Hundreds of complaints were made after Luton mayor Tahir Malik was pictured at a garden party.

Luton Council's work with national Covid-19 track and trace has boosted its success rate.

Campaigners who feared the artwork would be destroyed hail the news as a "breakthrough".

People in Luton are being urged to be tested for Covid-19 as infections rise in the town.

Joy as a former homeless man is given a flat after fears of living in the woods again post-lockdown.

Luton has been designated an "area of intervention" after a rise in coronavirus cases.

Former England footballer John Barnes says the idea of changing street names now is "tokenism".

Luther Blissett says teaching people about the past is more important than "wallpapering over it".

Luton Borough Council needs to save £22m after income from Luton Airport was lost in the pandemic.

Sarah Jenkins
BBC News

A man who had "persistently bombarded" his neighbours with loud music has had his speakers, stereo and TV seized.

Bedford Borough Council took the equipment on 3 July after the Kempston resident breached a Noise Abatement Notice which was served in May.

The authority said environmental health officers "had witnessed noise at unacceptable levels ".

"Neighbours complained they had been subjected to continuous noise, from early morning to very late at night, which the resident had refused to reduce," the council said.

Image source, Getty Images

More than 30 items were seized after a warrant was issued by magistrates.

Colleen Atkins, portfolio holder for community safety, said: "Nobody should have to suffer from the misery caused by excessive noise because of inconsiderate nuisance neighbours."

Alex Pope
BBC News Online

Image source, Bedford Creative Arts

A "dream team" of volunteers are today sorting out 1,500 packs of arts materials for underprivileged children.

Bedford Creative Arts (BCA) said they were going to homes across the county.

The Let's Create scheme, funded by Arts Council England, is for families who would not usually have art resources at home and includes worksheets from local artists.

Image source, Bedford Creative Arts

Kayte Judge, from BCA, said: "With many children at home for extended periods we know that art resources will help families provide positive activities as we move into the summer, so we had to make this happen here and we are pleased to have had the partnerships in place to have let us do so."

Sixteen volunteers were working hard sorting out three pallets of materials at Elstow Abbey, the charity said.

'Distasteful' remarks made by councillor Terry Baines will not be investigated a committee says.

St Albans City and District Council says it is to begin a phased reopening of its museums as government lockdown regulations are loosened.

The first element to reopen will be the cafe at St Albans Museum and Gallery from Wednesday, 15 July.

Image source, St Albans City and District Council

New opening times and anti-virus measures such as one-way systems and sanitation stations will be in place when the museums reopen, although exact dates are yet to be confirmed.

During the pandemic, St Albans Museum has added some collections and other activities to its website., external

But a report finds no hot-spot or overall reason for a town's high number of coronavirus cases.

At the start of the week Bedford had the highest rate of Covid-19 infections in the south of England.

Figures recorded in the week up to 21 June showed it had England's sixth-highest infection rate overall since the start of the pandemic.

There was concern, that with the rates increasing, it might go into a local lockdown, like Leicester.

But latest figures, external from the government showed that the weekly number of cases were now 18.1 per 100,000 compared to last week when they were was 42 per 100,000.

Mayor Dave Hodgson said: "If you want to know if Bedford Borough is going into [local] lockdown the simple and quick answer is 'no', but we continue to monitor the data and urge everyone to be careful, stay home if possible and socially-distance if going out.

"We are continuing to press for better and detailed data."

Bedford Borough Council says play parks are "a risk area" for the spread of coronavirus.

Leaders in Bedford say they have been left scrambling to control the spread of the disease.

The elected mayor of Watford says the future's bright for the town's shopping centre despite Intu going into administration last week.

Image source, Getty Images

The firm, external runs the former Harlequin Centre, as well as the former Midsummer Place in Milton Keynes and 15 other retail sites in the UK.

Peter Taylor says he's confident the centre will remain open because the Watford Borough Council, external owns the freehold.

"The main thing to reiterate to everyone is that the shopping centre is staying open. It's very profitable," he said.

"The team have done a brilliant job as its reopened... but we're confident that Intu Watford, or whatever its called in the future, has got a successful future."

Image source, Watford Borough Council

A new confidence mark showing that taxi drivers have gained anti-coronavirus safety accreditation is to be rolled out in Watford.

The borough council scheme will see drivers complete a tailored programme of support specifically designed to get the trade back to work as lockdown eases.

Elected Mayor of Watford, Peter Taylor, said: "The council wants to make sure people can feel confident when taking a taxi and minicab that as much as possible has been done by the driver to keep them safe and reduce the spread of the virus."

Chairman of Watford Hackney Carriage Association, Shafiq Ahmed, called the programme "a real boost".

A BBC investigation reveals the scale of the financial challenges facing local authorities.