I visited the Council's Brunel Road depot this week, and chatted to some of the Direct Works staff about the work they are doing to help keep our roads as safe as possible for all users during the cold, icy weather.
The latest of my monthly columns for the Times and Citizen newspaper looked at Bedford Town Centre in the context of the nationwide trends which are creating such challenges for the British High Street. The 'perfect storm' of the extremely difficult wider economic climate, the rise of internet shopping and growth of out-of-town shopping have sent many town centres fall into steep decline.
The Rainbow Flag is flying at Borough Hall today, marking the launch of LGBT History Month. The flying of the flag is a small but important symbol of our commitment to equal rights, and I hope it sends a clear message of support to LGBT members of the community.
Recently I attended Bedford School's event marking the next phase of its exciting project to convert the former St Luke's Church building on St Peter's Street into a brand new theatre for Bedford. The school hosted the awareness-raising event to mark the planning approval received for the project, with the focus now moving on to raising funds for the conversion and development of the theatre.
Earlier in the month I wrote on here about the all-party support for our 2013/14 Council budget, which in tough times saves services for residents, freezes annual Council tax once again and invests in schools and infrastructure. The budget was the subject of my monthly article in the Times and Citizen newspaper, which appeared in last week's edition. If you didn't see it, here's the full piece:
There was more good news in our drive to open up the Council to local residents last month, after we won approval for our proposals to remove the remaining restrictions on public questions at Full Council meetings. This means members of the public now have the same rights to ask questions at Council meetings as councillors, with the previous limit of six questions or 30 minutes scrapped from the rules within the Council's constitution.
