Today, at their annual conference, the Liberal Democrats called for an extra 10,000 police officers on the streets, to be paid for by scrapping the ID card scheme, and for the use of neighbourhood policing, and an end to centralised targets that distort local police priorities.
The latest example of financial waste by Tory-run Bedfordshire County Council has left local taxpayers with a bill for over £100,000 and thousands of residents waiting for recycling bins they were due to receive nearly six months ago.
Bedford Borough Council has not pursued a single case of a breach of restrictive covenants in over twelve months, with residents left to launch their own costly private legal action if they wish to see a breach of covenant enforced. Liberal Democrats believe that the news will come as a shock to many residents, due to a common perception that people are protected by restrictive covenants, for example on the use of a house as a commercial premises or for storing large commercial vehicles.
Henry Vann has endorsed a report by the National Union of Students (NUS) launched on 3rd September criticising the rising costs of University for students.
Bedford Borough Council has performed a dramatic U-turn over its plans for a 270-home housing development on the site of Mowsbury Golf Course. The proposals have been withdrawn just two weeks after being submitted as part of the process of allocating sites for development in the Borough between now and 2021. Local Liberal Democrats have welcomed the news after fighting a vigorous campaign against the plans. With Council plans for unnecessary and damaging developments at various other key sites still in place, the Lib Dems have vowed to fight on to prevent harmful overdevelopment in Bedford Borough.
The council's plans to turn Mowsbury Golf Course into a 270-home housing estate are surrounded by a fog of confusion as conflicting messages emerge from the Town Hall. Liberal Democrat opposition to the plans was met with a response by the Council in the pages of the Bedfordshire on Sunday which stated that the Golf Course site was included in error amongst 21 sites proposed by the council for development. However, Putnoe Ward Councillors have received a letter from the Council which contradicts this message directly, and Liberal Democrats are demanding that the Council comes clean over its intentions for the site.