BikeRegister Scheme recovers Bedford Borough stolen bike…from Leicestershire!

Bedford Borough Council have been working in partnership with BikeRegister in order to reduce bicycle thefts and help to return stolen bikes to their owners.

Over the past year, the Council have been helping residents get their bikes marked and added to the BikeRegister website, a national register that the police can use to return recovered bikes to their rightful owners.

A Bedford Borough resident has recently seen the huge difference this scheme can make in the unfortunate event that a bicycle is stolen.

After they reported the theft of their bike, someone noticed a post on a social media marketplace about the stolen bicycle, which was showing as being in Leicestershire. This was reported to the relevant Police authority, who conducted an investigation that resulted in a suspect being arrested. Thanks to BikeRegister, the Police were able to return the stolen bicycle to the rightful owner.

Dave Hodgson, Elected Mayor of Bedford Borough, said: "BikeRegister is an excellent scheme and is already providing benefits to residents who have registered their bicycles. This is a spectacular story and I would urge anyone who owns a bicycle to register it through the scheme as soon as possible."

The Council's Sustainable Transport team are taking part in Great Big Green Week Bedford. They will be helping residents to mark and repair their bikes as well as holding Nordic Walking Tasters on two different days:

• Wednesday 28th September, 10am to 3pm at Harpur Street Cycle Unit.
• Friday 30th September, 10am to 3pm at Priory Country Park.

You can add your bike to BikeRegister for free by going online to www.bikeregister.com