News in brief

It has been an odd autumn, with trees seemingly unsure whether to shed their leaves, but now they are convinced the time has come! Before I forget to mention it, Bedford entered the "Anglia in bloom" competition for the first time in ten years, and received a Silver Award. In addition, the Embankment Gardens were also nominated for the Best Local Authority Display.

Do have a look at "Plant of the month" (towards the bottom of the page). There are photographs there, and also, for people like me who know absolutely nothing about trees, what type they are!

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The County Council eventually agreed to loan Nirah another £200,000 towards the The National Institute for Research into Aquatic Habitats (NIRAH for short!) project - not anything like what it has originally promised, but something, anyway. They must, I think, have been shamed into this when two ten year olds from Alameda School collected over ten thousand signatures supporting the NIRAH project.

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Meanwhile Nadine Dorries, MP for Mid Beds, is said to be facing possible legal action over comments made in a BBC broadcast. I understand that NIRAH has written to the BBC demanding disclosure of all footage featuring Mrs Dorries, whether broadcast or not, with a view to proceedings for libel. Whether this is true or merely sabre-rattling remains to be seen. But the MP for Mid Beds. comes over rather oddly - proclaiming that she is in favour of the project, whilst seemingly seeking to damn it and the leaders of NIRAH.

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The Christmas lights are on, following the grand lighting up ceremony last week, followed by a spectacular fireworks display. To be honest, they seem much the same as for the last two or three years; a little rearrangment might have been welcome.

This habit of doing the same as last year is, in my humble opinion, a failing that the town could do well to address. We will shortly have the Christmas fair in Harpour Square. Most of the feature,s for example the steam engine, and the helterskelter, will be in precisely the same position, if the last few years are anything to go by! I hope that I'm proved wrong!

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Frank Branston, who is Bedford's first elected mayor, is standing again for another term. A masochist, I think! The salary for the job is not all that great. But I'm glad he is standing. For the thirty or so years I have been in Bedford nothing much has happened except slanging matches between the party political adversaries, when as most will know, hardly any issue to be addressed is a party political one. By comparison, Frank has got things moving.

There are, for example, street rangers in problem areas, a considerable personal injection of money towards the NIRAH project, ambitious plans for the Castle Lane area, pedestrianisation of Harpur Street, and so on. Bedford is undoubtedly moving forward.

That does not stop Frank's detractors, of course. The party political people have had their noses put out of joint, and would relish the possibility of returning to the old system. But the public, I am sure, do not want this, as shown by the appallingly small turnout at each local election. At national (MP) level, party politics, yes, but not at town level!

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This from Frank Branston's blog:

The architect working for Frontier Estates, owner of part of the land behind the airship sheds at Cardington, has found a novel way to commemorate the R101.

In his design for development on the land he has included an oval public space in the precise dimensions of the mighty airship which crashed on its first flight near Beauvais in France.

 

 

 

 

A spokesman for Frontier Estates said:

“Soon the last people to be involved with the R101 will have faded into history and young people will have no conception of airships. This will show them how enormous they were.”

If Frontier gets planning permission for its development it has promised to refurbish Shed 1 at a probable cost of about £6million. The R101 wood will run the full width of the site. Surrounding it will be private and social housing, maisonettes and flats.

See here for further details of the R101.