Achievements
Here is a short, and by no means complete, list of my achievements during my term as Mayor
A GOOD Council: When I was elected in October 2002, the borough council was nervous about its potential score in the Government’s Comprehensive Performance Assessment. The best guess was that we might achieve the half way score of ‘Fair’ (Poor, Weak, Fair, Good, Excellent).
Over the next few months lot of work was put in to discover weaknesses and improve performance, and at the end of it we achieved a rating of ‘Good’, second from the top.
Now we are to be assessed again and this time nothing less than ‘Excellent’ will do.
It will be achieved by ensuring that all those services of which we are in control are graded excellent and we believe that grade has already been achieved.
We are determined not to slip back and to carry on the improvements already achieved.
Being upgraded will be a great boost in our campaign to become a unitary authority which, in turn, will produce council tax savings for our residents. You will find many of these improvements listed below.
Pride in Bedford: I was concerned to improve the appearance of Bedford from Day One of my term of office. On that day I approved increased cleaning of the town centre, the purchase of an additional graffiti cleaner and a street washer. Roads through the rural areas which had hardly seen a cleaner in the previous five years are now cleaned regularly.
The stonework on 7a St Pauls Square and the old Town Hall, now the Tourist Information Centre, has been cleaned and enhances the square as does the new layout of the square itself. The listed buildings at the south-east corner of the square are owned by the county council but their exteriors have been cleaned thanks to pressure from myself.
I have instituted area clean-ups called ‘Clean Sweep’. The first was in Milburn Road, Goldington, the second in the streets between Midland Road and Commercial Road in the town centre. Areas in Cauldwell, Queens Park and Black Tom have also had the benefit.
Community involvement has been increased and Heidi Weight, officer-in-charge of the programme, won first prize in a national competition for clean-up initiatives.
Sustainability and recycling: The borough has dramatically improved its recycling performance from a poor start; fuel for the Civic vehicle is recycled from abandoned cars, an initiative which has been noted throughout Europe. A sustainability portfolio holder has been appointed and a sustainability sub-committee with far-reaching powers is in place, which I chair. The Town Hall is no longer ablaze with light during the night and the staff is encouraged to conserve power. More initiatives are on the way.
Festivals and Fun: The River Festival had lost its way and was in decline. I insisted that priority be given to local groups and interests; that people taking part in processions should be asked to put in a real effort; the festival now ends with a free classical concert. The result has been that each of the last two festivals has attracted record audiences – this year police estimated 300,000 people attended on the Saturday.
I have also introduced the annual Kite Festival which has attracted many people to Russell Park over a weekend, and Bedford-by-the Sea which has provided children of all ages with hours of fun.
Community safety: I have encouraged the development of Bedsafe and BAND – two programmes to make the night-time economy better and safer. The Business Improvement District, of which Bedford is a pioneer authority, provides anti-crime measures in the town centre. My community safety portfolio holder Cllr Margaret Davey (Better Bedford - Castle Ward) and I found the money to increase the number of community police officer in the urban areas. As a direct result crime in Bedford town centre has massively decreased two years running.
I have increased the number of community rangers to work with all sections of the community, but especially the young with a consequent reduction of anti-social behaviour in many areas.
Within days of taking office I wrote the case for Bedford to become a Business Improvement District (BID) which is now in operation charged with helping local businesses reach their full potential. Blue Caps in the town centre are available to help people and to keep businesses and customers informed of what they need to know.
In the past year the borough has acted as consultants to other authorities in areas where we have special expertise such as the efficiency of our benefits service both in helping those in need and preventing fraud. One council needed our help to reduce its chronic deficit. The borough was paid for these services, money which went to improving services without cost to our taxpayer.
Multi-storey car parks were dark, dirty and felt dangerous. They were playgrounds for yobs late at night. Against opposition I authorised the spending of £2.9 million to make them less oppressive, cleaner and safer. Lurke Street has won a national award for for safer car-parking and River Street and Queen Street have been improved to the same standard. Only Allhallows, soon to be demolished as part of the Town Centre West redevelopment, has not been refurbished.
Development: Town Centre West is in the design stage. It will get rid of the awful bus station and replace it with a state of the art linear station with real time electronic information. Large areas of the town centre west of Allhallows will be redeveloped in Bedford’s biggest-ever redevelopment, getting rid of the dreadful 1960s concrete. I have insisted on quality throughout and consultations are still being carried on with stakeholders.
Many people have pointed out that while the river is Bedford’s jewel-in-the crown we don’t make enough of it. This will change with the Riverside Square development of mixed residential and leisure use with quality restaurants and cafes round a square which faces on to the river. A beautiful slimline pedestrian and cycle bridge will give access across the river…
…and speaking of bridges, another attractive bridge will give cross-river access from the Britannia site development to Queens Park. It will be called the Garibaldi Bridge to commemorate the Italian patriot Garibaldi who spoke to the people of Bedford from the Britannia site and to commemorate the contribution to Bedford made by our Italian community.
Castle Lane was cleared for development in 1963 but all previous attempts to develop it have failed. A planning application has now been passed by the council for a scheme to make it a cultural quarter with residential, live/word units, local restaurants and cafes which will link to…
Cecil Higgins Art Gallerry and Bedford Museum (CHAGBM): The council has pledged £2million (against Lib-Dem opposition) to go along with private contributions being for refurbishment. This will link in with the cultural quarter to give Bedford the cultural focus it needs.
Western Bypass: Bedford has been waiting since before World War II for this. On being elected and discovering that it was still at least 12 years off, I led a delegation to the Minister for Transport at the House of Commons to plead for advance funding of the road which otherwise would wait on developers funding it. I got agreement that the whole road be funded in advance to the tune of £20million with the money to be clawed back off developers as they built and sold houses. £5million will be returned to Bedford for further development of its town centre.
One stop shop and St Pauls Square: The council had been talking for 14 years about setting up a one-stop shop voluntary advice centre. I pushed this through (against Lib-Dem opposition who wanted to defer it yet again) and now three voluntary organiations ioccupy the formerly empty and rotting 7a St Pauls Square. At the same time, I authorised the refurbishment of the outside of the building (against Lib-Demo opposition who said that cleaning it up would reveal faults!). With the Tourist Information Centre, exchanging the toilets in St Pauls Square for state-of-the-art ones in the old TIC- and relaying the surface of the market place and the railings of the church, St Pauls Square is now a place to be proud of.
Unfortunately, the buildings on the south side next to Shire Hall belong to the county council and while I negotiated for them to be cleaned up on the outside I do not have the powers to fully refurbish them.
BOOST and Willington Rowing Lake: Upon the announcement that London would get the 2012 Olympics I set up BOOST to use them to channel some of the spin-offs to Bedford. First success is planning permission for Willington Rowing Lake which had been stalled in the county council for years.
Rail Bus hub: Back on the agenda after a campaign of misinformation from - yes, it’s our Lib-Dem friends again. The borough has been given £1.8 million for a railways station project which would include state of the art offices - much needed in Bedford, and a secondary bus station to reduce the need for commuters to use their cars.
Rural issues: I set up a sub-committee of the executive to deal with rural affairs with powers to make decisions. This has successfully dealt with many rural issues and allocated money for rural capital projects.
I have visited 40 out of 45 parish councils to talk to them about what is going on in the borough and to deal with their issues and end their feelings of isolation.
My biggest project has been Nirah which I introduced to Bedfordshire. You are all aware how some forces tried to scupper the project but it is expected that on November 29 the outline planning application will be presented to the county council. If that is approved we have done our bit and it will be for Nirah to make this iconic development happen.
I doubt if there has ever been a fight like this with people saying they were entirely in favour of the project, but doing their best behind the scenes to stop it happening. Around 13,000 people rose up in support and we forced the county council to thinks again.
Bedford is the most racially mixed towns in the country outside London. I have supported a number of community projects such as the Queens Park Learning and Leisure Project. I am also pleased to say that I have had input into the Sikh temple nearing completion, also in Queens Park.
During some of the terrible events of recent years I met with community leaders and police and assured them of our determination to protect them and continue living with all groups in the harmony of which we are so proud. As a result there have been no serious incidents in the area.
It is important that this continues and my door is always open to people of goodwill of all races and faiths to ensure that Bedford remains a safe place for us all to live.
There are many more achievements to be listed which will be added as time permits.