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The Elected Mayor of Bedford Borough
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Fri 3rd Sep 2010
Four days in, and the village tour is going really well. I've done surgeries in 13 villages so far, plus the pints in the parishes event in Cotton End on Tuesday night. Thanks to everyone who has come out and talked to me. I've taken away lots of actions for myself and for the Council, and if you've raised a query with me I will be getting back to you as soon as possible. The village tour is all about giving people in all parts of the Borough the chance to raise matters important to them with me directly, so if I'm coming to your village, please come and talk to me about any concerns, ideas, suggestions or just to say hello! The full village tour itinerary is listed below:
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Wed 1st Sep 2010
Last night I was in Cotton End for the latest 'Pints in the Parishes' event at The Bell. I want to thank Landlady Lorraine and everyone at the pub last night for a warm welcome and a very good discussion about a range of issues faced by the local residents in the village and in neighbouring Shortstown.
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Mon 30th Aug 2010
Work to relay the track at Bedford International Athletics Stadium on Barkers Lane started last week, and I went along to see how things were going. It is a major investment, but the old track was in sore need of replacing after more than 20 years. The new surface will be one of just a small handful in the country which matches that which will be used in the 20102 Olympic stadium, and will enable Bedford Borough to continue hosting major events in Bedford while offering local athletes and schoolchildren high quality facilities.
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Sun 29th Aug 2010
This week I met the CEO of bakers Lantmannen Unibake at Cambridge Road, to the South of Bedford, to turn the first sod at the site where they are building a brand new bakery. Up to 280 people will be employed at the site, with only six coming over from Lantmannen's existing bakery in Milton Keynes. In fact, Lantmannen had originally wanted to locate this new bakery in Milton Keynes, but after they were unable to secure planning permission at a particular site there, Bedford Borough Council moved quickly when we alerted to their interest in expanding and building a major new bakery.
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Sat 28th Aug 2010
Last week I wrote in the Times and Citizen newspaper about my cautious optimism over one or two emerging sings for the local economy. Clearly, with households struggling in the very difficult economic climate, there is a long way to go before we can talk of a significant recovery, but the unemployment figures over the last year or so do give cause for some cautious optimism. Even though there is only so much the Council can do, I am determined that it will do all it can to help foster conditions in the local economy which help create and retain jobs in this Borough. In case you missed it, here's the article from the paper:
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Fri 27th Aug 2010
My 'village tour' of 55 of the Borough's rural villages starts on Monday, and I cannot wait to get started! At each village I will be holding a 'mobile surgery' to enable anyone to let me know about the issues that matter to them. I get around to all parts of the Borough as much as possible generally, of course, and talking directly to people from across the Borough is as essential way of finding out residents' views. However, the last couple of weeks before the Council's cycle of meetings kicks in again after the summer is a good opportunity to dedicate specific time in as many villages as I can and give people in the rural areas the best possible chance of raising any issues, concerns or ideas with me directly. Of course, the weather is also supposedly better at this time of year, but that idea seems laughable at the moment! Whatever the weather, I am really looking forward to getting out and about and meeting as many people as possible.
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Thu 26th Aug 2010
I must comment on the exam results achieved by students in Bedford Borough, following the A Level and GCSE results days in the past week, and offer my congratulations to all the students for their hard work. To take one measure for GCSEs, which were published on Tuesday this week, there was a 3% rise across the Borough's maintained schools in the number of students achieving 5 A* - Cs, including English and Maths, taking this number over 50%. Meanwhile, A Level results in the Borough's maintained schools also saw a rise in terms of both the overall number of points achieved by students, and the average points achieved per subject.
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 News Story Feed (v1.0).
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| Bedford Mayoral By-Election (1st pref) Result |
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Turnout: 35145 (31%)
26.8%
Liberal Democrats: 9428
25.9%
Conservative: 9105
21.7%
Independent Candidate: 7631
View the results in detail.
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