Tonight sees Bedford's big Chirstmas Lights Switch-On taking place along the Embankment, with the show starting at 7pm. This is always a hugely popular, family-orientated event with people of all ages lining the Embankment to enjoy the show, which this year will once again feature a spectaular fireworks display.
I have yet to write here about the excellent outcome a short while ago of the tendering process we undertook to help safeguard the future of the wide range of public leisure facilities run by the Council. As is well known, with councils facing extraordinary, unprecedented cuts to their funding, leisure facilities have come under threat of cuts across the country, with many areas nearby and beyond seeing leisure centres, swimming pools and other facilities closed.
Earlier this month, I was invited to help mark the opening of Bedford's own B&Q store, which sits on a newly-developed site across the roundabout from Kempston Interchange Retail Park. This large new store will be welcomed by shoppers, with new choice and competition introduced. Crucially, the new store creates ninety new jobs, and as store manager Lee Carter explained to me, the vast majority of those recruited are local.
Earlier this month, my Cabinet agreed savings of over £18 million over the coming three-year period, as a vital contribution to the need for further vast spending reductions in that period in the face of unprecedented cuts to Council funding and rising demand for services.
Details were announced this week of the project which will see 8,000 additional homes in Bedford Borough receive 'superfast broadband' by 2016 and all homes have access to a minimum 2MB broadband. Working with partner authorities, Bedford Borough Council has successsfully secured over £1 million of investment in improving local broadband, especially across rural parts of the borough.
