Ambitious for Bedford Borough - My Speech to Last Week's Hustings Meeting

Last Week I took part in a hustings meeting at the Salvation Army Centre in Bedford. Below is the text of the short speech I delivered, setting out very briefly how we've managed to buck the national trend and save services here in Bedford Borough, while cutting council tax for the first time in recent history. It also covers briefly my ambition for our Borough, and how if re-elected as Mayor I will continue to work for the very best for Bedford Borough, and help make residents across the Borough every bit as proud as I am to call it my home. Here's the text of the speech:

Bedford Borough is my home, and it has been a tremendous honour and a privilege to serve local residents as Mayor over the past eighteen months.

I've been working week in, week out since I was elected to cut out Council waste so we can protect vital services and keep Council tax bills down. We have seen vast cuts in government funding, and have had to save £28 million in order to balance the books. Against this backdrop, our task has been to protect front-line services and keep Council tax down, and I'm delighted to be able to say that we've done exactly that.

We've achieved this in a number of ways:

Firstly, we've made sure we are listening to people. Personally, as Mayor, I have done all I can to make myself available. I hold my frequent surgeries at Borough Hall and at sites around the Borough, and I have visited every village across the Borough to talk to residents.

We've been ruthless in cutting out Council waste, focusing savings in Borough Hall, not out in the community. Local taxpayers should feel totally confident that everyone at the Council is as careful with their money as they would be with their own.

So, here in Bedford Borough we still have the services that are disappearing elsewhere. That means no library closures or even reduced opening hours, no leisure centres shut and all children's centres protected. We have even protected those services where the cuts of our neighbours have threatened services here, including cross-boundary rural bus routes and music tuition for children.

We have also carried out more road and pavement repairs than ever before. And as I say, for the first time in recent history, council tax bills here are going down instead of up.

As I go around the Borough talking directly to local residents, it is very clear that they are ambitious for their family, their community and for the future of their Borough. And I believe the Council should seek to match that ambition. I know I share it.

I'm ambitious for our local economy and that's why I've been working to bring jobs and investment, with a brand new bakery in Bedford bringing 300 new jobs, for example, and major retailers such as Waitrose and Morrisons looking to invest here and create hundreds of jobs themselves.

And we're getting the final section of the western bypass built, which will help ease congestion and attract more businesses here.

I'm ambitious for our town centre, with a £3 million plan to revitalise the High Street and a new riverside development to open up the river from the town centre.

I'm ambitious for our children and young people, with plans for £41 million of investment in new school buildings and facilities in the next four years.

Current and future residents will rightly expect nothing less from their Mayor than total commitment to delivering in all of these areas. I will continue to work for the very best for Bedford Borough, and help make residents across the Borough every bit as proud as I am to call it my home.