This week marked a year in office after my election as Mayor following the sad death of Frank Branston. It really is a huge honour to serve as Mayor of Bedford Borough. I have sought to seize the opportunity and through our commitment to protecting services and cutting out waste, we've made huge strides in turning around the old County Council's years of high taxes and poor services.
Residents in Bedford and visitors to town may have noticed the new signage on the pay and display parking ticket machines advertising the facility now available to enable you to pay by phone for parking. I launched the 'RinGo' scheme at Melbourne Street Car Park last week, and have had some good feedback so far from residents who have used the service. The purpose of this is simply to make paying for parking easier and more convenient, whether you are using one of the Council-run car parks or on-street parking. Payment can even be made via an iPhone app (other smartphones are available!).
New plans are emerging for the future provision of respite care for children with disabilities which involve keeping Foxgloves open. These plans will presented to the Council's Executive on 8th December, with the details to be confirmed nearer the time. These are very exciting developments, however, which could prove to be a fantastic result of genuine, open-minded partnership working between Portfolio Holder for Children's Services Cllr David Sawyer, Council officers and the parents of children who use the respite services offered at Foxgloves.
As Mayor I am committed to supporting business across the Borough, and this week Finance Portfolio Holder Cllr Michael Headley announced our move to give additional financial help to small rural businesses. We are amending the Council's policy and making a financial commitment to ensure that small rural businesses who receive rural rate relief are not disqualified from receiving further small business rate relief to which they would otherwise be entitled.
The Infrastructure Planning Commission's consultation on Covanta's plans to build a 600,000 tonne incinerator at Rookery Pit near Stewartby closed on Friday. I made a submission in a personal capacity. I have always been steadfast in my opposition to a project which represents an appalling prospect for Stewartby and for the wider Borough, and I set out my very strong objections to the proposal.
Please excuse the dramatic language, but the new bus services we are providing across Bedford and Kempston are at the very least a radical improvement for buses on Sunday, if not a full-blown revolution! With a one-off contribution of £48,000, we are enabling the full network of services which run from Monday to Saturday across the urban and suburban area to run on a Sunday. They will run, as a minimum, at least hourly. This is less frequent than Monday to Saturday to begin with, but it will be a major boost for bus users who tell me that the current two-hourly (at most) services, on routes which no-one seems to know and for which there is little information at shelters or elsewhere, are a major barrier to bus use on a Sunday.
