ANOTHER consultation is taking place on the proposed expansion of Luton Airport, before formal plans are lodged.

Luton Borough Council and the airport’s operators want to grow passenger numbers to 18 million a year by 2031.

A planning application is due to be submitted – to the council – by the end of this year.

Prior to that, the views of the public are again being sought.

Consultation events start on September 6 and will take place in Harpenden, Luton, Slip End, Flamstead, Stevenage and Breachwood Green.

For mor information on the plans and details of the consultation events, visit www.london-luton.co.uk/masterplan

SATURDAY

Doctor Who (BBC One, 7.20pm)

Every type of Dalek, from the 1960s to the present day, need a favour from the Time Lord – somebody, or something, is wreaking havoc on the planet where their most dangerously unhinged compatriots have been imprisoned and only the Doctor, with Rory and Amy in tow, can sort it out.

Executive producer and writer Steven Moffat promises: “We have, I think, our biggest range of stories ever. We’ve got the return of the Daleks, we’ve got dinosaurs on a spaceship, we’ve got a glorious western with a cyborg gunslinger, the most unusual invasion Earth story ever, and New York for the finale.”

Sunday

Richard Hammond’s Crash Course (BBC Two, 7.15pm)

The Top Gear favourite journeys across America to drive some really big vehicles. He immerses himself in some of the country’s most extreme environments, where he has only days to master some of the most dangerous monster machines in the world – a task that can take years for most people to achieve. He begins at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas, where he attempts to get to grips with an M1A2 Abrams tank.

Monday

A Mother’s Son (ITV1, 9pm)

Gritty two-part drama with a top-drawer cast of Martin Clunes, Hermione Norris, Alexander Arnold and Paul McGann. Ben, a widowed and recently remarried man, settles into a new home with his wife Rosie and her two children as well as his own two offspring. It should be a time for excited new beginnings – but what they’re about to go through couldn’t be further from that.

The family, and whole community, is shocked by the murder of a local teenager. However, that shock is nothing compared to what Rosie feels when she finds a blood-stained pair of trainers hidden in her son Jamie’s room, and all concerned are forced to think the unthinkable – could their teenage boy be involved?

Tuesday

Accused (BBC One, 9pm)

Tina is a prison officer at a young offenders’ institution where Stephen Cartwright, the young man at the centre of the last week’s drama, appears to take his own life.

She later comes face-to-face with Stephen’s father, Peter, and that’s when her problems really begin. But, once on the witness stand, Tina has plenty to say both for herself, and to those who’ve let her down.

Anna Maxwell Martin, the Bafta-winning actress, plays Tina but it’s comedian John Bishop, as Peter, who steals the show.

Wednesday

Mrs Biggs (ITV1, 9pm)

Versatile Sheridan Smith stars in a new series telling the true story of the woman behind the notorious Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs.

Thursday

The Bletchley Circle (ITV1, 9pm)

The code-breakers of Bletchley Park made an extraordinary contribution to Britain’s war effort, but what did they do with all that brainpower once peace had been declared?

Well, according to this new drama series, they started solving crimes. Anna Maxwell Martin, again, heads an impressive cast as Susan, a mother and housewife whose code-breaking days are behind her until she spots a pattern in a string of murders that have taken place in London.

Friday

Celebrity Big Brother: Final (Five, 9pm)

Nobody could accuse this instalment of Celebrity Big Brother of being boring. There was drama from the off, as two housemates Julie Goodyear and Cheryl Fergison were quickly given a secret task that played to the soap-queens’ strengths.

With 24 drama-filled days behind us, Brian Dowling presents the showpiece finale to the contest.

He takes to the podium once again as the remaining housemates gather in the living room for the final time.

Developers are being accused of trying to squeeze too much housing onto the site of a former village pub that closed earlier this year.

Plans have been lodged to build four four-bedroom homes on the Bedford Arms site in Toddington High Street. The four new properties would be built in the pub garden, while the pub itself and adjacent former florist’s would also be turned into homes.

Kensworth Builders, the Shefford-based firm behind the plans, says that while the new homes will be “impressive” they have been designed so as not to “alienate” surrounding residents.

And the company says changing the pub and florist’s into homes is the “best way of preserving and safeguarding their long term historical and architectural character”.

But Toddington parish councillor Richard Hagan, in charge of planning, said he would not be supporting the plans.

“What they are doing is not good for the site,” he said. “The houses are higher than ones next to the site, so they will be staring into people’s windows.

“When we are planning we want the best of what’s available, we don’t want to overload sites.”

Publicans Wendy and Alan Hardiman were forced to leave the Bedford Arms in February when brewery Charles Wells sold the site.

The plans will be discussed at the parish council’s meeting on Tuesday (September 4) at 7.30pm at Toddington village hall.

To see the plans visit www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk

A group of charitable archers hit their fundraising target as they fired 1,000 arrows each to raise funds for underprivileged people in Burma.

Four archers from One Nation Archery Club (ONAC) kept a steady hand as they raised more than £7,500 in charity funds at Denbigh High School in Alexandra Avenue.

Donations can still be made at https://www.justgiving.com/ONAC-1000Arrows-Burma.

Families flocked to Leagrave Park for a fun-filled festival with a purpose.

Kids and adults alike enjoyed live music from acts including Aisling O’Reilly and Ryan Prazer at Parkfest! 4 AVS as well as a funfair, stalls and exhibitions.

The AVS project, which the festival supports, provides a holistic package of emotional and practical support to men and women dealing with domestic violence, sexual abuse and rapeand provides free one to one counselling in safe and secure surroundings.

More than 50 people died in the UK in gas-related incidents last year, and 4,000 were hospitalised.

Gas experts are working to prevent more deaths as they warn people of the dangers of gas during gas safety week.

Gas Safe Register will be holding a question-and-answer session at B&Q in Gipsy Lane between 10am and 2pm on September 12.

They will advise people how to spot the signs of dangerous gas appliances in the home and how to prevent gas-related incidents.

Around 200 items of suspected stolen property will be on show at an open day for victims of burglary.

Valuables including watches, rings, necklaces, pendants and even trophies, which are believed to have been stolen in burglaries across the region, including from Bedfordshire, will be on display at Parkside Police Station in Cambridgeshire between 1pm and 6pm on Saturday (September 8).

The property was seized on April 4 in Cambridge, but detectives believe it could have come from homes across Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Suffolk, Norfolk or other neighbouring counties.

Detective Sergeant Chris Tatum-Horsfield said: “If you have had valuables stolen during a burglary in the 12 months leading up to April this year, I would urge you to come along to the open day.

“Officers will be on hand to show the seized items and hopefully reunite victims with their property.”

The property will be on display in the property office at the side of the police station.

Every item has also been placed on the force’s Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.319215901490118.71778.115142358564141&type=3&l=915b74d8aa - where people can claim their property.

Visit the CambsCops Facebook page and click on the gallery to view all of the items. People can email a designated mailbox OpRobbin@cambs.pnn.police.uk to claim any of the property.

Police today (Saturday) said they are now treating the death of a cyclist, following a collision with a car in Luton, as murder.

Delaney Brown, 19, from Luton, was killed in the incident which happened in Vincent Road at about 4.30pm on Wednesday (September 5).

Det Insp John Arthur from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, said he was keen to speak to anyone with information relating to the collision.

He said: “It is clear that there are people who have either witnessed this incident or have knowledge of this incident. We need their assistance and appeal for them to come forward with any information.”

Call Bedfordshire Police on 101, or text information to 07786 200011. Or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.

Piling on the pounds convinced regional fleet manager Vince Hannon, 55, of Mount Pleasant Road in Luton that something had to go.

The former football referee and Leicester Arms landlord gave up fast food, alcohol – ”All the usual pleasures” – and concentrated on a radical change in diet coupled with a rigorous fitness regime.

In the process he lost four stone and raised more than £5,000 in a series of charity challenges.

His first was a triathlon last year in aid of a trio of good causes – Keech Hospice Care, Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation. The grand finale came in August with a 120-mile cycle for Help for Heroes.

In between there were two more triathlons and a brace of London-to-Brighton bike rides.

Vince said: “I set myself a goal, to complete five events in 12 months. Managing that gave me a massive sense of achievement.

“Then a colleague nearly lost his son-in-law in Afghanistan. He survived, but both legs were amputated. I decided to cycle from Luton to Norwich and I’ve raised £950 so far.”

> To sponsor Vince visit bmycharity.com/vincehannonBedsRAFA

Police dog cuts to save £1.1 million were approved by Bedfordshire Police Authority at a meeting on August 31.

It’s part of the plan for a joint police dogs unit shared by Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, and all three forces must approve the proposals for it to go ahead.

The joint dog unit would see the number of general purpose dogs (GPDs) reduced from 43 to 24, and officers cut from 48 to 24. GPDs respond to spontaneous incidents, and there are also 28 specialist search dogs that respond to incidents involving drugs, firearms, currency and explosives.

The specialist search dogs would be outsourced under the new proposals, an arrangement which is used by Northamptonshire and Thames Valley Police and has proved to be successful.

Cambridgeshire Police Authority will consider the business case in September when the final decision will be made.

Peter Conniff, Chairman of Bedfordshire Police Authority said: “The Strategic Alliance between the three police forces and authorities is helping to protect frontline policing and deliver vital savings as each force addresses their 20 per cent reduction in Government grant funding.”

A Police Authority spokesperson said if agreed, the plan would be implemented in close consultation with force dog handlers, for whom the welfare of their dogs will always be of paramount importance. This will all be taken into account in delivering a collaborated dog unit function that continues to help deliver core functions and essential roles.”

A worker will get £522 wages in arrears after a Luton-based company was found to have failed to pay the National Minimum Wage.

Intredis Securitys Dynamics Ltd of 49 Marsh Road was ordered by Northampton Country Court to pay the worker for failing to meet its legal obligations as an employer.

The security guard company will also have to pay costs of £12 to H M Revenue & Customs.

Michelle Wyer, assistant director of National Minimum Wage for HMRC, said: “Intredis Securitys Dynamics Ltd failed to respond to the evidence presented regarding its failure to pay the National Minimum Wage and we are pleased the Court has made this judgement in their absence.

“Our aim is to enforce the law and protect vulnerable workers. Employers are welcome to approach us at any time for advice through the Pay & Workers Rights helpline 0800 917 2368, or contact us at any stage during an enquiry to discuss resolution of outstanding issues.”

The case was brought under the National Minimum Wage Act 1998.

Intredis Securitys Dynamics Ltd must pay the arrears within 28 days or face further legal action.

Police are warning people to be on their guard against thieves and con-artists in Luton and Dunstable who may target them in their homes and in the street.

Following the Herald & Post’s article about the 74-year-old man (pictured) who was robbed in broad daylight by three woman, and a trickster who conned £160 out of a couple at home by pretending to be a neighbour in need, more people have come forward with similar experiences.

Jacqueline Blackett from Luton said a man in his 20s with an Eastern European accent knocked at her door claiming he was a neighbour locked out of his car and his house.

He kept her husband talking for ten minutes but when the woman asked where exactly he lived he panicked and left.

Mrs Blackett said: “People must be careful and look out for one another. Lately there seem to be some devious con artists prowling around our communities.”

Matt Unsworth said a similar thing happened to his grandmother, with someone knocking on the door pretending to be a neighbour and asking for money. Fortunately he was there to stop it.

A Bedfordshire Police spokesperson said: “Anybody who is approached in the street should be very wary. Keep all your belongings out of sight, especially chains, wallets etc, and if you are at all concerned about any persons contact the police. At home, do not answer your door to anybody who you do not recognise. Consider signing up to a nominated neighbour scheme run by Bedfordshire Police, where you can phone a particular neighbour if you have anyone approaching you that you don’t know. If someone says they are from a company, ask to see ID and never hand over cash to an individual.”

A Luton pub company proved it’s the the best – bar none – when it comes to corporate kart racing in Milton Keynes.

The Swamp Stormers of Stonegate Pub Company, in Capability Green, took the title and the fastest lap at the Mazars fifth annual racing event at Daytona, in Dansteed Way, Rooksley, on September 5.

In second place was a team from Barclays Bank in Milton Keynes called Corbett’s Cabs and the new city also took the third place slot with The Dawson Hotrods from Dawson Group.

This year saw a new competition for best team name added to the proceedings which was won by a last-minute entry from Will ‘n’ Go, a team consisting of supporters of Willen Hospice.

Stephen Eames, managing partner at Mazars, an audit, advisory, accounting and tax services firm in Milton Keynes, said: “This race has become our most popular hospitality event in our regional calendar. It’s great to get teams from across the business community together – each year they become more determined and competitive.

“It’s not uncommon to discover that companies have held heats amongst their employees prior to our race night to decide who should be on their teams.”

For the record the team members were:

Stonegate Pub Company: Luke Bailey, Jason Morton, Hemal Morjaria and Dom Jones.

Barclays Bank: Dave Davies, Gareth Farbon, Glen McDonald and Mark Diver

Dawson Group: Tony Coleman, Richard Bulmer, Chris Tapp and James Green.

The new Dunstable Foodbank is now up and running, stocked with free vital supplies to stop people going hungry in a sudden short-term cash crisis.

South West Beds MP Andrew Selous and Dunstable’s deputy mayor Councillor John Chatterley officially launched the new scheme at an event in the Dunstable Conference Centre on Saturday, September 8.

And on Monday, the Foodbank team were all set to offer a helping hand to families and individuals in short-term need.

People who need support through an immediate cash crisis can obtain special Foodbank vouchers from sources such as GPs, JobCentre Plus and social services.

Then they can visit a distribution point, to pick up enough food to cover three days in each of three weeks.

The foodbank covers Dunstable, Houghton Regis and nearby villages.

Steering committee chairman Alan Sutton, pastor of Dunstable’s New Life Church, said the support so far had been “very positive”.

Now the team is urgently appealing for more sponsorship, donations and volunteers.

The foodbank is part of a rapidly-growing network run by the Trussell Trust charity.

When the scheme was announced, Mr Sutton explained: “It is surprising to some that there is a need for such a scheme in Dunstable.

“But the rapid spread of foodbanks across the country demonstrates how necessary they are.

“They are there for the benefit of those in sudden crisis – where it can sometimes be a case of paying a bill or eating.”

About 20 churches are now involved in the scheme.

So far, more than 60 volunteers have offered practical help – including non-churchgoers.

There are three distribution centres in Dunstable and another in Toddington.

People must have vouchers to obtain stocks from them.

Dunstable distribution centre opening times are:

> The New Life Church, Houghton Road, Mondays 2pm-4pm; Wednesdays 11am-1pm.

> The Way, West Street, 2.30pm-4.30pm, Tuesdays and Fridays.

> St Augustine’s Church, Oakwood Avenue, 9.30am-11.30am Thursdays.

Toddington’s distribution centre is the Wilkinson Hall at St George’s Church, 9am-11am Wednesdays.

The team has the free use of a Leighton Buzzard warehouse.

Supporters are donating items on a foodbank shopping list. Volunteers will be outside supermarkets on some days, so that shoppers can donate items on the list if they wish.

Potential volunteers and sponsors can call 01582 248410 or check out www.dunstable.foodbank.org.uk.

The shopping list is on that website. Donated foodstuffs from the list can be taken to distribution centres during the opening times given above.

> Cheques, payable to Dunstable Foodbank, can be sent to the team c/o West Street Baptist Church, West Street, Dunstable, LU6 1SX.

A Stopsley family is gearing up to join scores of other runners at the start line of this year’s On Your Marks Luton fun run.

Julie and Steve Bennett and their daughter Libby are to take part in this year’s race on October 7 after the couple’s youngest daughter April spent 11 weeks at the Luton & Dunstable Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) after she was born 13 weeks early in January 2011.

April, now 19 months old, weighed just 2lb 3ozs at birth but is now happy and healthy thanks to NICU staff.

Mum Julie said: “The care there was fantastic, it was really scary at first but they did a brilliant job.”

The pair have been hitting the treadmill at the gym in preparation for the 5km race and will then tackle the 2km run with eldest daughter Libby, 6.

Dad Steve added: “We had so much trust in the NICU staff, they monitored April 24/7, we tried to do shifts to stay at the hospital all the time but we actually felt comfortable enough to come away occasionally to get ourselves sorted.”

As well as the 10km race this year, there’s a 5km and a 2km race all starting at Vauxhall Recreation Centre. All proceeds from the race will go to the Luton & Dunstable Hospital’s NICU which cares for 900 sick or premature babies every year.

To enter the race visit https://www.ldh.nhs.uk/race or call 01582 718043.

> To sponsor Julie or Steve log onto www.justgiving.com/Steven-Bennett1 or www.justgiving.com/julie-bennett5.

A 20-year-old woman was slapped and threatened during an attempted robbery in Luton.

The incident happened on August 30 at the junction of Dunstable Road with Oakley Road in Luton at around 10.45pm.

Two men of Asian appearance and dressed in dark clothing approached the victim from behind and pushed her in to some bushes in the car park of PC World before they slapped her in the face and threatened to stab her.

They then demanded she hand over all her possessions before running from the scene towards the Esso Filling Station empty handed.

The woman suffered bruising but luckily was otherwise unhurt.

The officer in charge of this investigation, Det Con Mohammed Hussain, is keen to trace anyone who saw the incident or can help identify the men responsible.

Anyone with information relating to this incident should contact Beds Police on 101 or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

THAT Michael Gove doesn’t care overmuch for being a popular Percy, does he?

Everyone involved in education who I speak to about their ultimate boss regards him as a mad-eyed meddler intent on turning the block back to the days of mortar boards, Latin prep and roasting small boys over open fires for their own good.

And judging by announcements about plans to replace GCSE exams with something that sounds suspiciously like the 0-Levels that were considered unfair and outmoded 30 years ago, they may have a point.

But if you ask me, tinkering around the edges isn’t going to get us anywhere – what we need is a wholesale return to the past. Here’s what I say: Bring back the school leaving certificate!

For those of you, or indeed us, not yet of pension age, the school cert was a sort of portmanteau qualification that bore testament to the fact that you had learned something during your time at school.

But it was only ever given out at the end of your statutory school days, and I believe that it now has to be staged.

So there would be a school cert in primary education, which would cover the basics we’d all expect kids to have a handle on by the time they were 11 – literacy, numeracy, tolerance, respect, citizenship, sufficient confidence and interest in the world around them to have a half-decent stab at a conversation with a stranger.

Achieving that qualification should be the fundamental aim of the primary years – forget the Tudors, the Egyptians, poems about how they feel and other extraneous stuff. If there’s spare time in the day to add in little luxuries, fair enough, but they’re not really important.

Without a primary school cert, you couldn’t leave primary school. And if you had to stay on, you’d have to go to a special crammer at the expense of you and yours until hit the mark.

The same system would apply to the secondary school cert, which I would see being awarded at the age of 15.

This would develop those tedious old themes of literacy and numeracy, and add in all those little things that come in rather useful in later life but are sadly ignored for the most part in today’s curriculumn – money management, health and nutrition, basic first aid, community involvement, civics and the like.

Again, you couldn’t progress to any further education without a secondary school cert, and if you missed out at your free first go you’d be expected to chip in to the cost of getting you up to standard. After that, you’d be welcome to take courses in expressive dance, media studies, philosophy or any other daft subject to your heart’s content. It probably wouldn’t be free, but it’s a tough world out there at the moment.

And by then, if you’d learned anything from your days at school – which I think we would all agree if pretty much the point, and we’re the ones who are ultimately paying for the whole system – you’d have the sense to avoid such time-wasting qualifications like the plague and get on with living a useful life.

If Mr Gove wishes me to supply more details, I promise not to spit in his face, and that’s probably the best invitation he’;s had this week.

CHUMS is the Bedfordshire-based charity for bereaved children. It offers such amazing support that many of the youngsters who go through its programme volunteer to help others as soon as they are old enough.

In the first of a two-part series, 13-year-old Betsy Banks tells Bev Creagh what it was like to lose her much-loved younger brother.

Betsy was only 11 when her 13-month-old brother Sidney died suddenly from a streptococcal infection.

“I miss him so much,” she says simply, before explaining: “He was a bit of a miracle baby – there was a 10 year gap between us.

“My parents had given up trying. Then Sid came along.

“He was always really happy and healthy. But he got croup one night and passed away.

“He was always so smiley – he was almost perfect. I did everything for him. I got him up in the morning and Mummy said I was like a second mum to him.

“When he died I was staying with my grandparents. I didn’t cry at first, I just felt sick. I wanted to go straight home to see my parents.

“Daddy was so distraught he sounded like a girl. It was all surreal.

“Mummy wouldn’t eat at all. She just said: ‘I want my baby.’”

“My parents talked about him a lot but it was so raw at the time and I was really emotional.

“I’ve got some amazing friends but just mentioning his name made me really upset. I’d spend the whole afternoon crying.”

Betsy realised she wanted help and her school suggested CHUMS.

“Jan my counsellor came to my home every week,” Betsy recalls.

“We did a lot of creative activities at first and we had such a good relationship that when she came into the room I just calmed down.

“I could say whatever I liked to her.

“Sometimes Mummy would phone Jan and say I wasn’t my normal self.

“When I had a really bad day I couldn’t see the point in going to lessons. Some of the teachers weren’t very helpful. I got quite embarrassed about crying and wanted to leave the classroom with my friend . They didn’t seem to understand.”

Attending a CHUMS workshop at Dell Farm with other youngsters who’d been bereaved made her realise she wasn’t alone.

Betsy says: “It was really, really helpful. It was really comforting.

“I’m so glad I went. It has this buzz that’s magical and it’s so easy to be there.

“When Sid died, I thought I was the only one who’d ever been through a loss like that. But everyone was in the same position. Everyone knew everyone else’s situation. And it gave me reassurance that I was all right.”

Being given a Schnoodle puppy called Dennis was another step towards coming to terms with what the huge hole in her life.

“He was someone I could pick up and love and cuddle,” Betsy says. “It was good to focus on something else.”

Now she has another reason to smile – a brand new baby brother called Stanley.

But she will always be grateful to CHUMS for being there when she felt she had no-one and needed them most.

NEXT WEEK: Read why Jo Barnett became a CHUMS volunteer.

> For more information call 01525 863924 or visit www.chums.uk.com

A planned expansion of Luton Airport could bring an extra £220 million a year into the local economy, according to airport bosses.

London Luton Airport Operations Limited (LLAOL) is to submit its formal bid to increase passenger numbers from its current 10 million a year to 18 million in November and has received the backing of Luton-based budget airline easyJet and Luton South MP Gavin Shuker.

The plans will create 4,500 new jobs.

Airport managing director Glyn Jones told the Luton News: “You can either go forward or backward. But you can’t go forward by staying the same. We owe this expansion to the town.”

The proposals, which are subject to a public consultation which runs until October 12, will see the terminal refurbished and expanded, additional taxiway and parking for aircraft and a multi-storey car park on part of the current short-term car park.

Mr Jones said that expanding the airport will improve the ‘customer experience’ for passengers with plans to improve existing road access – the airport approach way will become a dual carriageway and benefit from a £20 million scheme to improve nearby junction 10a – proposals to improve public transport to and from the terminal, increase passenger seating areas and the number of baggage reclaims and security lanes.

Capacity will be increased without an extra or extended runway.

The ‘masterplan’ is a revision of earlier proposals set out by LLAOL back in March, rivalling plans to increase capacity drawn up by the airport owners London Luton Airport Ltd (LLAL).

But the two parties are now wholly behind the new joint plan says Mr Jones.

He said: “This is a proposal by the airport operating company but it is fully supported by the council – you couldn’t get a cigarette paper between us.”

The proposals have attracted much controversy since they first hit the headlines back in January with protest groups such as HALE and Ladacan voicing their anger over the plans.

But Mr Jones was sympathetic to their views and urged any interested parties to contribute to the current consultation period.

He said: “The big issue is aircraft noise. I understand all of the concerns and it is legitimate for people to raise them.

“This is a consultation process. We want as many views as we can get represented in this process, we’re running lots of events and we want people to contribute.”

To combat an excessive increase in noise, the airport has taken six steps to limit aircraft noise including ammending the government approved Noise Action Plan and updating its Night Noise Policy.

The masterplan received the full backing of easyJet commercial manager Hugh Aitken and Luton South MP Gavin Shuker who said: “This is the first double-dip recession for 37 years and there’s not much prospect of us coming out of it anytime soon so we’ve got to take the local economy very seriously.

“Luton Airport and the connected businesses are a massive part of our local economy and we need to safeguard that. There’s a lot of talk about a third runway at Heathrow but not much talk of other airports but Luton is well placed to provide extra capacity with no extra runway.

“It’s right to be doing this now.”

> For more information on the airport expansion and the consultation period log onto www.london-luton.co.uk/masterplan.

Cash spent by Luton Borough Council on external consultants has been cut by 80 per cent since 2006.

A council committee heard last week that spending had been cut from £7.5 million to £1.5 million in 2011/12.

The report that went before the committee said council use of consultants was under particular scrutiny in “the current environment of reorganisation, funding cuts and associated redundancies”.