Latest news with #CentralBedfordshire
BBC News
6 days ago
- BBC News
Politicians want speed cameras on A6 Barton-le-Clay bypass
A councillor and a police and crime commissioner are calling for speed cameras to be installed on a road after police recorded one vehicle travelling at over 150mph (240km/h).Liz Childs, an Independent Alliance member of Central Bedfordshire Council, representing Barton-le-Clay, said cameras might help deter car meets from taking place on the village's A6 Tizard, Labour Police and Crime Commissioner for Bedfordshire, agreed, saying: "I think Central Bedfordshire Council could install cameras on the A6 as there is a danger to road users and there is a huge nuisance for local residents."The council has been asked for comment. Tizard added: "I am confident police are taking this seriously and will act appropriately, and I am sorry it has taken as long as it has done." Bedfordshire Police caught 182 drivers speeding on Saturday, including one travelling at 151mph (243km/h).Childs said car meets had been taking place on the A6 bypass for several months."It is disturbing residents and just needs stopping," she said the meets, which were taking place at weekends and bank holidays, were "really horrendous" and that residents had reported being "terrified by the noise"."The racing activity is highly illegal and clearly the speeding is way beyond illegal - it is dreadful," she said."The road needs cameras on it. That is the biggest thing that can happen to help, because then people will be fined." She said she had "bombarded" police with emails on the matter and had received a positive Alex House, of Bedfordshire Police, said: "After the last car meet-up, we issued a total of 66 Section 59 orders to the owner of every vehicle which attended. "This means that if they come to the area again and partake in the same activity, we can immediately seize their vehicle."He said installing speed cameras on the road would be a council decision. Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
The Guardian
11-04-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
Weatherwatch: How one council seems to skirt a key factor in UK winter floods
Even though sunshine records are being broken at the moment, the nightmares for those whose homes were affected by record rainfall earlier this year continue and seem unlikely to end. Local authorities have a statutory duty to review what happened when floods occur and properties are damaged. One such authority was Central Bedfordshire council (CBC), in the middle of the government's growth corridor between Oxford and Cambridge. Its recent report into Storm Henk, which caused widespread flooding in January, said the cause was heavy rain on saturated ground overwhelming drains, sewers and streams. There was, however, no reference to the thousands of houses, huge warehouses and estate roads that have been built at an unprecedented pace in the area even before the government's new growth plans materialise. Fields used to absorb and hold flood water, but now when it rains all these hard surfaces discharge runoff straight into old drains, water courses and sewers that are overwhelmed. Those who live downstream, whose homes were never previously flooded, find themselves in the firing line with every exceptional storm. Curiously the report by CBC, whose councillors permitted all this expansion with no apparent provision to protect downstream settlements from flooding, makes no mention of the issue.
