British Telecom have announced plans to remove 28 public payphones from a variety of both urban and rural locations across Bedford Borough. Liberal Democrats have called for BT to justify the removals by providing individual usage figures for the payphones and stating the criteria they have used to identify call boxes for removal.
Bedford Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate Henry Vann has called for a more local accountability at Bedford hospital, in response to news that it is one of the 103 NHS trusts that are failing to meet Government standards on hygiene, according to independent government watchdog, the Healthcare Commission.
Bedford Borough Liberal Democrats have repeated their demands for BT to reveal how and why they chose the 28 payphones that are due to be removed across the borough. The telecommunications giant continues to withhold this information as the closure of a consultation period on the removals approaches on June 25th. The process descended into farce this week with confirmation from BT that its consultation team working on the payphone removals cannot be contacted by telephone.
The post office situated in the Budgens store on Kimbolton Road in Bedford is not amongst the list of branch closures released today, despite having been included in the list published accidentally last year in an internet blunder. It is the only branch in Bedford Borough that has been removed from the original closures list. De Parys Lib Dems have led an intensive campaign to save the branch, in conjunction with post office staff and unions CWU and Unite.
Residents in Wootton have been left fuming after the County Council's road contractor left road maintenance works unfinished after striking two water mains, one of which continued to spew out water over a week after being burst. The works on Potters Cross remain incomplete despite the legal notice for the works stating that they would be finished by July 7th. The legal notice for the works also stated that the entire road would be resurfaced, when in fact just a few metres have been repaired.
Bedford Modern School plans to remove the footbridge over Manton Lane and replace it with a toucan crossing. Liberal Democrat Councillors have responded to the news with a warning that a crossing could increase the existing congestion along the busy stretch of road.
