members spoke against spending this money. I think this idea offers great value, considering the potential benefits for us all. I brought the subject of dumped cars back to the top of the Borough Councils agenda because of local concerns and because we did not want the council to be allowed to forget about it just because Liberal Democrats are not in charge any more."

Local Ward Councillor for Goldington Tony Ruffin said, "The problem of abandoned cars around the Milburn Road area is similar to problems in other parts of the borough. A resident contacted me about the cars dumped on the BPHA land on the 26th of January. I passed the information onto the Police and BPHA the same day. The Borough Council is swimming against the tide of abandoned cars, powered only by the Liberal Democrat force of will. I hope that this latest measure will start to bring down the removal time again. We will not let this drop. We are determined to reduce this problem."