Bedfordshire Police Authority plays an important part in the policing of Bedfordshire.  It sets the annual budget for police force, overseas Police policy and appoints senior officers. Its composition is governed by regulations which dictate that political representation must reflect the numbers of Councillors from each of the political parties across the whole of Bedfordshire.

This legal formula means representation from Luton should be one Liberal Democrat Councillor and two from Labour but at the Council meeting (17^th May 2011) when the Luton appointments were made the Labour members used their majority on the Council to appointed three Labour members instead.

At the first meeting of the new Authority on Friday morning (20^th May) the Luton nominations were rejected leaving Luton completely unrepresented on this important body.

“The Labour leadership really must learn that Councillors are elected to work in the best interests of the whole town and not just to serve their own personal or political party ends. That means working cross party to get the best results for Luton,” says Liberal Democrat leader David Franks.

“This blatant lust for power will damage Luton if Labour Councillors do not learn to stay within the legal rules and work with other parties for the benefit of Luton as a whole.”