Bedford Borough Liberal Democrats

Mayor Dave Hodgson is calling on the BBC to include Bedford on its regional weather map. ITV have done so since Mayor Dave raised the issue with them last year, as this photograph shows. However, the BBC Look East map continues to omit Bedford despite featuring smaller, less prominent towns.

Mayor Dave has launched a petition, which you can sign and share at www.BedfordLibDems.org.uk/Weather.

Bedford Borough Council has launched a Rail Investment Strategy, setting out priorities for railway services for Bedford Borough.

The Council's vision is for Bedford Borough to be a great place to live, work and visit and to create a Borough that attracts international business and highly skilled and sustainable jobs. Rail services are a key part of supporting economic growth and prosperity, and to improve life choices for people living here as the population grows.

Responding to this week's House of Commons vote on protecting child refugees, Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron said that Tory MPs had "earned the labels" of "insular and inhumane" by voting against the cross-party amendment.

Every Liberal Democrat MP voted for an opposition amendment to the Withdrawal Agreement Bill to retain a statutory duty on the Government to negotiate an agreement with the EU that protects family reunion rights for unaccompanied child refugees in Europe. However, Conservative MPs voted down the amendment by 348 votes to 252.

Responding to the vote, Tim Farron said:

"Tory MPs love to talk about 'global Britain' and claim that Brexit is really some great internationalist project. By turning their backs on child refugees they have shown it is anything but.

"These Tory MPs get irritated when they are labelled as insular and inhumane, but by blocking our amendment today they have earned those labels.

"We must do all we can to protect child refugees and Liberal Democrats will continue to fight for them - including when this Bill moves to the House of Lords."

Bedford Borough Liberal Democrats have stressed the importance of both listening to and acting on the views of children and young people, across all that the Council does.

The comments come following a meeting of the Children's Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee this week at which the voice of young people was a clear theme. The Youth Cabinet gave a presentation on their activities and on their current priorities, which are transport, knife crime, tackling bullying and the Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) curriculum.

Liberal Democrat Councillors for Kingsbrook Ward in Bedford have pledged to work with concerned residents in the Paradine Road area over their call for CCTV to be used in the area to enhance community safety.

At last month's Full Council meeting at Borough Hall, Paradine Road resident Stephen Kumar Khuttan presented a petition calling for cameras to deter 'further damage' to cars and property. Having met the threshold of over thirty signatures, the petition will be debated at next week's Full Council meeting.

Mayor Dave Hodgson has described this week's rail fare rises as 'another kick in the teeth' for Bedford rail users. Rail fares have risen by a further 2.7% - a rise that Mayor Dave has called 'totally unjustifiable'.

"This is another kick in the teeth for long-suffering Bedford rail commuters. They have had to contend with the utter shambles of timetable changes, the loss of peak time intercity fast trains and the forthcoming loss of all intercity trains. In light of all this, it is simply totally unjustifiable that Bedford rail commuters should face yet another fares increase."

The East Midlands Railway (EMR) consultation has confirmed the Conservative Government's downgrade of the Bedford rail services, with Bedford completely disappearing from the Intercity map.

The consultation documents confirm Bedford commuters' and leisure travellers' worst fears:

• Totally removing Bedford form the Intercity map.
• No Direct links north beyond Kettering and Corby (due to the government's removal of direct north bound trains via the franchise specification).
• Slower commuter style trains to London in place of today's intercity services.

After the Christmas celebrations are over and all the decorations are down, if you cannot plant your real Christmas tree in the garden, you can recycle it for free at any of Bedford Borough Council's Christmas tree recycling sites.

23 tonnes of real Christmas trees were collected from the Council's collection points across Bedford Borough last year, and the Council is again seeking to make it as straightforward as possible for people to make sure their tree gets sent for composting.