Pulling Together for the Bedford Rowing and Watersports Lake!

On Wednesday this week I attended the formal start of landscaping for the Bedford Rowing and Watersports Lake. In fact, I even had the honour of planting the first tree! The vent was held to mark not only the start of the landscaping, but also the fact that the Bedford River Valley Park enabling development for the Rowing and Watersports Lake is now in the Council's draft Allocations and Designations Plan. The fact that the land is now on course to be allocated for the enabling development, which will feature an extended campus and sports facilities for the University of Bedfordshire and much-needed extra-care retirement homes, is a major step towards the delivery of the lake.

It was a very good day, with a wide range of interested partners in the project in attendance. When you go out into the River Valley Park area and take in the scale of the lake's footprint, it really is impressive. The woder River Valley Park project is a fantastic prospect for the future of our Borough, and to have the Rowing and Watersports Lake within it will help put Bedford on the sporting, leisure and economic map.

For me, the theme of the day was the importance of teamwork amongst all those who have worked so hard to get this project to where it is today. And talking of teamwork, see the below photo for a prime example as Bedford's double Olympian and director of the Bedford Rowing Lake Company Pete Mulkerrins and I plant another tree!