What a Difference a Dave Makes! The Facts on Opening up the Council

As Mayor, Dave Hodgson has at all times made clear that he is community's representative on the Council, not the other way round. That's why a series of measures have been taken to make the Council more open and accountable to local residents across Bedford Borough. Here are the facts:

• Bedford Borough Council was one of the first local authorities in the country to publish payments to suppliers and external bodies online for local residents to inspect. Government civil servants visited Bedford Borough Council to find out more about this local transparancy drive, and the government subsequently made it compulsory for all councils to publish payments in this way.

• Shortly before becoming Mayor, Dave Hodgson successfully proposed removing the notice period required for members of the public to ask questions of Councillors and the Mayor at Council meetings. So, in place of the previous arrangements which required residents to submit precisely-worded questions in the week before Full Council meetings, anyone can now turn up on the night and hold their Council to account. The result has been that the previous situation of extremely rare public participation, public questions are now a regular feature of Council meetings.

• Mayor Dave supported the introduction of one the most open petition schemes in the country, with just thirty signatures required to trigger a Full Council debate on any topic.

• Mayor Dave has opened up the council's civic and ceremonial assets to local residents - the Mayor's Parlour now hosts an average of 2 visits per week by local groups such as school classes, charitable groups and social clubs.

• Mayor Dave introduced reforms to restrict the Council's own 'snooping powers'. With national legislation having given wide scope to local authorities to spy own their local residents and cases around the country of the powers being used over trivial matters, Dave introduced a new policy with a series of restrictions on Bedford Borough Council's use of the powers, including reducing the number of officers who could use them, and public reports of every single use of the powers to public meetings of the Council's Executive at least once a quarter, including the reasons for, and result of, the use of surveillance.

• Mayor Dave holds regular surgery sessions, and has visited every single village across the Borough on several occasions for open street surgeries as part of his annual 'Village Tours', in order that all residents have a chance to raise any issues with him directly.