Families in Bedford Borough are paying over £23 million more a year for their energy bills because they are living in poorly insulated homes, research by the Liberal Democrats has revealed. Bedford Borough Liberal Democrats are demanding that the government urgently invest in fixing leaky homes in the area and cut people's energy bills in the long term.
This week the Council's appointed development partner for the Riverside North project Coplan Estates is holding a public consultation event at the Harpur Suite. displaying the initial proposals for the site and gathering views on what residents and visitors to the town want to see included as part of this exciting, important development project for Bedford Town Centre.
As was widely-reported earlier this month, Bedford Borough Conservatives sadly broke their pledge to cast aside party politics and deliver a joint budget for the benefit of local residents, and instead didn't even vote on the most important decision the Council takes. This was extremely disappointing as, as I've said many times before, the extraordinarily tough times we are in require everyone to work together to get the best for our borough. My monthly column in last week's Times and Citizen newspaper was on the subject of the difficult financial climate and the need to stand up to the challenges we face, and if you haven't seen it yet, the article follows below:
A number of residents have approached me or approached the Council to highlight how a large amount of cars and lorriess are sent through Turvey and onwards on the A428 unnecessarily due to long-standing unhelpful and unsuitable signage. Drivers heading for the M1 northbound from Bedford and Bromham on the A428 have been directed to continue along the A428, rather than to take the quicker and more appropriate route to the M1 on the A422. Understandably, residents of Turvey have raised concerns about the unnecessary extra traffic this generates through their village. As we've shown with our anti-street clutter campaign which has seen over 100 unnecessary signs removed across the Borough, we are not prepared to accept unhelpful or illogical road signage and we have moved to change the signs.
The Christmas Lights Switch-on is taking place tomorrow night, so get along to the Embankment to enjoy a sp ectacular Fire and Light Show as the Festive Season in Bedford town centre gets underway with a bang.
I know how anxious residents and businesses are for the major roadworks to reconstruct St Mary's Street to be completed as soon as possible, so I am pleased to report that work is progressing well. Those who have been using the road heading south will have noticed that the first section has been completed, with the single line of traffic now moved over to the newly reconstructed left hand side of the road (the surface work is not complete here; the whole road will be resurfaced together towards the end of the works period next month.) Work is now underway on the northbound side of the road, which is being excavated.
