Weekly news from Bedford, UK

BoS leads with the rather dismal story that several top jobs are becoming vacant, with repercussions on the tax-payers:

Recruiting a new top management team for the county council cost local taxpayers £300,000. Saying goodbye to more than half of them in the same year will cost nearly a third of a million pounds more.

Four of the seven officers on Bedfordshire County Council's management board have resigned in the last fortnight.

The total pay-off comes to around £240,000. Recruiting replacements will cost approximately a further £25,000. And appointing caretaker officers until the vacancies are filled is, according to the council, 'not likely to exceed £50,000'.

This was announced at the same time the council was told it is still one of the worst performing in the country.

The figures were given by council leader Madeline Russell at Thursday's full council meeting in response to questions from Lib Dem group leader Peter Blaine.

Cllr Russell insisted though, that there would be no cost in the departure of finance director Nick Bell, who is moving to a new role at Westminster City Council.

The other three officers leaving are deputy chief executive Jonathan Flowers, customer services director Paul Spencer and director for learning David Doran.

Bedfordshire County Council has received a one star rating from a recent assessment by the Audit Commission.

This is the lowest rating possible but the council is 'improving well'.

The Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) can award up to four stars.

TONY Blair has appointed the former county council chief executive to be the new top civil servant at education.

David Bell is currently the chief inspector of schools.

The former teacher will take-up the role heading up the department on January 3, succeeding Sir David Normington who is moving to become permanent secretary at the Home Office.

The current director of early years at Ofsted, Maurice Smith, will be made acting head of the inspectorate, subject to privy council approval, and there will be an open competition for the job in the new year.

Mr Bell, 46, is well respected by schools as a steady hand and has drawn praise for being independent of government and not afraid to criticise policy during his tenure as chief inspector.

His appointment completes a meteoric rise from chief executive of Bedfordshire County Council in 2000 to chief inspector of schools in 2002 and now the key civil servant position in education.

Mr Bell was chosen from a shortlist of three, which was believed to have included a permanent secretary from another department and a prominent vice-chancellor from the south of England.

Bedfordshire Police have announced Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire as their preferred partners if the area's forces are forced to merge.

Earlier this year Home Secretary Charles Clarke announced plans for streamlining police forces across the country so that each would have roughly the same number of officers and staff.

The county's police chief and police authority were presented with four options to consider. They could merge with either Thames Valley or Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, Herts and Essex or the whole Eastern Region.

At Friday's meeting members of Bedfordshire Police Authority were unanimous in their opposition to any merger but agreed to put forward a preferred option rather than, as they feared, have a less suitable alternative foisted on the county.

They agreed to endorse the Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire option but members said a strong letter should be sent to the Home Secretary outlining their disquiet at both the time scale they had been presented with and also at the overriding impression that there is no choice regardless of forces' opposition.

Following the meeting, authority chairman Peter Conniff said: "We wish it to be made clear to the Home Secretary that we are unhappy at the demands imposed upon it with regard to force restructures."

Bedfordshire Chief Constable Gillian Parker said: "Both the authority and the force have worked hard to ensure that whatever happens after today, the policing service that we deliver to is the best that it can be within the resources available to us."

Pensioner associations have met with Bedford Hospital bosses to discuss the use of Do Not Resuscitate notices.

Members from the groups wanted to express their fears and concerns about going into hospital with the possibility that they may not leave again due to medical policy.

A special meeting was called on Thursday following a Bedfordshire on Sunday exclusive three weeks ago when we revealed that a patient was 'given the equivalent of a death sentence' by the hospital without his or his family's knowledge.

One concerned pensioner told the meeting:

"I was horrified to hear about what happened, but I cannot say that I am surprised.

"I know of two other cases where a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) notice was served without anyone knowing. One of the patient's daughter was a nurse and she knew nothing about it."

Pensioners from Biggleswade, Sandy and Bedford along with a representative from Age Concern met with Bedford Hospital Chief Executive Jean O'Callaghan and Director of Nursing, Julie Halliday to ask questions about the hospitals procedures. They wanted to know exactly what the procedure was, what had gone wrong in the recent case and how the patient and relatives were kept informed about the decision.

During the 45 minute meeting, Mrs O'Callaghan and Ms Halliday revealed that Bedford Hospital was reviewing its use of DNR notices and procedures following this particular incident. Ms Halliday said:

"We have begun to review our policy."

When asked if the hospital could ensure that there would never be another incident like this, Mrs O'Callaghan said:

"We make every endeavour and assurance that we will do everything possible to see that this doesn't happen again."

More about the surprise announcement of a merger between two Universities:

de Montfort university is refusing to say how much it has been paid by Luton for its Bedford site.

The university announced this week that it is selling the Bedford campus to Luton University.

A new University of Bedfordshire will be formed, although the official name is yet to be agreed.

This was the plan by some academics and councillors when Bedfordshire County Council was first forced to give up its higher education colleges.

Senior county councillors and officers opposed the plan, preferring Luton to form its own university and Bedford to be taken over by an existing institution.

One academic who was on the council education committee at the time, John Dickens, said: "Fifteen years on and we are back where we started. I suppose it is some kind of progress."

De Montfort did announce that money gained from selling the site in Lansdowne Road will be spent at the Polhill Avenue campus. A spokesman said:

"The money raised from the Lansdowne site will be invested, including a new Campus Centre, which will house catering facilities, a 300 seat auditorium, a studio performance space and offices.

"Performing art courses remain the same and will become part of the new university.

"The Bowen West Theatre services are planned to also transfer to the new auditorium at Polhill."

In regards to what De Montfort University originally paid the county council and what Luton is paying De Montfort a spokesman added: "We cannot reveal that information, as it is commercially sensitive."

Martin Fletcher, chairman of Natfhe at De Montfort, Bedford, said: "We have entered into a period of consultation with the management. We are keen to preserve and further improve the quality of provision to the students and preserve the conditions of service of the staff upon which that quality of teaching depends."

Motorists have labelled Zoneboys as scrooges after being issued warning nottices for parking in Mill Street, Bedford last Sunday.

The notices said they could face a £60 fine but were being let off this time.

From today, however, they will be fined.

A Bedford Borough Council spokesman said: "Mill Street does have double yellow lines which prohibit parking at all times. Since parking attendants have begun working on Sundays warnings have been issued.

"From today penalty charge notices will be issued."

(Being let off this time doesn't sound like Scrooge!)

IR - The Bedfordshire on Sunday Christmas lights competition must end.

First, it is a truly foul spectacle encouraging horrific bouts of rampant tastelessness, but more importantly it is an obscene clarion call for the accelerated destruction of planet Earth.

What part of "global warming" do you not understand? By promoting the proliferation of houses festooned in this cheap, monstrously energy-guzzling festive tat you are setting a direct course for rising sea levels, brutal hurricanes and sweltering heatwaves like the one which killed 15,000 people in France in 2003.

You are very conspicuously kicking future generations right in the baubles.

And for Mayor Frank Branston to weigh in offering yet more prize money simply shows him up as the backward-looking man of straw many believe him to be. I've seen the ghost of Christmas future, Frank: he's sunburned, wearing armbands and wants to slap you with a wet fish. Wake up!

(Misery-guts!)

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SIR - While discussion continues on what sort of local government structure we think might be best for Bedford and Bedfordshire, no one should be fooled that the Government will do anything other than devise something which makes its own control easier.

The recently-announced very tight grant settlement for our three councils makes my point. Although Bedford Borough has done best with a five per cent increase, it will still struggle with all the extra demands Government makes upon it.

Mid Bedfordshire and Bedfordshire County Council have been given among the poorest allocations, thus holding back the excellent progress the county is making, and requiring one of the best run and lowest charging district councils in England to make decisions on cutting back services at the Government's demand, not based on what local residents want.

No-one should be at all surprised. After all the Labour Government had its election last year, when it said the economic picture was rosy. Once re-elected, surprise, surprise, it is not so rosy after all, and council taxpayers are stealthily left to blame their councils and pick up the bills

The public should not be misled. The Government is engaged on a programme to undermine the powers and responsibilities of local councils, before it reorganises them on regional lines to make central control easier, like Health and Police. What better way than to put them under financial pressure to make unpopular decisions?

I strongly believe Bedfordshire people will not be fooled so easily!

Alistair Burt,

MP for North East Bedfordshire

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SIR - There is always much carping and whingeing in your columns and too seldom any praise or optimism.

Astonishingly there is none for the magnificent job that the borough council has done on the landscaping, fencing and resulting opening up of the north side of St Paul's Church.

It is a superb piece of work and now the environs of this fine building do full justice to its truly beautiful interior.

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SIR - A writer to your newspaper suggests that a wind turbine is an unacceptable hazard near a public swimming pool and has quoted me to support this specious argument.

Wind turbines, like all other human constructions have their particular hazards. However, wind turbines are far less dangerous than the chlorine used in swimming pools.

If we, the public, routinely accept the hazard of chlorine at our swimming pools, we can certainly accept the very remote hazards posed by modern wind turbines.

Throughout Europe and even in the United States wind turbines are used in public spaces. In my newest book I highlight wind turbines that are used at schools in the state of Iowa.

A residents-only parking scheme in Bedford is to be reviewed after it emerged hardly anyone is using it.

Ellis Road was turned into an exclusive enclave after complaints it had become an overspill car park for users of the nearby Dragons Health Club.

But the scheme – which cost £4,000 to set up – is to be reconsidered by the Bedford Joint Parking Board in March next year.

A meeting last week decided to put the arrangements under the microscope after hearing that, on average, only seven of Ellis Road's 52 on-street residents' spaces are occupied at any one time.

Coun Margaret Davey (Castle, Better Bedford Independent) called for the review.

Speaking afterwards, she said:

"The scheme was a ridiculous decision and totally wrong for Bedford. We want to encourage people to come to the town and use the facilities, including Dragons.

"The houses in Ellis Road have garages and drives, so compared with many roads nearer to the town centre they are comparatively well off for parking space.

"I am concerned about the precedent this sets. We seem to have a position where, if the residents say they want residents-only, then that's what they get.

"There are some roads where there is no parking on drives and people are badly hit, such as near the hospital, where I would want to be fair to them. But it has to be even-handed."

It could be a cold Christmas for some Bedfordshire villages after Sunday's fire at the Buncefield oil depot.

The Hemel Hempstead centre, which was the scene of Europe's biggest industrial peacetime fire at the weekend, was the main supplier for heating fuel companies across the county.

Lucy Craddock, spokesman for the Conquest Oil Company in Houghton Conquest, admitted:

"We are not coping very well.

"We are a Texaco distributor and Texaco are having to go further afield for the fuel, so we are not getting nearly as much as we need. We are getting so many customers coming to us and we cannot cope with demand."

Conquest Oil Company took between four and six deliveries a day from Buncefield until Sunday, but is currently getting around half that.

(This made national news, as it was such a huge accident. As far as I am aware no-one was killed. I heard the explosion in Putnoe, but it was only later that I learned that this explosion had been as far away as in Hemel Hempstead).

The Times&Citizen leads with a report that all four Bedfordshire's MPs have called for a financial summit with the government.

They are seeking a meeting with the depouty Prime Minister to discuss the financial pressures on the county, and how much money the government should give towards next year's council tax. The feeling is that the grant given to Bedfordshire is very low, and that this is in turn having serious effects upon the quality of the service the local authorities can offer. Mentioned in particular is the deterioration of the local roads.

A trio of students have been crowned cream of the crop of a prestigious business competition.

Kate Agar, Hephzibah Bayliss and Jessica Whittamore, of Dame Alice Harpur School on Cardington Road, Bedford, were named as the winners of the Ogden Trust National Schools Business Competition 2005.

The Year 13 pupils were given just three hours to prepare a business plan comprising a financial and a marketing element against eight other schools at the Judge Business School in Cambridge.

After the girls won £1,000 for the school and a day at the Financial Times Headquarters in London, Melanie Lincoln, Head of Economics and Business Studies at Dame Alice said: "The girls were brilliant. They've come through three rounds competing against some really strong schools, and have proved that Dame Alice girls have what it takes to be the innovative entrepreneurs of the future."

The Dame Alice team pitch was a business called Bothered – delivering boxes within an hour to a target market in North London.

They devised a range of parties in a box, including a 'girls' night in' or a 'luxury celebration' and a range of rescue cures such as the 'hangover rescue box'.

They had to give advice to a fictional entrepreneur looking to start a same day delivery service in North London selecting warehouse sites and outlining plans for a product, delivery and overhead costs.

The event was chaired by the presenter of Radio 4's 'In Business', Peter Day.

The judging panel was led by Sir Peter Ogden who founded the Trust four years ago to promote entrepreneurial skills to a new generation.

No sign of any snow at the moment, though there is some indication that it may come next Tuesday. The weather has been very mild. Walking in town, I came across a huge number of people darting from one shop to the next in the hope of either buying presents, or taking advantage of the sales which, believe it or not, have already started. The market seems to extend down the Midland Road almost to the junction.

Littlewoods is closing down, so bargains can be found there.

For those in the northern hemisphere, especially those enduring the bleak weather up north, just something to cheer you up: from now on the days begin to get longer!

Finally, I expect I am not alone in feeling a trifle weary of carol services. I enjoy one or two, but sometimes one has too many to attend at this time of year.

So it was a welcome relief when Christ Church, Bedford, put on "Hosannah Rock" - a venture that included a host of children. It was a delight to watch. It spelt out learlyt the message of Christmas, something that one can so easily ignore.

Full marks not only to the children but also to the leaders!

Many thanks to those who have sent emails or posted greetings in the guestbook. May I wish you a joyous Christmas.

PS Do please pop a message in the Guest book - this is always an encouragement!

Robert

Week ending 24 December 2005