Hello! Weekly news from Bedford, England

BoS leads with a report of someone being dismissed as warden of a sheltered house because, the paper says, she fulfilled a dying man's last wish.

Veronica Tracy was dismissed by Pilgrims Housing Association (BPHA) following her decision to sell a dead man's shopmobility scooter to pay for his funeral.

Because BPHA will not release the funds raised for Ukrainian Ivan Kutscheruk's funeral his grave cannot be topped off.

Mr Kutscheruk was a resident at Patteshull Court in Bedford for 18 months up until his death in November 2004. He fell ill in October, was taken into hospital and Mrs Tracy visited him on seven occasions.

She was told by doctors that he would not be coming home and on one visit Mr Kutscheruk begged Mrs Tracy to make sure that he had a proper funeral. Mrs Tracy said:

"He was a very lonely old man who suffered from chronic arthritis and I was his only contact with the outside world. He asked me to make sure that when he died he was buried properly and I promised that he would have a nice funeral.

He asked me to sell the scooter and keep the money for myself, but I told him I couldn't do that - but I would use the money for the funeral costs."

Following the man's death, Mrs Tracy was responsible for clearing out his flat and discovered a will that stated the man had two children. She says she made several attempts to contact them but was unable to do so.

An anonymous phone call was made to Pilgrims Housing Association claiming that Veronica had kept the money for herself and disciplinary proceedings followed.

Mrs Tracy spent the money raised from the sale of the scooter on a headstone for Mr Kutscheruk, but the remaining money that was to be used for the purchase of the exclusive rights for the cemetery plot has been withheld by Pilgrims.

The headstone cannot be placed on Mr Kutscheruk's grave as a result and is still at Garlick Bros. monumental masons on Prebend Street.

Mrs Tracy said:

"I have lost my job, my home and 25 years of experience has been ruined. I have lost a stone in weight and given anti-depressants to help me deal with what is going on."

Residents have rallied behind Mrs Tracy to try and get the decision reversed. Pauline Bennett-Majors said:

"What they have done to that woman is a disgrace. She does absolutely everything. She arranges parties, bingo, trips out and would bend over backwards to help anyone. She is a good, magic lady who doesn't deserve any of this."

Fellow resident Max Woolley said:

I am absolutely disgusted by Pilgrims. I have been hospitalised on several occasions and each time Veronica has been there for me. She ensured that my property was safe and secure and I have no reason to doubt her integrity."

John Cross, chief executive of BPHA, said:

"Our primary responsibility is our duty of care to our vulnerable residents. We are in the process of notifying the residents at Patteshull Court about the situation and how we are going to maintain the service.

We also have a duty to respect people's confidentiality. We do not remove people from their positions lightly, and only do so when we feel that it is in the best interests of the residents and everyone involved.

The guidelines we follow in such cases have been agreed with BPHA staff and our staff committee to ensure that the process is considered and fair."

BoS reports that Henlow Middle School is under police watch after a series of incidents including arson threats, fire-setting and assaults on staff.

On Thursday, oil tanks were removed from the school, and an emergency meeting of the Parent-Teacher Association discussed installing CCTV.

The meeting came after an incident last Friday in which around 25 youths, eight of them on motorbikes, caused a disturbance in a nearby recreation area called 'The Pit'.

Police were called and according to one neighbour large amounts of wine and beer were confiscated.

During the incident, school caretaker Colin Clarke was physically assaulted.

The next morning, neighbours learned that a wheelie-bin smelling strongly of petrol had been pushed up against the school building.

One man whose daughter attends Henlow said: "The caretaker deserves a medal."

In July last year, Mr Clarke was assaulted by three men he confronted on school property.

In another incident, he was stabbed with a hypodermic needle which required surgery to remove.

He had to wait months for the result of an HIV test, which was negative. Mr Clarke, 61, is ill with stress.

A number of parents and local residents have spoken to Bedfordshire on Sunday about escalating trouble, which is believed to be led by recent pupils.

BoS put some of these concerns to local education authority Bedfordshire County Council. A council spokesman said:

"We are concerned about these stories which seem to be a gross exaggeration of the facts.

There have been some minor incidents and these are the matter of on-going police investigations."

Well, it's in the paper, but seems so improbable that it may be a wind-up! Here goes:

THE borough council could be making an appearance in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Publicans in Mid Bedfordshire are being encouraged to apply for a new licence sooner rather than later.

If pub landlords do not have a licence under the new system by November 7 then they cannot continue to supply alcohol.

Bedford Borough Council has taken extreme measures to try and ensure there isn't a problem in the town by appointing 364 sub-committees to the licensing committee.

A council spokesman said: "We believe it is necessary to set up 364 sub-committees, the maximum number that can be established from the current licensing committee, in order to be in a position to deal with the number of anticipated hearings within the tight time-scale laid down by the new Act."

(As a former lecturer in higher education, I was used to a plethora of committees, and when we appointed a committee to look at committees we thought that this was a record! However, this pales into insignificance compared with this news. I assure you, it is in the paper!)

Thieves, BoS reports, are wandering in off the streets to a swimming pool changing room and helping themselves to the contents of its lockers.

Up until this week the management of Robinson Pool, Bedford, stated its security system was watertight and this kind of crime was rare.

That was until a Bedfordshire on Sunday reporter pointed out to the manager that she had just walked in off the street straight into the changing rooms without paying or being challenged by the receptionist.

The lack of security was highlighted at the pool by a couple who had returned to one of their lockers in the changing room to find it ransacked. Their coats, wallets, mobile phones and other personal belongings were stolen.

The couple reported the theft to the manager and were shown the CCTV footage of the crime. They were told by workers at the pool that they have this problem quite a lot and they believed it was down to junkies in the park.

The public service workers' union "Unison" is threatening industrial action over county council plans to spend more than half a million pounds on six new fat-cat senior managers while making other staff redundant.

The union reacted angrily to Bedfordshire on Sunday's report that the authority is advertising for new assistant director posts which will cost well over £500,000 per year when it has not yet implemented a 1997 national agreement to harmonise pay and conditions across authorities for comparable posts.

Unison regional spokesman Kumar Sandy said:

"Staff morale is already very low because people have been waiting all this time for the single status agreement to be implemented.

Bedfordshire is one of the only councils in the region not to have done so and the bosses always plead poverty, so to hear that they are doing this is a real snub, particularly when we have been warned of likely redundancies.

We are considering talking to members about industrial action."

A county council spokesman said:

"There is some restructuring in progress which may lead to people changing jobs. There are no plans for compulsory redundancies.

Many local authorities have yet to implement the 1997 National Job Evaluation Single Status Agreement. Approximately half of all councils have done so to date. It is correct that the county council is among those which have not yet implemented the agreement. There is a time limit of 2007."

The borough council is looking to dig out the moat of Bedford Castle.

This is part of the latest plans to redevelop the Castle Lane area of Bedford, which has been an eyesore for many years.

Bedford Borough Council is in talks with a company called Complex Development projects and Albion Archaeology, the former county council department.

It is hoped to build an archaeology centre on the current Castle Lane car parks, rebuild the old castle inner moat and allow commercial redevelopment of the rest of the area.

The ideas are to be launched during archaeology week, which takes place between July 16 and 24.

During this week Albion plans to re-excavate some mediaeval trenches and re-enact various pastimes castle-dwellers used to enjoy, such as fighting, drinking, dressing up and playing bowls.

If the scheme to redevelop Castle Lane in this way goes ahead it will play a significant part in the town's regeneration, bringing in visitors by increasing the shopping and leisure opportunities in Bedford.

What has been a long moaned-about run-down part of the town could become its most attractive feature, as an extension of The Embankment and the museum-gallery complex.

(Last week Steve Lowe, in his editorial, made mention of loud music emanating from cars. I used to work in an office in the High street, and when there was a traffic jam, occasionally the music was almost unbearable.

Whether this practice is a deliberate statement by anti-social people, or whether the occupants, deafened by the loud music in clubs, are unaware of the noise they are making, isn't entirely clear. One letter to the editor has, he thinks, the answer):

"To play music to an audience (i.e. music outside the vehicle) you must have a Performing Rights Society Licence.

Failure to produce one can result in confiscation of the equipment, which in this case is also the car as it is a fitted installation within the vehicle."

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SIR - In response to Steve Lowe's column in last week's paper I can speak on behalf of myself and my fellow Liberal Democrat members on the county council to say that we will speak out.

We too were amazed that the electorate gave the Tories another chance at running the county.

We are more than aware that youth services are 'inadequate' and ranked 138th out of 138 in the country; that the standards of our roads are a disgrace and some of the worst in the country; that social services are still on special measures (as they have been since 2002), and of the problems with our strategic partner HBS.

But the question is not where to lay the blame - that clearly rests with the previous Tory councillors.

Over half the elected councillors are new to the county council and can lead a fresh start.

We will work hard with officers, voters and our group to ensure that these issues are raised and questioned publicly.

Susan Gaszczak
County Councillor

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SIR - I am writing to commend our local constabulary on their diligence in catching people speeding. I have recently been sent a fine and I hold my hand up, I was doing 39 mph in a 30 zone therefore I deserve to be punished.

However, I do take exception to the fact that there was no sign of the camera along the road on which I was travelling.

Why do they insist on hiding? These stealth tactics do nothing to increase our respect for those who have the, let's face it, not very nice job of catching us!

I thought entrapment was illegal.

(Probably. But so, surely, is driving at an excess speed where there is a restriction, and no cameras!)

More trouble on the railways. Another "day of action" (unusual term for a strike!) disrupted Midland Mainline services for the second successive Friday. It meant emergency timetables and fewer trains on the route from London St Pancras through Beds, Northants, Leics, Notts and Derbys to Sheffield.

Guards are striking in a dispute over safety due to hit services for four Fridays and leading to crowded trains. It's all about the number of guards on each train.

The Times&Citizen leads on a pretty blistering attack on the high-taxking Conservative County Council. (The Conservatives, despite a very dismal record in many areas, managed to increase their dominance of the County Local Authority, claiming 36 out of 52 seats.)

As regular readers will know, for the life of me I cannot understand why party politics exist in local education, but there it is. Anyway, the new council leader, Madelaine Russell has (somewhat unconvincingly I think) replied:

"People understand that the problems at the councy are longstanding, but that the Conservatives have grasped the situation and things are beginning to improve."

She continues

"The public also recognise that many county services are good... such as education, libraries, trading standards and the county archives."

And to be fair, these services are indeed good. Morover, the council now has a number of new faces, so perhaps we may see some improvement.

There has been much talk about efforts to stamp out binge drinking, something that many claim is making the centre of Bedford a no-go area come Friday evening.

To be fair, most of the young people who go for a drink are perfectly normal - if misguided - people, and the number of incidents are relatively few.

However, there are some who simply go too far. Several who have been in Bedford have commented on the disgusting sight of seeing people being sick all over the tombstones that are on each side of "The Mission" - a former church. And whilst it is true that serious incidents are rare, one does not know in advance where they might occur. So the message is simple - avoid the town in the evening, because it has been taken over by people, many with more money than sense.

Now steps are being taken to curb this excess. The British Beer and Pub Association is calling on all its 32,000 members to end 'happy hour' deals in order to combat anti-social behaviour associated with binge drinking.

And one member – Charles Wells Ltd, based in Havelock Street, in Bedford – has backed the scheme as a positive step in addressing anti-social behaviour.

Peter Wells, retail marketing director, said:

"We welcome this move by the beer and pub industry as we believe it will help raise standards and reassure the public that we are addressing problems that may contribute to a breakdown in social responsibility."

The brewer is a member of the Bed:Safe scheme, operated in conjunction with the Bedford Community Safety Partnership team, to reduce anti-social behaviour associated with drinking in the town centre and surrounding areas. Mr Wells added:

"It has never been our policy to reduce prices within our pub estate simply to encourage customers into the pub but have concentrated on providing the facilities, service and atmosphere that customers enjoy and want to return to."

The Government puts the cost of binge drinking at a staggering £20 billion a year, while the initiative seeks to combat late-night drinking laws introduced by the Government in January.

Drunken violence across Mid Beds has increased by a massive 51 per cent in the last four years – reportedly due to changes in licensing laws and the recent freedom to drink 24 hours a day in pubs.

More on that brave lady stabbed in Surrey. Abigail Witchalls is to be shown a picture of Bedford-born Richard Cazaly.

Mum-of-one Abigail, 26, will look at 12 pictures, including one of dead suspect Mr Cazaly, in a bid to identify her attacker.

Mr Cazaly, 23, lived in Little Bookham, Surrey, close to where Abigail was knifed in the neck and left paralysed as she pushed her 21-month-old son Joseph in his buggy on April 20.

Mr Cazaly left the village five days after Abigail's attempted murder and he died of an apparent paracetamol overdose in Edinburgh on April 30.

He left two suicide notes. One said: 'I must have done it'. But police say the letters do not amount to a confession of the attempted murder. No traces of Abigail's DNA were found in forensic tests.

Abigail, who is being treated at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, North London, has regained some physical feeling.

She said in a statement last week:

"I have sensation over most of my body and the pain is less now.

I can move my head but as of yet I cannot move my arms and legs. I can breathe and speak on my own for short periods. God is doing beautiful things."

During the summer period there exists a programme of guided walks in Bedford. Unfortunately they have always been on a Sunday morning, when I have other priorities.

Recently, however, these talks have been offered on a Wednesday afternoon, and this week I attended one with the intriguing title "I never knew that".

To my pleasant surprise the leader was Trevor Stewart, with whom I have corresponded on a number of occasions. In addition to running local events like this, and a committed supporter of the Swifts, he has on several occasions taken a group to Ypres, where they have traced the fate of many Bedford people during the first world war.

The walk, at a leisurely pace, took about ninety minutes, and during this time we learned a great number of interesting snippets about Bedford. Trevor is not only a delightful enthusiast, but also a fund of knowledge, and was for ever pointing out items that I had walked past hundreds of times and failed to notice!

If you are local or visiting, it is a good idea to schedule in one of these walks. For the record, this month's walks are:

29th June I Never Knew That
8th June Jewel in Bedford's Crown
15th June Rise & Fall of Bedford Castle
22nd June Around the Squares

Thanks Trevor for a most interesting evening!

(PS As to what I learned - well, there's a repeat walk at the end of the month; I don't want to spoil it for anyone!)

Sad news for Vernon and Cathy Keifer in California, who wrote (must have been three years or so ago) asking whether the famous Knicker Lady is still at the Market. She was, then, but I have not seen her or her stand around for some weeks. I'll ask next time I'm at the market, but I believe that she has retired.

eBay, the auction site, always has a large offering each week, relating to Bedford town or the county. Some of the offerings, frankly, are rubbish and quite over-priced even before the auction takes place; eBay rules, unfortunately, seem to allow for slightly questionable practices to take place.

But occasionally items come up which remind one of the past. Currently, one item is a Victory medal for the first world war, awarded to 14301 Private Vernon Alan Lawrence, of the 7th Battalion the Bedfordshire Regiment, who died of wounds on March 3rd 1919.

With the medal is the citation, details of which can also be found on the extensive Commonwealth Graves web-site.

Doubtless the proud parents, William and Ada, died many years ago, but during their lifetime they must have treasured this reminder of their son, killed as so many were, in the Great War.

It has always struck me that we do these people a disservice if we do not remind today's young people that war is not, as so many blockbusters portray, something exciting, but loathsome and very, very costly. One wish I have is that sometime, in their school career, all children should have the opportunity to see for themselves what war really meant, perhaps by visiting Ypres, or the concentration camps of the holocaust.

If only this medal could speak!

From the front of the Museum, with the Mound on the left, looking down towards the river. Taken last Saturday

Week ending 4 June 2005