Bedford Borough Council is pleased to announce that it has received £69,509.50 from the Department for Transport to support socially necessary bus services in the area.
Earlier this week I attended a fantastic event which saw around 600 children from schools across Bedford Borough take part in a once in a lifetime opportunity to run alongside world class Kenyan athletes and a number of inspirational local sportspeople. The children were from schools who had taken part in the Bedford Borough Schools Marathon Club, which comprised a series of runs over a ten week period organised by the Council's Sports Development Team. The one-mile run around Bedford Park on Monday represented the culmination of the 'schools' marathon.' The Kenyan athletes, Philip Langat and Shadrack Kosgei, had taken part in the London Marathon on the previous day, yet despite that and despite having a plane to catch in the evening, they were on great form all day, taking part in run after run with the youngsters and making sure that it would be an occasion for them all to remember for years to come.
T he Council often dispenses advice on a range of environmental matters to householders, and I know that while people recognise that there is a valuable role for the Council in providing information and guidance on these things, what they cannot stand is any sort of hypocrisy. Quite simply, the Council should practise what it preaches. That's why we've made sure that the Council takes a huge range of actions to get its own house in order, for example by switching off lights and IT equipment when they're not being used, using energy efficient hand dryers instead of paper towels in the toilets, banning bottled water for meetings and ensuring that more recycling takes place in Council buildings. Another area where the Council needs to practise what it preaches is water use. This is obviously something at the forefront of everyone's mind at the moment, with the ongoing drought conditions. So, I was pleased to welcome representatives of Anglian Water to Borough Hall yesterday to sign a 'Water Promise' on behalf of
Today I informed the Council's Chief Executive of changes to the Council Cabinet, following the extraordinary action, or rather inaction, of the Conservative Group at the Full Council meeting on Wednesday night. In a shock move, out of the blue they broke their pledge to support the budget they had produced jointly with all parties on the Council and did not even take part in the most important decision all year for the residents the Council serves. They simply abstained, without offering any alternatives at all on the night or at any stage before. Sadly, they have again turned their backs on working for the good of the Borough, and clearly have separated themselves from running the Council in the interests of local residents and delivering this all-important budget which they approved at every stage until it mattered.
There's new hope in the fight against the abominable plans of the waste firm Covanta to build a monstrous 600,000 tonne incinerator near Stewartby, with the final decision on its future to be considered in Parliament. The decision by the soon-to-be abolished quango the Infrastructure Planning Commission to grant permission will be subject to a 'Special Parliamentary Procedure' after Bedford Borough Council, along with Central Bedfordshire Council, refused to withdraw its objection to the plans, which involve the compulsory purchase of Council land.
Bedford Borough Council is currently undertaking a review which I hope will ultimately put right an unequal, unfair situation in the Borough. For historical reasons local residents in some areas have had a say over local concerns through their parish council. In the Borough they have existed for the rural areas and for Kempston, but not for the other urban areas. Brickhill residents put this right in their area 7 years ago, and since then they have also had their own parish Council. I believe Parish Councils play an extremely valuable role in representing local residents and getting things done for their communities. A 'Community Governance Review' is now underway to find out what people in the 'unparished' parts of the Borough think about having a parish council for their area.
