Leisure and Community - 31/10/05

The temporary car park relating to Astral Park (the sports area of Billington Park) looks set to go ahead with the committee recommending to SBDC that the permission be granted.

I will keep you updated regarding the progress.

There is a Senior Citizens Working Party within the council. I don't think it is as well known about as it could be so if anyone has an interest in facilities for the over 55s let me know and I can send details of the working party's projects which includes the over 55s film nights and tea dances.

Astral Park update

I met with some Billington Park residents at the council offices yesterday to see more detailed plans for Astral Park including the running track and football pitches.

Many, if not all of the issues seem to have been welcomed by the residents in relation to the temporary car park including better access to the facilities for pedestrians and vehicles, a good layout for practical sports playing purposes but also designed with a view to preventing the area becoming a magnet for trouble.

I am happy at the present time with the plans and believe permission for the temporary car park should be granted as a first step to creating the area that should be an asset to Billington park home owners.

The issue of the running track is still outstanding.

Leisure and Community Committee

I will be going to the Leisure and Community Committee at the White House next monday.

One of the issues to be discussed is Astral Park in Billington Park. An area of concern to many local residents. Of course I will report back here with any further details when I get them but I would like to hear what concerns people have so please reply and let me know.

Mayor's Dinner

I went to a charity dinner tonight hosted by our Town Mayor, Councillor Mark Freeman. The two charities he is supporting this year are the Junior Fire Fighters and Willen Hospice.

No politics tonight though but the charities will benefit from around £650 raised.

Billington Park Phone Mast

A planning application has been received for erecting a phone mast at Greaves Way industrial estate (Billington Park area).

There is already some strong oposition to it from Billington Park residents and there may be more people whose views are not yet known.

You can use the comments feature on this site to add your views as I will be attending the planning sub-committee at the White House on 7th November starting at 7pm.

Glass recycling

I recently asked South Beds District Council about the roll out of their Kerb side glass recycling service to cover our ward and the rest of Leighton Buzzard. Their Environmental Services Manager came back to me straight away with a response yesterday.

At the moment it is only available to a limited number of villages in the district and no further funding is available to extend the collections to our town. Priority would be given to villages first as they have limited access to bottle banks near them and I have to agree with this.

SBDC is however looking to include more areas, including our town, in the new contract to start in April 2007.

If you are not yet using the orange bag scheme to recycle newspapers, plastic bottles, cans and more please contact the Refuse Recycling Helpline on 01582 474 053 and ask to be sent some free bags. They get collected along with your normal rubbish every two weeks, just leave them outside.

Hit the ground running

It has been an interesting start so far.

I was featured in the Leighton Buzzard on Sunday and will also have a small mention in next weeks Leighton Buzzard Observer. I also got recognised from my leaflet which is very odd as I had not planned on having my picture everywhere!

This site was not ready when I spoke to the LBS but I did mention it to the LBO so hopefully I will get a few more hits soon but if you know anyone who has internet access, please pass on this address to them.

I haven't done too much yet but I did attend an accounts meeting tonight at the White House.

I have also spoken to Bedfordshire County Council about a spelling mistake on a road sign a resident at The Vyne brought to my attention while campaigning. They replied extremely quickly and have allocated it a report number so hopefully Weston Avenue will no longer appear as Western Avenue on the Richmond Road sign.

Wrong polling station

It has just come to light that some people were directed to the wrong polling station when I and a number of supporters delivered leaflets with a "substitute poll card" to over 3,076 properties in the ward.

For the majority of people this would not have caused any great concern but for some with limited mobility this would have been awkward and of course I am sorry this happened.

We already know that many people were completely unaware of the election due to certain members of the council voting not to issue poll cards (something I will fight to prevent happening in the future) and so as the election came close I took the decision to issue a substitute poll card on the back of my second leaflet.

Sadly due to a very confusing setup and limited information available some residents in the same street were actually allocated to different stations and this we did not take in to account.

Had I not have taken this decision and unintentionally inconvenienced a few (but I agree that was a few too many) many more people would have missed out on their right to vote. The pink poll notices that appeared on lamp posts were certainly bright but they only gave details of where to vote by voter number which was of little use as only a small number of people would ever know their voter registration number.

It was here that the mistake was made as we separated the different leaflets by polling district G1 - G5 without noticing that certain voters in the district had to vote somewhere else.

Thank you for voting

This is my first post on my new blog on my site!

Thank you to everyone who voted for me at the by-election. I am sure my future posts will be a bit more informative and interesting but watch this space.

I am pleased with the turnout in the end but of course had we been allowed to issue poll cards it may have been higher and more people would not have lost their right to vote through either not knowing about the election or thinking they could not vote as they did not have a poll card.

But moving on there are things to do.

Thanks again

Adam