County Council backs Lib Dem Motion on ID Cards

4.58.27pm GMT Fri 11th May 2007

Bedfordshire County Council has backed a Lib Dem motion ensuring that wasteful, bureaucratic and ineffective ID Cards will not be forced upon residents by the Council unless it is required to do so by law

This week at a meeting of Bedfordshire County Council the Council voted to back Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Councillor Susan Gaszczak's motion to have nothing to do with ID Cards unless required to do so by law.

Councillor Susan Gaszczak said after the meeting 'I am extremely pleased that the council has backed my motion to protect Bedfordshire residents' data and is standing firm against ID cards. ID cards are not just simple bits of plastic to tell people who you are but are a total invasion of privacy. They fundamentally alter our relationship with government from being the servant of the people to them being able to track our every move.'

The backing of the council comes on the day the government announced the latest spending on the scheme had increased by another £400m to £5.3billion. Councillor Gaszczak in summing up commented that 'This money could be better off being spent on more policing.'