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Bulletin COUNTY EDITION
2021 ESTATE AGENT IN BEDFORD
AUGUST 2022
COST OF LIVING CRISIS DRIVING UP PREEN FOOD BANK USAGE
BEDFORD RIVER FESTIVAL PHOTO SPECIAL
A COMMUNITY reuse centre in Biggleswade has seen demand for its foodbank services soar from around ten people a week pre-pandemic to 993 last month.
Kathy lewis, who runs Preen, warns it will get worse, predicting this figure will double at the start of the school holidays and potentially again at the end of the summer break in September.
Ms lewis would like new premises whether or not her lease is extended for the current site.
by Euan Duncan – Local Democracy Reporter
“We’ve been there for 15 years and we’re just getting steadily busier,” she told a town council meeting. “I would encourage you to be our champions if there’s any help you can give us with a new building. “When we moved into our site
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in Sun Street, it had been empty for 12 years. We’ve done the best we can with it, and our landlord is fantastic and has been very good to us. “But it’s beyond economic repair and he has to make the decisions whether he knocks it down or not. In this weather, it’s absolutely horrendous and sometimes I have to close. In winter, it’s colder inside than it is outside.” Describing it as “a viable social enterprise”, she explained that £2.5m to buy the site in its current location “wouldn’t be a good use of this money”. Obtaining land elsewhere would provide the warehouse space needed. “In September, the landlord will decide whether to renew the leases of the two organisations on there or put it up for sale,” according to Ms lewis.
“We need to decide whether we move out of Biggleswade,” she added. “We need a retail park size unit and help to identify a piece of land we could acquire. “there’s plenty of goodwill to keep us in the town. But we need to move beyond that now and come up with a plan. I can’t let the social enterprise fail.” She suggested it would be equally as popular if it relocated to Hitchin or letchworth. “We love living here. It’s a great community. We’d started a foodbank before the pandemic and I perhaps did ten a week. “last month, we had 993 people. that’s plenty of food.
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Fines for not obeying enforcement notice A LANDOWNER and two directors of self-storage company ‘Contain-it-4U Ltd’ in Biggleswade have been fined more than £2,100 after failing to comply with an enforcement notice which was issued for running a business without planning consent. In late 2018, complaints had been received that shipping containers had been brought onto a decommissioned gas works site at the rear of St Johns Street, Biggleswade. Following a visit from a Planning Enforcement Officer, where attempts were made to resolve the issue informally, the shipping containers were not removed. In August 2019, the landowner and directors were served with an enforcement notice. This required them to cease the unauthorised use
and remove the storage containers from the land. The enforcement notice was appealed; however, the Planning Inspectorate dismissed the appeal, upholding our enforcement notice. The business was informed they had until the end of February 2021 to remove the containers and stop using the site as a self-storage business, but they did not comply. As of June 2022, the site is no longer being used for self-storage and all shipping containers have been now removed. This case was impacted by COVID-19, with implications for the way the team had to investigate during periods of restrictions and national lockdowns and latterly courts working through a backlog of criminal cases.