Plea for help over flooding in Biggleswade car park gets 'reluctant' response from Central Beds Council
Ongoing flooding problems at the Rose Lane car park in Biggleswade are “a sensitive matter”, with Central Bedfordshire Council appearing reluctant to fund a remedy, a meeting heard.
The Biggleswade Chronicle has been reporting on this issue for a decade, with a soakaway costing £6,218 planned in April 2015 to improve the situation.
A letter is expected to be sent to CBC leader and Independent Potton councillor Adam Zerny by the town council to raise the need for the local authority to finance repair work.
An update on car parking improvements was presented to a BTC town centre management committee meeting. Its aim is to improve the management of the car parks, modernise payment options and exploit opportunities to secure extra parking, according to a report to the committee.
BTC has £12,000 allocated in its 2025/26 budget for car parking maintenance, said the report. “It contains a three-year maintenance and improvement proposal, subject to sourcing sufficient budget, across all six car parks.
BTC’s head of governance and strategic partnerships Karim Hosseini said: “This report covers multiple aspects of the car parks operated by the town council.
“Any funding is based on officers applying for Section 106 (developer contributions) finance during 2025/26 and future years to cover wall repairs, disabled pedestrian path access to some car parks, line painting parking spaces or fixing potholes.
“There are seven paying machines in place, with the software installed. Officers will be seeking Section 106 funding for 13 fully traffic regulation order compliant metal signs for our car parks, and exploring the potential for introducing QR code and pay by app options.
“Officers have been working on the root causes of the ongoing Rose Lane car park flooding issue. CBC leadership has responded recently stating in their view ‘this matter has nothing to do with them’ and is for BTC to resolve.”
Town councillor David Albone warned about QR codes and so-called quishing scams, saying: “Organised criminal gangs are apparently involved in replacing the QR codes and you get redirected to a different site.
“Some people are enticed into regular payments to not the parking operator and can be left with a fine as they haven’t paid to park. I’d like to see more on that before we agree to it.
“We’re left dealing with CBC’s mess basically and it’s refusing to have anything to do with it. It’s water coming from CBC highways into our car park. Their response is unacceptable, so I hope we can challenge that.”
Town clerk Peter Tarrant explained: “This is a sensitive matter. We’ve tried our best to provide clear evidence to CBC around this.
“We’ve met their officers on site. There’s been acceptance from the technical officers of the reasons why this is happening.
“If CBC took responsibility for this, there would be a significant cost. We recognise its current financial position. But there’s a problem we’re trying to resolve for the people who live here.
“I think it needs to be escalated, which means to members. My inclination is to write to councillor Zerny to raise this matter with him. If we’re unsuccessful doing that, the perfect solution is significant three figure sums which we can’t afford.” CBC has asked to comment.