A Yellow and Blue Shop, and a Pink Pedalo!

You could describe the latter part of this week as a colourful one for me. First, on Thursday morning at 7.45am, I cut the ribbon at the newly refurbished Lidl store on Lurke Street. Despite the early hour, there were plenty of shoppers in attendance, keen to check out the revamped store. It's always welcome when chain stores invest in their Bedford premises - it shows a commitment to trading in the Borough and is evidence that they know that it's in businesses' interests to invest in Bedford. Then, on Friday morning, I went along to support a charity event in aid of an appeal to raise funds for an anesthetising machine for Great Ormond Street children's hospital. The appeal is being supported by the Town and City pub chain, which includes the Litten Tree and the Rose in Bedford, and managers from the Litten Tree are taking part in this event. As well as being an extremely worthy cause, this charity event is remarkable for the fact that it involves a pink pedalo being powered from Town Bridge in Bedford all t

Riverside North Selection Jury Meets

I chaired the all-party selection jury for the Riverside North developer at Borough Hall on Wednesday, as we received presentations from short-listed developers. The Riverside North project will be a mixed use retail, leisure and residential project encompassing the area currently occupied by the Town Hall Office Block, the neighbouring Riverside House building and Horne Lane Car Park. The developers outlined the site's potential and their credentials for delivering the project. The jurors' scores are being collated before an announcement on the selected development partner for the project is announced in the coming week. I must emphasise that the decision to be taken next week following the presentations is to select a developer, not a final scheme. Once the appointment is made, extensive public consultation will follow to ensure that residents are able to have their say as the plans for the development take shape. Indeed, a commitment to real engagement with local residents is something we were very keen to

'Scores on the Doors' Scheme In Evidence Around Town

A while ago my Cabinet colleagues and I introduced a new scheme for all restaurants and food outlets in the Borough whereby their food hygiene inspection rating is published online, along with full details of their inspection. The restaurants themselves can also display a poster they are presented with, advertising their hygiene rating. It's not compulsory that they do so, but I've been pleased to notice around town the first few restaruants to start displaying the posters in their window. It shows that they regard high standards of hygiene as a badge of honour, and know that potential customers will appreciate the peace of mind that comes with it. I was only at the launch event a few weeks ago, and it's great to see it already becoming a feature of the local restaurant trade. There's more information about the scheme, together with links through to all the food hygiene information about restaurants that you will need, here on the Council's website: http://www.bedford.gov.uk/environment_and_planning/env_healt

Pints in the Parishes is Coming Back - Would Your Local Like to Host One?

Throughout my first, short term as Mayor until the elections in May this year I got out and about around the Borough as much as possible in order to be as accessible as possible to local residents in all our communities, and I intend to carry on in this manner over the next four years. As part of these efforts to be open and accessible I embarked on a series of 'Pints in the Parishes' events to enable direct, ongoing contact with the Borough's rural residents in an informal setting, and I am now relaunching this initiative. Next week I will be writing to each of the Borough's Parish Councils asking them if they would like to nominate a local pub in their area which would be happy host the event in their parish. However, if you like the sound of a Pints in the Parishes evening and know of a local rural pub which would be happy to host one, you don't have to leave it to your local parish council. Please let me know! As before, I will be drawing the names out of a hat to determine the order in which the visits t

Worried Residents Make their Voices Heard at Covanta Protest

Anti Street Clutter Campaign Gets Off to Flying Start as Over 100 Signs Are Removed