Hello from Bedford!

Occasional newsletter - mainly for expats

Greetings!

Not much has happened in the last few weeks, though the town is gearing itself up for a pretty hectic summer. There has been just a little snow this Easter, captured by a photographer. See here for a slide-show.

Christian churches joined together in Harpur Square for an Easter Sunday celebration. Details and a slide-show here.

County Hall boss quits

The top officer at County Hall has announced she is leaving to take up a new job. She is to take up the equivalent position at Suffolk County Council.

Mrs Hill, 44, was appointed chief executive at County Hall in 2004, with a brief to turn around the failing authority.

More recently she was closely associated with the council's attempt to become a unitary authority.

However, the Department for Communities and Local Government last week finally confirmed that the Bedfordshire County Council will be wound up by May 2009. One hopes, as does the Mayor Frank Branston, that the issue is at long last cut and dried.

The curious thing is that, unless I am totally misinformed, Suffolk County Council too is scheduled to disappear!

In case it is felt that I am biased, here is an article from nearby Hertfordshire, referring to the record of the County Council.

Members of the ruling Conservative County Council party are now beginning to distance themselves from their leader Madeline Russell, who will face opposition at the annual meeting of the county Tory group from Cllr Peter Hand, a member of both county and borough councils. So is Councillor Richard Stay, who has been Madeline Russell's deputy for a couple of years.

We are also beginning to learn the full cost of Bedfordshire County Council's attempt to seek a judicial review into the unitary decision. A leaked email read out at Wednesday evening's Bedford Borough Council executive committee revealed that the county council had spent £543,270 so far on the appeal and that did not include staff time.

Meanwhile, the County Council is continuing to stall. Both the borough council and Mid and South Beds, which will form the Central Beds Council, need to work quickly, but the county council is refusing to let its officers get involved in talks.

The county council will have to pass important services such as education and social services over to the new councils. A Government committee has been set up, where Bedfordshire MPs will check the small details of the decision and try and move matters along. But here in Bedfordshire little appears to be happening because the county council will not let go until the judicial review is complete.

Nice work if you can get it.

Whether Mrs. Hill's departure had anything to do with it I do not know, but the national press has been making observations about the salaries some of the top executives earn . Andrea Hill, it is reported, will be earning over two hundred thousand pounds a year in her new job.

To be fair, once one has taken all services (including education) into account, the number of employees under the CEO's charge is quite formidable. Nonetheless, when one is earning substantially more than the Prime Minister of the country, eyebrows are bound to be raised. But then he also gets 10 Downing Street during office, and some searching questions are currently being made about the perks that ministers and some MPs claim. There is now a "Freedom of Information" Act which one can invoke to demand information non what has hitherto been a rather secretive area.

The usual reply is that if you want top candidates you need to pay for this. Dubious argument at the very least; I am sure that perfectly good people can be found at far more modest salaries. And I feel pretty sure that, given the high rates in the county, and the fact that the average salary is still under thirty thousand pounds a year, this issue is not likely to be forgotten in a hurry.

What about the Borough? Here, it appears, some people are rather coy about divulging such information. According to Beds. on Sunday a borough council spokesman said:

" We are exempt from providing details of a personal nature about individual officers as this would be a breach of data protection legislation. However, we were happy to provide banded figures for the total remuneration of senior council staff without personal data, information which is freely available in the council's statement of accounts."

A highly questionable response, it strikes me. Just about every job in the public domain has its scale of salaries, so why should there be any exemptions. I doubt whether there is anything to hide, but the Borough will be open to accusations if it remains secretive.

Whilst examining peks, coincidentally, Saturday's Daily Telegraph reported that refurbishing the home and garden of the Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin, has cost the taxpayer £1.7 million. See here. Such lavish expenditure contributes to the growing feeling that people who strive for power are on the make, which is most unfair to a substantial number of Members of Parliament like our local one, Patrick Hall, who work their socks off for the community and who must also feel that some of the perks some people take advantage of are nothing less than obscene. It is only in the past few weeks that the extent of the perks has been revealed.

No local elections this year

The government has decided that local elections due in May this year in Bedford will be postponed a year whilst everything is being sorted out. That makes good sense.

I only hope that this may be an opportunity for a bit of reflection into whether the tribal party politics in local government serves the people well. What appeals to me so much is the fact that Frank Branston chooses to have in his cabinet the best people for the job irrespective of political party leanings. It would be a very sad state of affairs if in the formation of the new Unitary authority, people were to revert to the old and discredited party affiliations. In local government, it seems to me, issues need to be discussed on their relative merits, not on the say-so of a caucus of people who seem to be unable to think outside their little worlds!

Behind the scenes....

Whilst many look to the state to help those who are in need, few appear to be aware of the amount of work done by voluntary bodies, particularly by churches.

For example, there's the splendid work being done by the Jaffa Orchard, off Castle Road. The Jaffa Orchard was formed by a group of people with the vision to open a  Community Coffee Shop, Cyber Cafe and Gift Shop for the Community. This vision has continued over the years, and over fifty volunteers are involved. (See here for details)

The County having all but abandoned provision for youth, organizations such as Youth Matters is seeking to fill the gap. This too is a non-profit making organization led by Doug McWilliam, a former County Youth Officer, and seeks to provide for young people who are disadvantaged or excluded.

“…teen pregnancy, alcohol, suicide, sexual infection, self harm, abuse, homeless, single parents, violent, illiterate, obesity, anger, racism, drugs, insecurity, gangs, loneliness…”

Youth Matters likes to say yes to young people. Details about Youth Matters can be seen here.

What particularly caught my eye was an article by Nadine Dorries, the colourful MP for mid-Bedfordshire. Nadine's blog is one of my favourites, and is well worth a read. Her latest gives an account of the work done by The Kings Arms project in Bedford. You might be forgiven for thinking that the Kings Arms is a local pub - well, no, it's a church that is committed to support the homeless in the area.

She writes:

"I have just come back from visiting the Kings Arms project in Bedford. The project looks after the homeless and provides a depth of continued support over a number of years. It was one of the best run projects I have ever visited.

I will be spending further time with the project over the next few weeks, and will blog in more detail about the work they do, which includes sitting in the gutter in an attempt to persuade rough sleepers that they are worth a bed for the night.

According to a recent government, ‘rough sleepers’ count – Bedford has the highest number of rough sleepers outside of London. Really? More than Manchester, Liverpool or Leeds?

I am going to probe this one a bit deeper, but I am quite sure we will find government targets at the bottom of it somewhere.

The project is now huge, and has helped many hundreds of people to battle alcoholism and drugs, and assisted them to make the transition from the street to community."

Whatever your political persuasion, Her blog, which can be found here, is worth reading.  Details of the sterling work by the Kings Arms community can be seen here.

Finally...

If you are in Bedford in the next few weeks, do pop into the Bedford Museum to see a a display about the Ouse and its surrounding. More about this next time. The Museum will be closing for refurbishment later this year and is likely to be closed for some eighteen months. The Cecil Higgins Art Gallery has been closed for some time now.

eBay (see here) is advertising a reproduction of a painting by J M W Turner. Whether one or several copies are available I am not sure. Perhaps the latter. (Here I reveal my ignorance of art!) According to the time-line of events in Bedford: "Some time after1813 the artist J.M.W. Turner painted a view of the sun setting over Bedford Bridge." Is this it? If not, please let me know! Anyway, it's a lovely picture, and the auction ends on 4th April.

More soon!

Best wishes

Robert