Village Tour - My Thanks to All Who Came Out to Talk

The Village Tour 2012, or '60 in 30,' is now over, and I want to thank everyone who came out to speak to me at the 60 mobile surgeries across 60 villages in September's 30 days. The fact that so many residents talked to me to share their views on the important matters for our communities was very much appreciated, as was the welcome I received. A variety of weather conditions were experienced, and I am particularly grateful to those who braved wet and windy evenings or sweltering afternoons (we had both of these extremes, and plenty in between!) in the cause of taking the opportunity to talk to me directly while I was in the neighbourhood.

New Bus Timetables From Today

If you get either the Times and Citizen or the Beds on Sunday delivered to your home you will know this already due to the 'wrap-around' advertising in the last week, but today saw the new bus timetables for urban and rural parts of the Borough come into force. As I've written here on mayordave.org.uk recently (http://bit.ly/p0Pgf9), as with any changes to bus routes it is not uniformly good news for everyone, but overall across both urban and rural parts of the Borough access to decent bus services is being maintained and even improved. Most buses in Bedford and Kempston are now running until as late as 11pm. It is the first time in decades that we will have late evening buses in Bedford and Kempston, and I am delighted we have been able to reach an agreement on this with Stagecoach and achieve a significant extension of bus services into the evenings. We are also continuing with the new Sunday services we introduced last year, which see the Monday to Saturday routes replicated on Sundays and a minimum frequ

Bedford to Buck the Trend Again with Another Car Park Charge Freeze in 2012

I'm delighted to report that Wednesday night's Council Executive meeting saw us agree another car parking charge freeze for Bedford town centre in 2012, after we bucked past trends and the rising prices seen in other town centres by freezing the car park charges this year. The current year's car park charge freeze was the first seen in Bedford for many years, and like this new boost for our town centre was delivered despite rising inflation and an extremely tough financial situation facing the Council. Inflation is now of course at nearly 6% and the financial pressures on the Council are unprecedented, but we feel it's important to support shoppers and help boost the vitality of Bedford town centre by proposing a freeze for charges in the council's car parks and for on-street parking.

Council Tax to be Frozen Again, as Frontline Services Protected

Shocking Bedford Prison Report Underlines Government's 'Total Failure' to Heed Warnings

Commenting on the shocking official inspection report into HMP Bedford published this week, Mayor Dave Hodgson has slammed the Govenrment's 'total failure' to get a grip of the prision and improve safety and conditions

Energy Advice Service - Citizens Advice Bedford

Citizens Advice Bedford are providing one-to-one energy advice to people this winter.