Work to improve the pavements along Bedford High Street got underway this week as part of the additional £1million investment announced by Mayor Dave Hodgson to improve and repair footways across Bedford Borough.
In his latest monthly column for the Times and Citizen, Mayor Dave Hodgson has written of how, with just days to go until the opening of the bus station on March 29th, the new facility will bring to an end a period lasting almost as long as he can remember during which Bedford Bus Station was widely recognised as a blot which let the town down. He also remarks on the construction of the final section of the Bedford Western Bypass, another common topic of conversation over the years locally which is now becoming a reality.
A Bedford Borough Council project to replace all street lights with low energy, low cost, high quality units by 2018 has won £5.3 million in government funding. The Council's invest-to-save project beat off competition from around the country to become one of only 28 successful bidders to the Department for Transport's Highway's Maintenance Challenge Fund, out of well over 100 applicants.
Restoration work on two more Bedford High Street properties has started on site under the heritage-based regeneration programme which is delivering £4.5 million of investment into the High Street area. No.'s 99 and 101, towards the northern end of the High Street, are being restored together, and follow a string of succesful restoration and regeneration works on and around the High Street. These include the dramatic transformation of the 'Coffee With Art' building, and the ongoing work to bring the fifteenth century 1-4 St Paul's buildings back into use after forty years standing derelict in one of Bedford town centre's most prominent locations.
A Blue Heritage Plaque was unveiled last week at the former Bedford home of the Polar Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh. Mayor Dave Hodgson was in attendance at the formal unveiling at 43 Beverley Crescent, which Mackintosh rented in 1914 in order that his wife could be close to her relatives while he was away leading the Ross Sea Advance Party of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Trans Antarctic Expedition.
Bedford's Polish Club, or Klub Polski, on Alexandra Road celebrated its 70th Anniversary last week at a special event which recognised the rich contribution of the club across its history to community life. Mayor Dave Hodgson gave a speech at the event which highlighted the club's origins, having been founded by men who had served with the Allied Forces in World War II and who settled in Bedford as they were unable to return home to Poland due to Soviet occupation. The original members included, amongst others, veterans of II Corps of the Polish Army and also members of 303 Squadron, which had a major involvement in the Battle of Britain.
