Latest news with #Dunstable
BBC News
3 hours ago
- Automotive
- BBC News
M1 closed northbound due to serious collision in Bedfordshire
A section of the M1 northbound has been closed following a serious collision. National Highways said the motorway, between junction 11A for Dunstable and junction 13 for Milton Keynes, was shut at about 14:00 BST on Tuesday. It said all emergency services were at the scene, including the East Anglian Air Ambulance. The southbound section was closed but has now reopened and there are about 45 minutes of delays in the area, it added. Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE How Labour is 'taxing the high street into bankruptcy': Family-run pubs, bakeries and shops are hit with sneaky 200% hikes in business rates
Labour was today accused of 'taxing the high street into bankruptcy' through their punishing 'stealth' levy on small firms. Since Rachel Reeves quietly reduced much–needed reliefs last autumn, family–run pubs, bakeries and restaurants have been battered a rise in business rates. Startling figures recorded by one council reveal an independent pub was stung by a 226 per cent hike in fees, costing them almost £17,000 for one year. Meanwhile, supermarkets escaped with rises of as little as one per cent in business rates, which are similar to council tax for non–domestic properties. Although MailOnline has only obtained business rate rises for Central Bedfordshire Council (CBC) – an area that covers Leighton Buzzard, Dunstable and Biggleswade, experts warn the situation will be mirrored up and down the country. Cllr John Baker, who controls the pursestrings at CBC, said: 'The government seems totally incapable of controlling public spending, clobbering business to fund its profligate behaviour. 'If the Chancellor is serious about improving the poor economic climate, reversing those outrageous hikes in business rates and allowing businesses to hire more people would be a sensible first step.' Department stores and supermarkets are also in the firing line in the Chancellor's next Budget. In hope of clawing back billions, Ms Reeves is expected to increase business rates for bigger firms – despite warnings it will only accelerate the decline of the high street and lead to price rises. In last autumn's budget, Ms Reeves boasted that she was extending business rates reliefs for retail, hospitality, and leisure. But she actually reduced the Covid-era discount from 75 to 40 per cent – capped at £110,000 across an entire business. Smaller businesses are typically the biggest beneficiaries because they have fewer locations to spread this discount across. During the same budget, branded a 'disaster' by critics, Ms Reeves hiked employer National Insurance contributions and cut the threshold at which firms become liable to pay them. The minimum wage also rose to £12.21 an hour. The Federation of Small Businesses warned the triple whammy posed 'an existential threat to the future of the high street'. Paul Wilson, the FSB's policy chief, told MailOnline the 40 per cent relief was 'scant consolation for a squeezed business owners trying to find thousands of pounds'. He said businesses couldn't fight back by hiking their own prices because customers 'can only afford so much'. Job cuts and shorter opening hours – caused by businesses trying to claw back cash – risked handing bigger players an even greater advantage, Mr Wilson claimed. He said: 'The feedback were are hearing is that businesses are having to take those difficult decisions to scale back. High street businesses are questioning whether they can genuinely afford to keep competing with online.' The FSB's latest survey showed a record 41 per cent of small businesses now believe the tax burden is a top three barrier to growth. In Bedfordshire, local pubs and restaurants have seen their rates more than double. Data provided by Cllr Baker shows this costs businesses as much as £25,000 a year – more than a minimum wage full–time workers' annual salary. Award–winning pub, the Black Lion, on Leighton Buzzard High Street, was hit with a 226 per cent rise (£16,900) in its rates, from around £7,400 to £24,300. By contrast, many big supermarkets such as Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's saw their rates raise by less than two per cent. Other firms have seen even bigger jump proportionally, including upmarket eatery Eileen's by Steve Barringer – a MasterChef: The Professionals finalist – where rates have shot up 260 per cent, from £300 to £1,080. What are business rates and who has to pay? Business rates are charged on most non-domestic properties, including shops, offices, pubs, warehouses, factories and holiday rental homes or guest houses. Rates are calculated by the Valuation Office Agency, part of HM Revenues and Customs, based on the cost of renting the business premises for a year, currently from April 2021. A rates 'multiplier' is then used to come to the final amount. This number has risen from about 34p in the pound in 1990 to 54.6p today for premises with a rateable value more than £51,000 or 49.9p for if it is less. Certain properties are exempt from business rates, for example farm buildings or places used for the welfare of disabled people. Other firms are entitled to discounts based on the nature and size of their business, for example, independent pubs and shops are likely to be eligible for at least one relief. Our analysis suggested that, on average, independent food and drink venues saw a 120 per cent rise in business rates, compared to an average of just one per cent for bigger firms. We have defined independent businesses as any which receives a relief designed to help what many would consider small or independent local firms. This is wider than just the businesses that get 'small business rates relief', which only applies to property with a rateable value of less than £15,000 and if the business has only one premise. Husband and wife Anthony and Anne Smith, who have owned and run two framing shops in Bedfordshire for the past 40 years, have been hit by a 150 per cent rise in their business rates. It will cost them more than £5,500 extra a year. Allframe, which employs half a dozen staff across the Leighton Buzzard and Dunstable sites, will likely have to raise their prices more than expected to cope, despite fears this could disrupt sales. Mr Smith told MailOnline: 'The problem you've got in any business when you get price increases is that you have to absorb the increase or put prices up. 'We've tried not to put our prices up as we're a luxury business. 'People need to go to to Tesco and Aldi to put food on the table... but don't need to get their pictures framed professionally.' The picture framer added that rates rises will 'ultimately go into it when we reevaluate prices'. Mr Smith added: 'Five thousands pounds is a lot to come off your bottom line in one fell swoop, when it's something you weren't expecting.' 'It will mean our prices go up more than we would have liked them to. It's going to impact on our profitability.' 'I think there's a general feeling that it's always small and medium businesses that that get hit,' Steve Watkins, cabinet member for business at Central Bedfordshire Council told MailOnline. 'These businesses have struggled since the pandemic and have not been able to get back to where they were before. 'The Government should target the big players in the market, rather than smaller businesses. Where's the huge tax increases on Starbucks and Amazon? 'If they want to regenerate town centres they are going about it the wrong way by making it harder for small businesses to survive.' He said the added costs are making it 'harder then ever' for small business owners, who are already facing skyrocketing rents, energy bills and wage bills, adding that they were at 'the end of their tether'. In Labour's manifesto, the PM pledged to replace business rates – which he said 'disincentivises investment, creates uncertainty and places an undue burden on our high streets' – with a new system. Business rates are calculated based on multiplying the 'rateable value' – an estimate of the annual rent in April 2021 prices – by a multiplier of 49.9p for the smallest of businesses, and 55.5p for all others. The Government announced last year it will permanently introduce a lower multiplier for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with a rateable value of less than £500,000. The multiplier value is yet to be announced. Cllr Watkins accused Sir Keir of 'not being upfront with people' over the reduction in the rates relief, saying the announcement was the 'politics of spin'. He said the rates were a 'stealth tax' on business and were not as 'generous' as the Government claims, adding they 'absolutely have the possibility of taxing high streets and small businesses into bankruptcy'. Cllr Watkins added that if the direction of travel continues, it was hard to see how local businesses will still be around in a few years time, leading to an 'increasingly soulless high street'. 'If this is the first step to reforming, I dread to see what the next steps will be, as these ones have gone down like a cup of cold sick,' he added. 'Technocratic governments are big on five to ten year plans, but these businesses need plans now. 'The proof will be in the pudding... but the fact that they've not been upfront so far suggests we need to dig beneath the surface before I start clapping my hands.' A Government spokesman told MailOnline: 'Our reform to the business rates system will create a fairer business rates system that protects the high street, supports investment, and levels the playing field. 'A new, permanently lower business rates in 2026 will benefit over 280,000 retail, hospitality and leisure business properties and will be sustainably funded by a new, higher rate on the 1% of most valuable business properties.'
The Independent
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Adorable moment baby Zebra plays with older brother at zoo
Watch the heart-warming moment that a pair of Zebra brothers play with each other at Whipsnade Zoo. Footage shared by the zoo on Monday (14 July) shows the unnamed two-month-year-old calf chasing his older brother Zinabi around a tree at the zoo near Dunstable. The baby, who was born in May, can also be seen feeding on the grass and lying out in the sun. The pair of zebras are part of the zoo's Grevy's zebra herd, which hail from grassland and shrubland of Ethiopia and Kenya. They are well adapted to the heat, so have had no problem coping with the UK 's recent stream of heatwaves.
The Sun
13-07-2025
- The Sun
I busted county lines gang that exports school kids like slaves…I've seen desperate kids leap from windows
AFTER bashing down the door to a drug den on the third floor of a tower block, police officers were surprised to see a window open and a burner phone on the ledge. One of the 17-year-old dealers using the gloomy property in Dunstable, Bedforshire had jumped 40ft in a bid to escape capture. 12 12 They were shocked to see the youngster survived the potentially fatal leap - but he didn't get away. The savvy officers were able to track him down and the mobile device led them to the kingpin behind an extensive county lines network. But a new episode of Channel 4's 24 Hours in Police Custody, titled Lost Boys, reveals the fear of gangs that is driving children to such extreme actions. Gary Hales, an investigating officer from Bedfordshire Police's Boson guns and gangs unit at the time of the arrests, tells The Sun: 'When you are going into a top floor flat you don't expect someone to be jumping out of the window. "It was amazing he didn't break his legs. 'There is fear. A way the gangs keep these children street dealing is to threaten them and show a bit of force. 'When you are on a lower rung, you have the elders threatening you, you are around the knives, you are around the violence that goes on.' In the show, which airs on Sunday at 9pm, we see some of the messages sent to a 15-year-old boy called Gavin, not his real name, who has been roped in by the ruthless criminals. There are threats to stab his mum, including 'wil shank up u mum'. Officers believe that Gavin has been told he has a drug debt and constantly has to work to pay it off otherwise they will face violent consequences. They will be told, 'Where is the rest of the money? You had more drugs.' In fact the teenagers haven't lost any drugs, they are just being told they have in order to keep them in debt. Adult mob members recruit school children because they are less likely to be sent to prison due to their age. Gavin's mum has called the police in a desperate state, because he keeps going missing, sometimes for 10 days at a time. The police suspect he is being sent around various 'trap houses', an American term for a drug den, in different English counties. 'Saturated' Luton has become so 'saturated' with drug lines that dealers send children far afield. Gary says: 'In terms of drug lines there are over 100 listed that are Bedfordshire based. "But then you have county lines going to places like Essex and London trying to muscle in. 'Luton is exporting drug deal lines to places where they are not known to police. We have rescued children from Swindon. 'Drug lines in Luton are saturated, they are known to police.' Access to Gavin's phone leads the detectives to the flat in Dunstable which is part of a network selling class A drugs including crack cocaine. Inside the flat is a 14-year-old boy, who has also been recruited by the county lines gangs. The flat is rented by a 23-year-old former heroin addict who says he allows the dealers to use his property because he doesn't want 'to get my head kicked in'. He warns: 'Drugs get you involved with stupid people.' Criminal control 12 12 12 The pay as you go burner phone found on the window ledge has been topped up in various shops. By studying the CCTV of those businesses, the police are able to identify an adult higher up in the operation. When they arrest Jamal Andall in 2020 they find more burner phones and SIM cards in his home, plus crack rocks in his Ford Focus car. After being questioned, Andall is told he has been given bail and can go home. But the gangster says: 'I'm not walking home. It's not safe around here. I've been shot. I've been stabbed.' Remarkably, the police accede to his request and agree to drive him home. It's not safe around here. I've been shot. I've been stabbed Jamal Andall Andall and his fellow drug dealer Alex Anderson, both 30, became the first members of a county lines gang to be convicted of modern slavery offences by Bedfordshire Police. In February last year Andall was jailed for seven years for being concerned in the supply of heroin, with Anderson receiving six years and four months for the same offence. They were also sentenced to six years for exploitation and three years for being concerned in the supply of cocaine, but those will be served concurrently. The court heard that the two men trafficked a 15-year-old boy from Bedfordshire to Lowestoft in Suffolk, where officers found the boy with £3,000 worth of crack cocaine. Saving the 'lost boys' 12 12 12 Gary, though, says that 'there is always someone higher up', and that dealers keep finding new recruits. He says: 'They go to schools and care homes to slip them some cannabis and form a relationship with them. 'They might give you a top up for your phone, you'll think it's free, but nothing is free, there is going to be a pay day for that. 'They pull them into what is an organised crime group." The key to disrupting their business model is to stop children getting so entangled they don't think they can escape. A parent will notice a change in their child, whether they have got new clothes they can't afford or they are missing school Gary Hales He says: 'As a police force we are about protecting the community, and that means safeguarding these youngsters who have become dissociated and get pushed into these paths.' Bedfordshire police launched a Lost Boys campaign to inform parents, teachers and pupils about the warning signs. Gary says: 'Generally, a parent will notice a change in their child, whether they have got new clothes they can't afford or they are missing school.' If they can't be pulled back from the drugs underworld, the consequences can be fatal. As Gary points out: 'Many of the murders we see in towns like Luton are drug-related.' The lad who jumped out of the window was lucky - he might not be so fortunate next time. 24 Hours in Police Custody: Lost Boys, stream or watch live on Channel 4 from July 13 at 9pm. 12 12 12
BBC News
11-07-2025
- BBC News
Dog sniffs out illegal vapes and cigarettes in cars in Dunstable
A sniffer dog has found hundreds of illegal vapes, cigarettes and pouches of tobacco stashed in a followed a raid by Bedfordshire Police, HMRC and Luton Borough Council trading standards on a shop in Dunstable on a nearby supermarket car park, 109 illegal vapes, 401 packets of illicit cigarettes and 57 pouches of counterfeit tobacco were found in a blue Ford Fiesta thanks to a tobacco dog from Wagtails UK.A follow-up search of a silver Ford Fiesta at the rear of the raided shop uncovered 191 illegal vapes. HMRC officers seized all the items and the vehicle in the car park, police said. Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
