Weekly news from Bedford, UK, 16th July 2005

Yes, I said I'd be on holiday! Seeing the kind comments by Susan, Betty and Barbara I felt I must respond! So here's a news update....

Patrick Hall, MP, has opened up a debate that really is overdue - do we really need a Borough authority AND a county authority. Is this not a huge waste? BoS leads with this theme:

In the week when Bedfordshire County Council announced it is severing its £250 million contract with service provider HBS, the Bedford and Kempston MP has asked the Government to consider making the county 'unitary'.

This means that instead of two councils in each area responsible for different services, there will be only one council in charge of them all.

At the moment the county council mainly looks after education, social services and the environment, including some roads.

Bedford Borough and Mid Bedfordshire look after housing, leisure, planning, parts of the environment and some roads.

The plan outlined by Mr Hall, would abolish the county council and make the districts larger than they are at present.

He says he has the backing of Government on this plan, so long as there is support for it from council taxpayers and businesses. Mr Hall said:

"In Bedfordshire we have a two tier system of county council and district councils one of the key features of which is a deep-seated failure to talk to each other and work together in the interests of the residents who pay the wages and whom the councils exist to serve.

"In Bedford and Kempston we have an appallingly poor state of road and pavement repairs. The county and borough councils blame each other. Economic development and promotion of the area is weak because it is split between two councils that won't co-operate enough.

"We pay for two sets of managers and two sets of councillors. Responsibility is divided and confusing. Democracy is undermined, accountability weakened, resources wasted.

"No wonder we pay the third highest council tax in the country and receive, from the county council, the worse services. The system is wasteful and I judge has served its time.

"I have discussed this possibility with the Minister for Local Government, David Milliband MP. He said that the door is not shut on reform provided the case is made locally. I hope therefore that local people, businesses, councils and others will engage positively in the debate."

Having been in Bedford since 1970, I've always felt this way. But I suppose I'd go further. I meet up with many councillors, both at Borough and at County levels. I have a lot of time for most of them, and find that they are honest people seeking the best for Bedford, even if at times their perceptions differ from mine.

But when they sit down in their respective council chambers, they seem to undergo a massive change. From decent, approachable people many of them become partisan, sometimes rather childish, to the extent that viewing these meetings, and reading their pronouncements can become singularly embarrassing. Entrenched in their party political mould their main objective in life seems to be to wrong-foot the "enemy" (yes, I've heard them use that terminology!) Some of them seem to change from ordinary serving members of the public into pretentious know-alls who have a totally disproportionate impression of their status.

Why they become like this is difficult to determine. It is even more puzzling to me why people gather together in party political groupings when, to be frank, hardly any of the issues need a party political viewpoint!

Party politics in local government seem to me to be totally irrelevant. And the tax-payers and rate payers in Bedfordshire suffer. Why? Because self-respecting people who would like to contribute to the community steer clear of such a set-up, with a "plague on all your houses" response.

Whether one is for or against Frank Branston (and I'm very much for him!) the message of the electors should be blatantly obvious to any sensible person - the electors are tired of inter-party bickering, see party politics as irrelevant and wasteful, and would much prefer to have in power those who have independent minds, and who have a respect for the people they are supposed to serve. Even before Frank threw his hat into the ring, the message was obvious from the dismally low turnout at local elections.

I wish Patrick Hall success in his campaign for a unitary authority. Patrick is a thoughtful, invariably polite and hardworking member, and is always to be seen supporting local ventures. The merger of the Borough and County councils (who seem to always bickering with each other!) would be a massive step forward. The demise of party political groupings in favour of independent people who are prepared to examine issues at face value would be an added bonus. But sadly I don't see this happening in my life-time!

As part of the improvement to the Castle Mound area of Bedford, on The Embankment, a mosaic was commissioned, to be created on the grassed area between the old castle site and the River Great Ouse.

The mosaic is a representation of medieval Bedford, showing the castle, fortified river bridge and King Offa.

There is a debate about whether it is supposed to be read from the river or from the top of the mound. It is correctly aligned, or oriented, showing the south of the river at the bottom. But the lettering of street names are designed to be read from the river-side, not the castle mound. A Bedford Borough Council spokesman said:

"The Castle Mound mosaic has been installed correctly. Most visitors to the area will be looking at the mosaic from ground level rather than the viewing platform and this was the key factor in the decision as to which way it should face." Some feel this is right and would look odd the other way round, while others think the lettering should have been designed to be read from the Mound.

The mosaic and engravings at the top of the mound were formally opened by the Mayor, Frank Branston.

The story of the Castle can be seen on plaques at the top, covering up the graffiti that some mindless characters provided within days of the structure being built.

This opening coincided with Archaeology Day, and the Museum had arranged a variety of activities to cater for this.

A children's "excavation" was laid on in the precincts of the museum, and all finds were recorded as they would have been in a proper excavation.

The museum also had a large display showing items of interest, dating back centuries.

A popular game set up at the museum was a small mockup of a siege machine, the object being to demolish a castle at the other end!

But the big attraction for young people was the number of Saxon and Viking soldiers around the site.

The mock battle was fun and realistic, and mindful of the fact that only a few weeks before, at a reenactment not too far away when someone had been injured, people were kept firmly behind the ropes!

Then children, provided with sticks and soft coverings, were invited to fight the soldiers! There was such a large queue for this that the soldiers had to be killed several times before the event came to a close.

The youngest warrior sets off for battle!

The Museum is a much under-estimated jewel in the crown, and has a host of activities and displays for people of all ages. The infectious enthusiasm of the staff, and the warm welcome one always receives, makes a visit to the Museum a delightful event. Full marks to Rosemary Brind and the team!

How about this! Last week tens of thousands of pounds of work was held up - because pigeons were nesting in a nearby tree. As one frustrated council officer said this week:

"They are vermin when grown up but a protected species when they are babies."

Bedford Borough Council is currently demolishing the public toilets in St Paul's Square, Bedford. The work was stopped after the council spotted a pigeon's nest in one of the lime trees on the site.

A council spokesman said they contacted the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) to ask if the nest could be removed but were informed that this wasn't possible.

"The RSPB said that the birds are protected under the Wildlife Act 1981 until they have flown the nest."

"Section 16 of the Wildlife Act specifies some exceptions if, for example, the control of birds is necessary to prevent the spread of disease, if there is a risk to livestock food or there is a risk to public safety.

"In this situation none of these exceptions applied so the pigeons had to be left where they were," explained Johann Holt, the RSPB's public affairs manager for Central England.

As luck would have it, the birds left the area on Tuesday meaning there was only a short delay and the improvement scheme in St Paul's Square is back on track.

Work is due to be completed by October.

BoS claims that the County Council has gagged staff and councillors over a decision to fire its private partner that could put up to 200 jobs at risk.

In June 2001, Bedfordshire County Council chose Hyder Business Services (HBS) as its partner in a 12-year deal worth £267million.

Now, the council has decided to ditch HBS - and has demanded silence on the subject, fearing the company will seek compensation.

HBS, formerly Welsh Water, agreed to provide a large number of services, including Information Technology, finance, payroll, pensions administration, contract management and media communications.

Some 500 staff transferred to HBS under the deal and an agreement, known as TUPE, means most should transfer back. This week HBS was given one month's notice for breach of contract.

Councillors have been told not to speak to anyone about any aspect of the decision. An email, to all staff, says:

"If you are approached by the media you must refer them to the Press Office. Do not make any comment as this may compromise the council's position."

Sir - I am hoping you will have been inundated with letters from ecstatic readers delighted about the Olympics coming to Great Britain.

Of course you will have a few cynical ones from people who do not realise what a fantastic opportunity this is not only for young sports people, who will be in their prime in 2012, but the commercial opportunities it brings to hotels, restaurants and many other businesses.

As the Mayor Frank Branston himself said, 'we must now get in training'.

Bedford's most famous sports are athletics and rowing.

It is amazing then that we have an Olympic gold medal winning rower, Tim Foster MBE, who learned to row in Bedford but then had to go elsewhere to train to 'Olympic standard' with the national team.

It is reported that Australia, which has a population of 18 million, is more successful than Great Britain.

They have sports academies with state of the art facilities and world class coaches are given all the help they need to produce Olympic standard athletes.

In rowing, we too have the 'Olympic World Class Start Project', based at the Star Club in Bedford, which identifies children who could become Olympic athletes.

All we need are the superb facilities to encourage and motivate young Bedfordians into the Olympic sport.

Surely it is about time the powers that be who have stopped Willington Rowing Lake and Country Park from being completed now have the perfect incentive to be positive and give it the go ahead in order to train the town's, county's and indeed country's potential Olympic champions in time for 2012.

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SIR - A few weeks ago residents were surveyed and they said their top council gripe was the quality of the road surfaces followed closely by poor cleanliness of the roads.

Since January 2000 council tax bills have increased by 54 per cent. Over that same period road budgets have increased by 127 per cent and the street cleaning budget has gone up by 76 per cent.

The millions of taxpayers' money thrown at these problems appears to have been wasted or poorly managed - either way taxpayers are not satisfied.

Such matters are the responsibility of CSD, the secretive borough department which amazingly contrives to produce an annual profit and bonus payments; much to the delight of some senior members - who mesmerically ignore the potholes and filth.

In 2002, voters assumed the Mayor's 'new management broom' would clean-sweep the Borough.

Since those heady days of hope and expectation, apart from hugely increasing the budget, little else has changed, hence taxpayers' dissatisfaction.

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SIR - I feel I must object to the contents of the letters page, which is yet again hijacked by local politicians, point scoring. Roughly half the available space is taken up by them.

So in future can you kindly isolate the contributions of the Mayor, our councillors and representatives of public bodies to another location, so that we mere mortals can get a word in edgeways?

A disgruntled Graham Brown

DO you live in Ampthill? Ever wondered just what your mayor does? Well now you can find out on the Mayor's Blog.

According to Mayor Mark Smith 'a blog can be defined as many things. A personal diary. A daily pulpit. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.

'A blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.

'In simple terms, a blog is a web site or page, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new.'

And the aim of the Mayor's Blog? Again according to Cllr Smith

'To keep the people of Ampthill informed about what their Mayor is doing on their behalf! To demystify the role of Mayor! To encourage the residents of the town to stand at the next election for the town council and to provide a personal insight. Although my views in no way represent the collective views of Ampthill Town Council'

So far the diary includes details of Cllr Smith's election and engagements he has carried out such as a visit to the Fire Service awards, lunch with the Lions and attendance at Ampthill Festival.

You can find Cllr Smith's blog at www.ampthill.org.uk

A map of Bedford to be found on a notice board near Castle Mound.

So there we are, Susan, Betty and Barbara, Peter, Raphael and others who have written in! My impression however is that there is less news during the lazy days of summer!

I'll do one more newsletter if there is enough to go on, but then have a break. All being well, I'll be back in the first week of next term.

Week ending 23 July 2005

A map of Bedford to be found on a notice board near Castle Mound.

Important! I am moving hosting shortly, and like all these things, there can be a delay. If next week you cannot find beds.co.uk, look for bedford.org.uk and see whether this works!