Less than a year after it opened on Greyfriars in Bedford Town Centre, Bedford Borough Council's pioneering Jobs Hub has received national recognition for the results it has achieved in supporting residents into work, training and business. The Jobs Hub won the 'Delivering Better Outcomes' category at the Municipal Journal Awards 2013, after a remarkable first eleven months of supporting the employment prospects of local residents.
Bedford International Athletic Stadium is to host a very special event in support of Armed Forces Charity SSAFA on Saturday 22nd June.
The Bedford Sports Awards has become a key date in the local sporting calendar, with athletes, coaches and clubs all gathered to celebrate the dedication, hard work and successes over the year.
Over £4,400 has been stolen from parking machines in Bedford Borough in 2019, across over 50 criminal attacks.
I have written before about the financial challenge facing Bedford Borough Council, but as consultation begins on the first set of proposals to modernise Council services and make them more cost-effective, it is worth considering the figures involved in order to really grasp the full scale of that challenge. Bedford Borough Council has to save £36 million over four years in order to balance the books. That's an awful lot of money by any reckoning, but the fact that it represents over a quarter of the Council's current total net budget of £129 million brings the size of the task ahead into even greater focus (the bar chart on the right provides a graphical illustration). There is no escaping this; the Council is legally required to deliver a balanced budget, and cannot make a policy decision not to make all the savings, for example. What we can do, however, is to work with all parties on the Council, with staff and crucially with residents to make sure the savings are made carefully and in the fairest way poss
This year the UK will mark Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee with a four-day bank holiday weekend from Thursday 2 to Sunday 5 June 2022.
