As Mayor, Dave Hodgson has at all times made clear that he is community's representative on the Council, not the other way round. That's why a series of measures have been taken to make the Council more open and accountable to local residents across Bedford Borough. Here are the facts:
Under Mayor Dave Hodgson Bedford Borough Council has invested in the Borough's future, with improved school buildings and facilities, extra capacity created to avert the primary places crisis seen elsewhere and rising school standards. Here are the facts:
Mayor Dave Hodgson has thanked voters across Bedford Borough, after a stunning victory in the mayoral election. Mayor Dave was re-elected with a majority of 8,789 over Jas Parmar, the Conservative candidate in second place, following the re-allocation of second preference votes under the supplementary voting system. The margin of victory was nearly 3,000 more than in the previous mayoral election in 2011.
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
Following his re-election with an increased majority, Mayor Dave Hodgson has announced changes to his Cabinet. The new Cabinet sees Mayor Dave joined by four Liberal Democrat and four Labour Members, representing groups comprising well over half of the seats won in the recent Council elections. The appointments allow for the continuation of the extremely successful partnership work of the groups on the Cabinet, which, despite huge reductions in the Council's funding, has protected services and cut or frozen council tax for five straight years.
