Hello! Weekly news from Bedford, England

BoS leads with a report of irregularities in the proxy voting arrangement, something that appears to have been replicated in several areas in the country.

Police are looking into allegations concerning the use of absentee ballots in Bedford.

Votes in last Thursday's elections were gathered from the mentally ill, a Bedfordshire on Sunday investigation can reveal.

Bunyan Lodge on Kimbolton Road is a psychiatric residential home.

Five people in the home were persuaded to sign 'proxy' votes over to relations and associates of Conservative party workers.

A sixth resident also apparently gave permission but died a month before the election and his vote was cancelled.

A 'proxy' vote is one in which voters nominate others to vote in person for them.

Two of the six votes were signed over to Mark Rigby of 28 Amberley Gardens. Another two were in the name of Pauline Rigby, of 110 Bromham Road, Biddenham.

The remainder went to Shirley Groves, registered at the De Parys Guest House, 48 De Parys Avenue.

A reporter visited the care home on Kimbolton Road, Bedford, on election night and met two of the voters. When questioned they could not recall being visited. Both of them were clearly in a state of confusion, although talkative and friendly.

The Conservatives made significant gains at the county council elections - surprising even themselves.

Borough member John Mingay, who gained the Newnham seat, said: "I was convinced I had lost, I am absolutely amazed. I thought that with the problems the county has had there would be no chance of people voting Conservative but I am of course delighted."

Cllr Mingay was one of three borough members who gained county seats. The others are Peter Hand and Tarsem Paul who took Brickhill and De Parys.

However long-time Conservative member Richard Payne, whose Great Barford and Wilshamstead Division disappeared in boundary changes, unsuccessfully contested the new Eastcotts Division losing out to the Liberal Democrats.

And in Mid Beds Tory county executive member Mike Gibson's Ampthill Division also went to the Lib Dems.

Overall the number of seats increased from 49 to 52. The Conservatives took 36, up from 25, the Liberal Democrats lost one seat going from ten to nine and Labour lost six going from 13 to seven. There are no longer any independents.

Beds on Sunday comments that it is not yet clear who will lead the new council following Tory boss Angela Roberts' decision to retire but Madeline Russell and Roger Gwynne Jones are the two main names being suggested. The lobbying and alignments appear to be in progress; at a reception last Sunday I could not help but overhear one of these candidates discussing the situation.

Labour's Patrick Hall held the Bedford and Kempston seat in the General Election but with a significantly reduced majority.

In his acceptance speech a delighted Mr Hall thanked Liberal Democrat candidate Michael Headley for avoiding 'a negative and personal' campaign but did not mention his main rival, Conservative, Richard Fuller.

Mr Headley was, in turn, sorry to have lost but pleased at gaining an extra 2,600 plus votes. He said: "It's clear that we are moving forward positively and will do even better next time."

Mr Fuller, who had run a bullish campaign, arrived to a round of applause from supporters but, despite increasing his share of the vote by 877, said he was disappointed but the electorate had spoken.

Patrick Hall (Lab) 17,557
Richard Fuller (Con) 14,174
Michael Headley (Lib Dem) 9,063
Peter Conquest (UKIP) 995
John McCready (Ind) 283

Turnout 63.2 per cent

Where does BoS get its stories from, I wonder! This week it reports that schoolchildren have been downloading saucy pictures of their old English teacher.

Susan Hare is advertising her extracurricular activities on an adult-only website.

For 14 years she was 'Mrs Hare' to the hundreds of Bedfordshire schoolchildren she taught English at Redborne Upper School in Ampthill.

Unbeknown to the children naked pictures of their former teacher appear on a swingers website advertising her and husband John for 'sexy fun' with 'others'.

The site describes the Hares, both in their 40s, as a 'fit, adventurous couple looking for others leading to sexy fun of all kinds'.

Susan Hare is pictured posing completely naked on the website, leaving nothing to the imagination.

The Hares confess on the site:

'We are also open to suggestions from camera buffs and would like some more good action photos. Very well presented and attractive singles welcomed for this'.

They claim they are 'both straight but open to suggestions from attractive bodies' and 'can travel or accommodate and are available at weekends or midweek evenings in Milton Keynes. All replies with photos will be answered immediately'.

The site is run by Photo-Personals, which advertises itself as 'the UK's busiest direct adult contact service, which provides a unique service for open-minded adults, individuals and couples interested in adult contact, dating and swapping with people in the UK'. It costs £20 to join.

One of Mrs Hare's former pupils said: "She seemed such a nice lady. It's disgusting. I can't believe it. What a role model. It's the laughing stock of the school. It's so wrong."

The revelation has shocked parents. One told BoS:

"It's a bad example. To think that she's taught thousands of schoolchildren. Teachers are supposed to set a moral example."

Despite being asked to deny they belong to a wife-swapping club, Mr Hare said "I'm not bothered about it. We don't see how doing a story on us is in the public interest. What is, however, is how children have access to these sort of websites."

SIR - On Sunday I picked up the paper and was dismayed to read on the front cover about the family scared to live in their own home.

More problems in Kempston with the youth culture who think they are above the law, and can go around with the 'we're tough' attitude and 'no one can stop us'.

What happened to the dispersal orders the police have been given? If there are more than two of these yobs hanging around they can be moved on?

Obviously not in place if there were 40 of these kids roaming about.

Don't their parents know what's going on? Surely they should be charged with not being in control of their children.

I suppose they will just complain saying they have nothing to do. There is a great big park not 200 yards from their homes so get a football. If that's not enough bring back national service for 16 year olds and make it compulsory for two years.

I would put my own children forward for this, and would vote for the party that would dare to bring it back. The problem with this would be the politically correct folks ('can't do this, can't do that') that have made this town what is is today.

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SIR - Two reports in Bedfordshire on Sunday last week point to a serious problem: the bad behaviour in public of children and youths who seem to be neglected by parents and authorities alike.

Visitors to this country are often horrified to see children seemingly allowed to get drunk, roaming our streets and terrorising people - and we seem powerless to stop it.

In one of your reports, a couple, both teachers, are being attacked by pupils in their own home and are having to raise a petition to get something done. In the other householders are being terrorised to the point where they are being advised, by the police, to move house.

But then, what are the police for if not to keep the peace and protect the public from being attacked? What a cop-out for them to dodge the issue by getting the victims out of their hair and allowing the yobs to win the day!

This of course would be grossly unfair on the police who over the years have had authority taken from them, who now have to deal with quite intolerable bureaucracy and as Frank Field points out, now have 44 crimes allocated to one policeman. Forty years ago only two crimes were allocated to one policeman.

So what are we to do? My view is that a wild-west situation needs a wild-west solution, but without the six-shooters - at least in Bedfordshire.

Local communities should decide if they need their own constable (sheriff), backed up by as many policemen (deputies) as necessary and they should be exempted from government regulation. Their salaries should be deducted from the enormous police precepts raised in the council tax. And their jobs would depend on their success in keeping the peace and protecting the public in the community which employs them.

Is this pie in the sky, or has anyone got a better idea?

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SIR - The front page headline 'Scared to live in their own home' endorses comments I made before on needing a tougher police force. This will make these youths think twice before intimidating whole neighbourhoods.

More than that, I think some form of conscription, either into armed forces or community services, is needed to give some young people a purpose and take them off the streets.

I also believe, within reason, in corporal punishment. You can't be too soft on people with no principles, no feeling, and little brain.

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SIR - I am writing to represent all the kids in Hartwell Drive.

We are angry with your story as it only tells one side. We are not thugs and if there was any trouble between us and the family you wrote about, we did not start it.

All too often we are made out to be hooligans when little or no attention is paid to our views.

Perhaps if more was done to help us and listen to us, there would not be the problems your paper writes about.

BoS reports that thousands of people using the new Euro-tunnel station at St Pancras will have to walk through a ghost station because the Government has delayed funding.

As reported in Bedfordshire on Sunday in February commuters on the Thameslink line face further disruption if and when the station is built.

A vast hole, known as 'the box' beneath St Pancras has been built to accommodate the new station but ministers have failed to provide the £70 million needed to fit it with platforms and escalators.

As a result, passengers wanting to transfer from Thameslink to Eurostar services will have to drag their suitcases a third of a mile along busy roads.

The existing, overcrowded Thameslink station is a ten-minute walk from St Pancras across two busy road junctions.

The central London section of the Thameslink line has been closed for nine months while the 400-yard box has been built beneath St Pancras.

The new Eurostar station is due to open in 2007, when St Pancras will be the main terminus and Waterloo International will close.

Thameslink has lost the rail franchise, which has another year to run. The new operator has yet to be chosen from a short list of five preferred bidders, which does not include Thameslink.

Alan Ramsay from Transport of London said:

"The Thameslink 'box' is not in Transport of London investment plans. We consider it a wasted opportunity not to fit the box as part of the tunnel and are looking for ways to do this.

"We are in discussions with the Department Of Transport and Network Rail to see how these opportunities can be taken to its potential.

Secretary of State for Transport Alistair Darling said in the House of Commons said there was no set date for the start or completion and he is looking at issues before the go ahead can be given. A Department of Transport spokesman said:

"Funding was never issued and we are looking at ways to finance the project. We are fully committed and our target is still to complete the building for the Eurostar opening."

BoS reports that the Nirah project has received Government approval.

All that is needed now is to raise £200 million in the city for the scheme to be built

The Department of Trade and Industry has given the go-ahead for money to be released for the project to be developed.

With all councils backing the project only a lack of cash can now stop it being built at a brickfield site near Stewartby.

The timing is still uncertain as the Quest pit earmarked for the scheme is still being quarried by Hanson Brick. Now that agreement has been reached it is expected discussions will take place on when Nirah can move in.

The planned completion date is 2009.

The scheme will involve the building of three glass domes, which will house different environments.

The domes will be the height of a 30-storey building and will cover a total area of 30,000 square metres.

Each will mirror a freshwater location where fish and reptiles will live in their own habitat.

Scientists will study them and hopefully discover why certain species can ward of disease. For example, crocodiles are apparently unable to contract cancer.

Venoms from reptiles are also thought to contain properties that could help in the treatment of cancers, heart disease and diabetes.

All studies and research will be non-invasive and will be monitored by an ethics committee.

The centre will also be an educational and visitor attraction, similar to the Eden project in Cornwall.

Paul McManus, spokesman for Nirah, said:

"It is a good hurdle to get over. It now means we can develop a business plan to develop one of the largest tourist attractions and centre for the preservation of threatened species in Europe."

Councillors are worried that long-term contracts for school meals may prevent children benefiting from celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's plans to revolutionise the meals provided.

Both Harlington Upper School and Samuel Whitbread Community College are locked into 25-year contracts with private catering companies through private finance initiatives (PFI).

Cllr Golby is worried that schools will still be serving up fare criticised in the TV series Jamie's School Dinners, such as turkey twizzlers, or face severe penalties, despite the Government's pledge to embrace the 'feed me better' campaign.

The poor standard of school meals and their detrimental effect on children's behaviour was exposed in March by Jamie Oliver's hard-hitting programme shown on Channel 4.

The Government responded to the outrage of parents, teachers and other educational workers by rushing out an announcement before the General Election, promising to impose new nutritional standards on caterers and improve all children's school meals.

But the practical difficulties of imposing this change on private contractors appears to have been underestimated by the show.

Both Harlington Upper School and Samuel Whitbread Community College, alongside 450 schools across the country, are exempt from the Government's new guidelines because of their 25-year PFI contract with Bedfordshire Education Partnership - a consortium of Bilfinger Berger and Galliford Try. It has subcontracted the catering contract to Galliford Try.

Jamie Oliver was trying to wean children away from eating chips, pizza, burgers and turkey twizzlers on to healthier recipes.

Liberal Democrat Councillor for Harlington Brian Golby also said:

"This situation should not be allowed to allowed to continue. The contract needs to be reconsidered and adjusted.

It is a shocking lack of foresight and another example of Tory administrations failure to look to the future."

It is worrying. I think the situation where schools are locked into 25-year contracts should change."

A spokesman for Bedfordshire County Council said that they do not believe there is a problem with catering under the PFI project.

(I am somewhat surprised about this furore. Biddenham Upper School uses Scholarest, and the school's Principal, Mike Berrill, informs me that they are only too happy to cooperate.)

A YOUNG girl has been infested with nits for eight months and her mother claims all the school has done is advertise plastic combs for sale at 50p.

Mrs Margaret Butcher (not her real name) says that Shackleton School, in Pearcey Road, Bedford, seems to be unwilling or unable to tackle the outbreak.

She has had to treat her nine-year-old daughter with headlice-killing lotion on a regular basis. Mrs Butcher said:

"My daughter is hurt and upset. It's destroying her self-confidence.

The headlouse lotion stinks and has to stay on for 12 hours and it's also damaging her hair and scalp.

The whole family has to be done to prevent any of us reinfesting the others. I have step-children and they have to be done when they visit.

It's causing a lot of problems."

Headlice are small parasitic insects, each about the size of a sesame seed.

They feed off human blood and can only travel from person to person by close physical contact.

The eggs are called 'nits' and are laid attached to human head-hair because of the warmth of the head.

Mrs Butcher says that she has spoken to teaching staff at Shackleton and is aware of at least five other girls who have been infested. She said:

"This is all coming from one child. The teachers know who it is. It's easy to spot when a child has headlice. They're visible insects and the child can't stop scratching. This is so unfair on other children. The school ought to do something."

A county council spokesman said:

"Nits are a common problem throughout schools. Children do not become infested with nits just at school."

(Does anybody remember the "nit nurse" who used to visit the school?! I taught in one school where visits took place, but only - note this - the B and C classes. Presumably it was assumed that children in the "A" class would not have nits! Actually, as far as I understand, nits like residing in clean hair, and are no respecters of class!

And in this case, what a storm in a tea-cup!)

At the risk of being berated for yet another picture of the Embankment, this was taken today because it is the annual regatta day. It was quite early when I took this, so relatively few were present, but later on the place was crowded on both sides of the river.

This will not be up to much, but I was trying out a digital camera that also produced tiny video clips. Having stood in what I thought would be an ideal spot, you can see that someone stood almost in front of me! Never mind - he was cheering a team on, and it's their event not mine! Try clicking HERE. Not one of my better efforts, but it may portray some of the atmosphere

My comments about the diamond wedding celebrations of Barbara and Tom Cook prompted an entry in the guestbook from Catherine Kiefer, who lives in Sacramento, California. She writes:

"Was interested to see Barbara and Tom Cook's 60th wedding celebration coming up this week. I was at that very happy wedding when the bells were ringing for the end of the war. We were envious because we had to await permission from the U.S. before we could get married and it took several weeks. So thanks for the recognition for them..and best wishes to them both."

They were married on May 7th 1945. Barbara claims she was the last war time bride in Bedford. She mentions other friends who married GIs in the war, and specifically Cath Donnelly, Kath Blythe, June Chasey. Tim Wright, now in Australia lived in York Street. If any of these people are reading this, drop me an email, and I'll give them Barbara and Tom's address.

Finally, it is quite some time ago since the Bedford Blues triumphed in the Powergen Shield final at Twickenham rugby ground, and when it was announced that there would be a victory parade last Sunday, some were expressing doubt that there would be more than a man and his dog to witness the event.

We should not have been worried. Getting on for two hundred supporters were at the ground to cheer the team on, most of them walking the distance as the bus slowly made its way to the High Street, then the Embankment, turning down Rothsay Road to return to the ground, where a Mayor's Reception awaited them.

I had received an invitation to be on the 'bus in order to photograph the event, and have to confess that I felt slightly awkward, because the people to be seen were our gallant players, not yours truly!

When the bus reached the High Street, the numbers had swelled considerably, and the supporters followed on cheerfully. People waved from windows, and had stuck up balloons outside their homes.

At the corner of the High Street where Debenhams is situated, the procession stopped, the band that had been leading us turned round and, facing the players, gave an excellent rendering of "Swing low, sweet chariot" - which (why I'm not sure!) has become a kind of national anthem to the rugby fraternity.

The bus then went down the Embankment, and though at this point the bright sun gave way to pelting rain, none of which lessened the enthusiasm and the cheering.

Another guest, in addition to the players, was Matt Skelton, a world boxing champion, and one of the most peasant, unassuming man one might ever meet. From time to time he would lift up the championship belt and show it to the crowd, receiving a well-deserved cheer.

The reception followed, many local and county councillors attending. This was finally followed by a match between specially invited former players.

But news has reached us only today that Rudi Streauli, our coach, formerly director of rugby in South Africa, has decided to go back to South Africa. This is a real loss, because during one year he had won the affection of players and supporters alike. He will be replaced by Mike Rayer, who was once a player for the Blues and who also was capped for Wales.

Spring flowers outside St. Peter's church

Week ending 14 May 2005