THE hiring of super fast luxury cars that has been raised with me by residents who witness these cars speeding on local residential roads has been raised in Parliament.

This may satisfy the 86 per cent of people in the online Bolton News poll who agreed that there should be more checks on people hiring high-powered cars. Similar concerns are being raised in Pendle, Lancashire, where MP Andrew Stephenson, has raised the issue of communities being blighted by the hiring of luxury cars.

He said: “Parts of my constituency are being blighted by young men driving high powered luxury vehicles often at dangerously high speeds. There's been a series of accidents, near misses and hit and run's in recent months. As most of these vehicles are hired usually just for a day at a time local residents and Pendle Borough Council is calling for action to prevent hire car companies from putting high performance super cars in the hands of young drivers. Would the Leader of the House of Commons make time for a debate on this issue?"

Chris Grayling MP replied “I'm actually very surprised that these hire car companies want to do this because high performance cars tend to be high value cars and I assume they want to get them back intact afterwards. So it is clearly a bizarre situation he is experiencing. I do not understand why these businesses are taking the approach he describes and he should certainly put pressure on them locally not to do this. I will make sure his concerns are drawn to the attention of the Transport Secretary."

The new Transport Secretary is Chris Grayling MP and the business regulation matters pertaining to car rental is for the new Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary. I am pleased that this matter of public safety is now raised in Parliament. I hope MPs find solutions to this business and transport issue which will undoubtedly benefit the Bolton borough.

Cllr Sue Haworth

Harper Green ward

Bolton Council