The first stage of Bedford Borough Council's £1.5million investment to enhance the Embankment and Riverside along the Great Ouse is set to begin this week with improvement works to the Embankment pavement.
It is with a mixture of joy and relief that I can report that, as of last night, St Mary's Street is fully reopened ahead of schedule, following the urgent repair works. The works started on 3rd October after a ground radar survey found the road was in serious danger of collapse due to a complete lack of drainage on one side of the road, which was only resurfaced four years ago by the former County Council.
Last week, Mayor Dave Hodgson visited St James's Church, Biddenham to meet with some of Ukrainian guests that are now in Bedford Borough to hear first hand their experiences. I also visited PBIC who are coordinating support for guests and hosts to again hear about any issues.
Commenting on BBC Three Counties Radio this week, Mayor Dave Hodgson called for an end to the uncertainty and distress caused to patients and staff by the proposals of the CCG-led healthcare review 'Your Health in Bedfordshire'. The £3 million review's long overdue 'Progress Report', published at the end of October, concluded that either Bedford or Milton Keynes Hospitals must be downgraded to become an 'Integrated Care Centre. In practice, it is likely that this would mean a series of urgent care services reduced, with fewer births, for example, and a reduced Accident and Emergency service. This threat of severely reduced services has been placed over Bedford Hospital in spite of the fact that is rated very highly by the health watchdog the CQC, and is serving growing population. The review followed on from the discredited £2.2 million 'Healthier Together' review, which also placed Bedford Hospital under the threat of a severe downgrade In his live interview on Iain Lee's programme, Mayor Dave made clear he
Mayor Dave Hodgson has welcome the announcement of £4.6m of one-off funding for Bedfordshire Police, but asserted that it does not change the force's ongoing, severe shortage of annual funding. Noting that the Chief Constable has stated that the funding will help the force to cover the costs of activity already carried out in tackling gang, gun and knife crime, Mayor Dave has also pointed out that the money will not fund much-needed extra policing.
Big Energy Saving Week is a national campaign to help people cut their energy bills and get all the financial support they are entitled to.
