Ridding the Borough of Useless Street Clutter!

Today I launched our campaign to rid Bedford Borough's streets of useless street clutter. Unnecessary road signs, railings and bollards that are cluttering our local streets are firmly in our sights. As you travel around the Borough, you see a number of road signs which serve no useful purpose. They clutter up the local environment and can even cause a hazard themselves due to their bulk and the obstruction they can cause for pedestrians. These signs are unwanted and unnecessary, as is some of the other 'street furniture' we have which it seems no-one ever asked for and nobody knows why it was installed in the first place! However, unless the Council makes a positive effort to work with residents and parish councils to identify these items and remove them, they can end up long outstaying their welcome and remain in their useless place for years. So we're making that positive effort.

If you know of any street clutter that is not serving a useful purpose, please do get in touch with the Council. I am making sure we have commitment to rid our Borough of these useless signs, such as those which let you know of a 'new road layout' or 'new roundabout' many, many years after they were installed.

Unnecessary street clutter makes it more difficult for pedestrians to negotiate our pavements and to cross the road, especially those with mobility issues, the elderly or those with young children. For their sakes it's time to make our pavements clearer and more spacious by removing redundant street furniture and illegal or unnecessary signs.

Of course, many signs currently in place were installed due to legal requirements to be met in order to make restrictions on the highway enforceable. However, we will review if these are still needed and where they aren't they will be removed.

Plus of course where possible we will merge functions, for example, moving a road sign to an existing lighting column rather than mounting it on an individual pole.

Where street clutter belongs to other organisations such as utility companies removing it may take longer. However, the council will contact them to get the process moving as quickly as possible. If useless street furniture is clogging up the pavement, residents rightly don't want excuses about who owns it. They simply want it removed.