Praise for Bedford Town Centre Businesses and Regeneration Work

There was praise for Bedford town businesses and for Bedford Borough Council's extensive efforts to support them during the pandemic and beyond as Councillors discussed the reopening of the town centre at the latest, informal meeting of the Environment and Sustainable Communities Committee.

Liberal Democrat Committee Member Cllr Jon Abbott praised everyone involved in the various regeneration and business support schemes for their work on behalf of the town and in 'helping make the town somewhere people want to come to.' He reflected on the positive changes in the town centre over recent years due to 'investment across the town'. He praised the transformation of a former car park into the Riverside Bedford development, and projects such as the current High Street works which will 'make Bedford a far more beautiful and attractive place than it was, and will attract the smaller businesses in.'

Town Centres Portfolio Holder Cllr Henry Vann, in discussing the changing nature of town centres generally and how we are responding to that locally, highlighted how Bedford town centre's independent businsses are a 'key compenent of Bedford's offer', and that in comprising 60% of businesses overall they represent a greater proportion here than is the case in many of our neighburing towns. He described the way those indepenent businesses have continued to operate during the pandemic as 'amazing', and added that he would "highly recommend going around the town and using these businesses!"

Cllr Vann also commented on the excellent news of the success of the Town Deal Bid in winning £22.6m of investment for Bedford town centre, about which you can read more here.

You can watch the meeting in full via the link on this webpage, where you will also find the agenda and reports for the meeting.