Happy New Year

At this time, there is not much to say apart from Happy New Year.

District Disappointment

Yesterday at the South Beds District Council "Executive" committee meeting over 1,000 years of Leighton Buzzard history was destroyed over money in my opinion.

The running of the town market has been given to Wendy Fair Ltd and not the town council. Not to us under devolution of power, not to us as a result of our bid. Instead they sold our market for a very large sum of money and I am sure they will now spend the money in such a way as to ensure the public think they are spending our council tax wisely.

I feel let down by this decision. While I respect the issues our District Councillors face, and also that they have to make decisions based on the facts presented to them, I do feel the Town would have been better served if the markets remained in Council control of one form or another.

This market means a lot to those in the town and the decision taken by the Executive was against ALL members of the town council who voted for us to submit a bid. If they had devolved power sooner, the market would have been ours to decide on the future but it seems that SBDC just want to sell off all the assets they have but then why do we need a district council? What do they do apart from give out contracts to private operators?

They don't run the markets, they don't run the parking, they don't run the refuse collection. So come on South Beds, what do you do? Why do we have you? Why are people in my ward still paying hundreds of pounds a year to you in council tax?

I should point out that Leighton's Brian Spurr was the one councillor that voted in favour of us.

Cllr Norman Costin in Wingfield (Home Telephone: 01525 874 232), Cllr Philip Penman in Pepperstock (Home Telephone: 01582 455 185) and Cllr Tom Nicols in Toddington (Home Telephone: 01525 873 767) all voted for outsourcing control to Wendy Fair and I wonder if they fully understood the feeling of those living in the town and those that use the market on a regular basis.

This is quite possibly the worst decision the District Council has ever made. I am not against private companies, I have one myself but this is a local service that can be looked after very well by the Town Council and the decision is against the wishes of almost all traders, the majority of customers (1,000 of them signed a petition in support of the Town Council running the market), the Town Councillors and so many other people.

Even though, as Councillor Julian Murray pointed out, Wendy Fair Limited has a number of CCJs against them for some very large sums of money SBDC assures us they are the best entity to take over the markets.

Rest assured, we have to move on with the situation we have and I will be doing my best to ensure traders and customers remain happy with our market.

Alley Gating

Calling this post "alligating" would have been a snappier title...

Leighton Buzzard could see the first "Gating Order" in Bedfordshire under powers given to the Disctrict Council under The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 (View the act).

I, together with District officers and Councillors have been working on this as a solution to the problems of annonymous residents reported in the papers a while ago. There are always two sides of course and any gating order will affect respectful residents but having spent time in the neighbouring houses this particular alley is home to some terrible anti social behaviour and crime.

Having met on a number of occiasions now and hearing the arguments for and against the gating, I am hoping the details of a proposed order will be published soon.

If you have suffered from anti social behaviour please let us know as this new act gives a lot more powers for us to act.

Our car park is safe

Our West Street multi-storey car park has been awarded the Safer Parking Scheme Park Mark. The award is presented to parking areas that have successfully put measures in place to prevent crime and reduce the fear of crime on their site.

An assessor from the British Parking Association, Graham Wright, found that there had been no reported crime at all in the car park on West Street in the last year. His report highlighted that it is clean and well designed; has plenty of CCTV coverage and lighting and has high profile patrols and help points for customers. They were also satisfied that the car park is secure overnight and has well controlled and monitored entry and exit points.

Executive Member with responsibility for car parks at South Bedfordshire District Council, Councillor David McVicar, said: “The West Street multi-storey car park is an excellent facility. Receiving the Safer Parking Mark is testament to the hard work and detailed planning that went into ensuring the site is secure so that people feel safe leaving their car there.

“Thanks to our service partners, cleaners Mitie and parking attendants Vinci Park, who help us to maintain such a high quality facility.”

The Safer Parking scheme is managed by the British Parking Association on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPOs).

(The photo is of PC Matt Smees, Councillor Pat Hamill (SBDC Chairman), Development Manager at the British Parking Association, Graham Wright and Vinci Parking Attendant, Garry Stanley)

Flooding around Weston Avenue

The last couple of weeks have been spent looking in to some flooding around Weston Avenue. It has been flowing through gardens lately in the area.

We are speaking to the District Council regarding land ownership in possible flood planes in the area.

Have you suffered from flooding in this area? If so please let me know.

No more lights for the Dutch

The Telegraph has an interesting article online today following up on an old story about a Dutch town using "Shared Space" on their roads with pedestrians, cyclists and cars all using the same space.

View the article here

The twist for us is that they have got rid of all but three sets of traffic lights in Drachten and (no surprise here) journey times are down, road deaths have gone from one every three years to none in the seven years the scheme has been in existence and there have been just a few small bumps.

So come on Beds County, GIVE IT A GO. Give pedestrians and cyclists the safety and importance they deserve and give car drivers shorter journey times and less accidents.

Joined up roads

I spent the afternoon earlier looking around some of the new developments in the ward (Pages Priory, Persimmon Court and so on). The houses looked nice enough, and there are bits of open space in the images which again is nice but I still think we have missed something major with the roads.

I am not speaking about buses, trams, cycle routes but the way the roads do not join up. I have had this argument before with planning people and I convinced they are still missing the major problem.

Firstly you are creating "estates" and bringing with that all the problems you can expect. I understand people don't want to live on a rat run but with all these dead ends you create places where trouble can congregate and areas of an estate you cannot get to if there is a blockage in the road such as a car accident or flooding. If there is no through traffic, there is nothing to bring people in to the area which leads to areas that can be deserted and allows trouble to go un noticed.

Secondly, you have congestion at the end of the estate. Remember, there is only one way out. If there is traffic on the main road cars can quickly build up waiting to exit and if there is a queue of traffic (just look at Grovebury Road/Billington Road junction between 4pm and 6pm) do you think an ambulance or fire engine etc could get through around the parked cars? Probably not.

Thirdly, assuming the traffic can get out, we are going to have hundreds of cars coming on to already congested roads to drive round in one big circle to come in to another estate just 5 (tempted to say yards) metres behind where they left off.

Sandhills to Billington park - Billington Road, up to the Morrison's junction (busy enough) having gone past Grovebury Road and then all the way down Stanbridge Road, past the school crossings, over the mini roundabouts, give way as you try to pass the parked cars.... I am sure we could have made it an easier route for cars and bikes.

What is wrong with creating (main) roads that go somewhere? We are already tarmacing most the countryside to build the developments so how about a road through Pages Priory in to Sandhills and on to Billington Park? It creates a whole new way through and does not force cars through the town or miles out around the bypass.

If the road is made wide enough and safe enough, drivers will find the appropriate route. No driver wants to make 8 tight turns around play areas and kids crossing to get through but if we don't give them the roads going where they need them to then what else can you expect???

It is sometimes mistakenly blamed on the police. The accusation is the police like the cul-de-sacs (Wikipedia has it listed as literally meaning arse of a bag) as criminals don't have a through route. Well I have watched those Channel 5 programmes and all the scumbags have to do is jump over a fence to get away leaving the police stuck in theire car unable to get through!

My understanding is that the police don't like all the little alleyways, not that they don't like through roads and quite possibly for the reasons I have listed.

10 years from now we will be able to draw nice little circles on the map around each estate like parasites hanging off a tree trunk. If we have a bad estate, don't worry, just forget the road exists, no one will ever go down it again. But do we really want that attitude? Should we not be joining up all of our streets and taking responsibility for them all?

We need a network of roads in this town to enable traffic to flow. If anyone has been to Reading you will know how bad the "Inner Distribution Road" (A329) is as it forces the entire town's traffic to come on to this road which circles the town centre to send the cars back out again after a 20 minute congested wait!

Please developers, wake up and give us joined up roads and joined up thinking.

Section 106 Requests

In between all the jokes I now get about road signs being spelt correctly, and anything else for that matter (I have become the spelling police) I went to a special planning sub committee meeting to look at the draft Section 106 agreements for three of the large sites to be developed as part of the Southern Leighton Buzzard Development.

For those that don't know, section 106 (planning gain) is the section of planning acts that allow the council (SBDC) to request money from developers to pay for the town's much needed infrastructure.

The drafts we saw suggested that all the developments in the south would contribute 2.5 million pounds towards transport. We worked out we would need more like £25 million. For education the figure was something like £8 million which we thought was about a third of what was actually needed. We are even asking for just short of half a million for public art :)

So our revised version is asking for a huge amount more but we feel this more realistically represent the amount of money infrastructure costs to sustain a development that developers are so keen to stick anywhere.

We have asked for some changes too to the timing of the handover of community facilities. Generally developers like to wait until around 75% of the development is occupied before even starting work on some community facilities. We have requested they build them once the first house is built in some cases so we don’t have a repeat of Billington Park and Sandhills issues where we are still waiting for some of the facilities.

My request is in too, asking developers to ensure we have adequate cycle routes between the developments, to the town centre, and on to the station. So you might not be able to drive through town but at least you can cycle!

It’s a shame we could not at this stage request that developments are built with solar panels, water recycling and so on but that will come when they detailed planning applications are put in (I hope).

Better news for the railway

Mervyn Leah, Chairman of Leighton Buzzard Railway posted this message on a posting further down in the blog which you may not get to see so here it is "Front Page".

In the months since this posting, a lot of progress has been made with the planning issues that had been holding us back. In particular, the District Council has awarded us some "planning gain" funds, as a first instalment on the new building at Page's Park, which will double up as station and community facilities. We do, however, have to find a lot more money, from Lottery and similar sources, before work can start. This will require us to show that we have consulted the local community, and that there is a demand for the facilities. So how about it, good people of Sandhills and Kingswood Park? Post your thoughts here, or email them to info@buzzrail.co.uk.

MERVYN LEAH
Chairman
Leighton Buzzard Railway

One year on

It is exactly one year since I was elected to the Town Council. Now 365 days later on I would like to thank you all again for voting for me and hope that my record in the last year has been as good as you all hoped for.

We have about 7 more months to go until the elections come again and already the banter in the paper has been started by certain councillors trying to shift the blame for the housing once more!

Don't forget, if you have any council related problems, give me a shout.

Schools and Democracy

SBDC Press Release -

Pupils from Cedars Upper School got the chance to find out more about local democracy last Wednesday (5 October), when they attended a ‘citizenship show with a difference’ as part of Local Democracy Week 2006.

Nearly 50 pupils aged between 13 and 17 saw the drama called Who Runs This Place? which was performed at Cedars Upper School by the Solent People’s Theatre Company. Two short plays and an interactive workshop entertained and informed students about how the processes of democracy work at local, national and European levels and why politics are central to all our lives.

The event was organised by South Bedfordshire District Council’s Democratic Services Team. Scrutiny Manager, Rob Mills said: “We really wanted to engage young people and get them interested in politics. Many of the students are coming up to voting age and it is important to promote democracy. The performance was interactive and extremely entertaining, everyone had a lot of fun.”

Adoption of roads

One of the more common complaints we get in this ward is from the many residents living on new estates waiting years for roads to be adopted.

I am getting my head around the procedures and have been working with Billington Park Resident's Association to get the estate's roads adopted.

Billington Park's sewers were adopted by Anglian Water about a month ago and now with a little bit of persuasion, the officers at Beds CC are working through the final plans and we hope to have them adopted by Early 2007.

I will be at the BPRA meeting on Monday and will update the committee and members.

Attracting Young People to the Council

Tonight was the Tactic and Youth Working Party meeting and I thought a very good meeting.

I support that Tactic centre as most of you know but with Youth Services accounting for 14.6% of our Council's budget for the year ended 31st March 2006 we need to ensure that we are offering value for money and value for the time our young people spend using youth services.

Myself and Councillor Winston Forde have long asked for better reporting and analysis of the service used and the issues the centre's users have. Tonight we got to see a new reporting system implemented from our suggestions and the work of the Tactic management team.

9 months through the year, the total number of visits are already about to surpass the full year figures for 2005 representing a possible increase in visits by a third. The figures also show family and relationship issues are the most common concerns for users of the Tactic centre.

I had an item on the agenda to discuss the possibilities of taking a Councillor surgery to the Tactic centre once per term or per academic year to make us more open and available to the younger residents in the town. I feel that the 10am start on a Saturday in the library is neither the best time nor the best location for younger people to attend and this has been backed up by the fact that we rarely see anyone under the age of 25 at the surgeries.

The Youth Forum supported the idea in principle but did not feel it would be used and the Working Party decided against allowing councillors to run a surgery in the centre for fear of encroaching on the territory of young people that would be unlikely to want to speak to Councillors.

Personally I feel this perpetuates the notion that younger people are not interested in politics or the town around them and then leaves them with little contact with the decision makers responsible for schooling, entertainment, health and so on at the different tiers.

However, Cllr Owen offered to discuss with officers the possibility of having a meeting in The White House which will help to tie in with the town plan. I have offered to support this where possible subject to the details being agreed.

As a backup plan, in order to be accessible to younger residents, I am discussing the possibility of extending the library surgeries (first Saturday of the month) to 1pm with the final hour being dedicated to the needs and concerns of younger residents.

Waste of a stamp

BANG - BANG - BANG

It would appear that "D Janes" of Leighton Buzzard actually wrote a letter, put a stamp on it and dropped it in the post box to complain that every time he/she opens the Leighton Buzzard on Sunday, my face is in it and I am "banging on" about misspelled road signs.

Even I thought last week I was in the papers quite a bit (2 pictures in the LBoS plus a mention in the LBO just 5 days before!) but I am sure most of you realise that I have no control over what the paper publishes. Once your picture and the story is in the public domain anyone can report on it.

The first I knew about the articles being featured again was when I opened the paper after playing tennis and saw myself in it. No new work from me Mr or Mrs Janes I'm afraid, just the newspaper updating its readers. I really must give them some decent pictures of me.

Of course, it would be nice for any concerned resident to look at my blog to see some of the work I have been doing as an unpaid councillor and not ask if I should have "other more important things to deal with"

In fact, a quick read of this blog would answer what I do with a lot of my "council time" and that’s without me writing about the blocked drains, broken street lights and anti-social behaviour I deal with throughout the week and weekend nor the numerous meetings I attend.

Occasionally I go to work too...

As for Mr or Mrs Janes, in between changing road signs I will be happy to spare a few minutes if you have something council related that needs dealing with.

Thank you for the phone calls and emails I received from many of you (well okay 4 of you) telling me to read the paper yesterday.

NALC Conference

This weekend I have been at the NALC conference in Liverpool. NALC is the National Association of Local Councils and as the name suggests members are Town and Parish councils around the country. The conference and our accommodation was at the Britannia Adelphi, the "star" of a TV documentary a few years ago and I can only assume we all stayed there in an economy drive!

The overused phrase "Best Practice" comes up a lot with conferences like this but there are a lot of benefits in hearing from other councils how they deal with issues revolving around young people, old people, housing, sports facilities etc.

In addition to the best practice talks, a number of exhibitors were present too with some great products including outdoor playground equipment (please don't ask about the scaled up adult sized versions we are asked to try out) and also a number of mapping products that would be of great help in planning the Southern Leighton Buzzard development as it would allow us to ensure for instance that post boxes were not too far away and calculate areas and perimeter measurements using satellite photos.

The Leighton-Linslade Youth Forum were amongst the speakers presenting the TACTIC centre and their other projects to a room of councillors and clerks very interested in the work that had been done.

But, you travel 200 miles to Liverpool and the first people you see are.. an SBDC councillor, a Dunstable Town Councillor and 4 Milton Keynes' Parish Councillors. Thankfully though as the conference went on I spoke to some Councillors from further afield and many of their councils had an income (precept) of only 1/10th of ours and even less than 1/10th of our population.

Overall this was a great opportunity to learn from others involved in Local Government all over the country and I hope to be able to use what I have learned in the coming months.

Now the journey home, the M6 was not god coming up so fingers crossed...

Recycling - Good but we need more

South Bedfordshire is aiming to be among England’s top performing waste recycling districts, with the introduction during next year of a new alternate week household refuse/recycling collection service, which will encourage residents to recycle more of their waste.

Currently 29.25 percent of household waste collected by South Bedfordshire District Council is recycled, significantly up from seven percent five years ago.

According to Councillor Brian Spurr, Executive Portfolio Holder for the environment, the new alternate week refuse/recycling collection service, which will be introduced during 2007, should lead to a 10 percent increase in household recycling in the first year.

So we are getting there but we should set a target that makes us the best in the country. We have an orange bag collection service that makes it so easy to recycle.

All we need now is a weekly collection! I don't buy stuff that is over packaged but I do generate a lot of waste so I have no idea where I am going to put it for 14 days.

I worry that a fortnightly collection will mean that when I have filled a few orange sacks and I have a non recyclable collection in say 2 days time I will chuck even the recyclable stuff in the bin just to get rid of it!

Cycle Friendly Town

Anyone in to cycling?

I have been looking at cycle lanes and routes in the town and have also spoken with County Councillors and The Cycling Forum (although too often these meetings clash with others).

We have been a "No Cold Calling Zone" for some time and this has been good for keeping distraction burglaries down (although cold calling is not illegal and therefore not actually banned) but should we also push to be a Cycle Friendly Town?

We have some great features that visiting cyclists and local residents might want to enjoy such as the canal, parks and town centre market and shops etc which could all be used more if we encourage cyclists in to the town.

On top of that, local residents could also benefit more from the town, see more of it and actually getting around more.

I have always been reserved when it comes to painting green lanes everywhere over a town and many of the roads are simple not wide enough for a dedicated cycle route but if we spent a bit more time (and a small amount of money) marking out the existing cycle friendly routes (I have suggested this at a previous Cycle Forum) either by signs or road markings we could have a great success and show what can be done. I know there are a number of people put off from cycling due to the perceived and often real dangers on the road and no one wants cyclists on the pavement so maybe this is the right step forward.

I can't remember who took the photo above but it is a good example of the confusion (not in this town) of some road signs. A no cycling sign at the start of a cycle route and a bollard at the front too!

(Photo added October 27th)

Carnival 6 days away

I couldn't log in to "Blogger" for a while (the service I use for this blog) but I can now!!

I have been out and about lately with the rest of the Carnival Committee delivering programmes as the Carnival is less than one week away.

I would like to thank Cycle Connection (on Friday Street) for their donations to the Carnival Tombola as well as Woolworths and Camden Direct (Grovebury Road).

Grove Road will be closed on the day so I have arranged for additional parking for the residents. Letters will be delivered by the Committee Vice Chair (and our very own Cllr) Mark Freeman.

If you are free on the 9th, please come along from 10:30am.

Welcoming new residents?

I want to explore the possibility of producing our own map for Leighton Buzzard focussed on the services available in the town with some history and relevant information. We need to do some initial work before presenting the case to the Leisure and Community Committee

Particularly for residents moving to Leighton Buzzard from outside I envisage it being sold for a small fee to cover costs or paid for by the developers of new properties to be given in with a welcome pack. I have suggested it featuring some history of the town perhaps with dates when all the new "bypasses" opened as to people just moving to the town, bypasses don't mean a lot as the road has always been there!

It would show not just open spaces but some of the facilities at each site and perhaps names of previous shops and landmarks in the town. I have often heard people give directions using buildings that "used to be on the corner" and referring to shops and homes by the names of companies that used to be on the site.

Maps already show allotments, parks and so on but the detail is just not there. If you are new to the town you need the details, what facilities are in the park, what events go on in the park (for instance Carnival in Parsons Close) and so on.
Is there anything else you think would be good to go an a map of this nature? If we produce a guide like this for people who are new to the town, I hope it will firstly help them get the best from the Town's facilities but also feel a part of the town which is growing rapidly.

It won't be long before the majority of people living here came from further a field.

If this get approval, it would need 4 or 5 people to join us in deciding what information is important.

Do you want to be a part of it?

Under 30's coming forward

Thanks to everyone that has come forward so far under 30 for the Conservative Future Group . We have a few extras in the group so far and would like to welcome more.

We are planning a social in the next couple of weeks and can discuss how we move the group forward. If you would like to email with the names and contact details of anyone you feel may be interested please do so.

Canal Festival

One of the things that make Leighton Buzzard great are the many community events we have in the town - the town carnival, may day, living history day etc. Many of these are run by voluntary groups in the town.

On Sunday we had the Town Council's Canal Festival which was an amazing event with hundreds, even thousands of people turning up.

I would like to thank the officers of our Town Council for what they have done as well as the many individuals and groups that helped out, such as ATC and Rotary.

I spent a lot of the day on car parking duties, most people were very friendly while they queued on Mentmore Road with only one or two loud, arrogant and rude drivers demonstrating terrible behaviour to their kids sat in the back (the guy in the white T reg car, you know who you are) but not even they could spoil the mood.

I say our Town Mayor on official duties, I even saw Steve Owen with his family. I did notice a lack of Conservative councillors there though :(

I have not seen official figures yet but the weather was great and the activities and exhibitors even better.

Don't forget the next event to happen is the Town Carnvial on September 9th in Parson's Close.

Cardboard Recycling

Good news!

South Beds District Council has announced you can now recycle thicker cardboard in your orange bags. All you need to do is rip it up in to pieces about A4 sizes or smaller and put it in the bag as normal.

No news on glass recycling yet but we are getting there.

Encouraging Younger Residents

I am currently the youngest member of the town council by a few months and feel that we need to do more to encourage younger members to understand and use the political system constructively.

I have helped to setup a "Conservative Future Group" in the town which is now chaired by Andy Hing. There will be some coverage in the newspapers hopefully soon but if anyone under the age of 30 would like to get involved (there will be social events too) please reply here or email me.

Owen knowing its all over

Yesterday was a great day in the Council Chamber. Day 300 or so of the Pages Field saga and a result has been achieved.

PAGES FIELD IS SAFE

A motion was put forward by Liberal Democrat Cllr Steve Owen (the same Steve Owen who viciously attacked residents in the newspaper letters column for defending the field) to stop the referendum and any question of appealing over the District Council's decision to refuse planning permission.

We agreed to what Steve thought was his "sting in the tail" in the motion and that was agreeing the town does have a shortfall of open space. This was never really in question though but the shortfall can be solved and we will solve it.

Did you know that I and Cllr Paul Record were responsible for organising the media coverage and the demonstrations attended by hundreds of people? NO, neither did we but we are accused of it.

Our very own ward councillor, Lib Dem Cllr Russ Goodchild accused of this and also spoke of his disquiet that we keep inviting the press and public to meetings, suggesting our time would be better spent finding more land!

Well, firstly, it was YOU the residents of Grovebury ward and the town that ran this campaign, your neighbours that came out in public to support the fight and your right to attend public meetings.

I will continue to let you know of upcoming meetings so that you can attend.

If Cllr Goodchild stands for re-election in our ward in May 2007 you will have your chance to "thank him for his support"

Town Centre inspection tour

Together with out Town Centre Manager, Town Clerk, other councillors and reps from the County Council, we had a tour of the town centre yesterday creating a list of faults to fix.

Minor faults but faults none the less such as bent cycle parking racks, rubbish bins in need of painting and additional unnecessary signs.

No solutions yet but this is the first step to our Town Centre improvements.

Traffic problems

Hands up if you think we would be better off if we removed all (non pedestrian controlled) traffic lights in the town?

You are not alone, a recent town visit by Highways Officers found a number of problems with the lights in town and many of these will be fixed.

The lights at Morrison’s still amaze everyone that uses them and we are aiming to have these and other transport issues dealt with.

Hopefully we will become a cycle friendly town one day so at least the congestion will be down a bit!

Legal Problems facing the Council

According to the papers, NALC (The National Association of Local Councils) has advised the town council that the referendum is illegal and misleading!

The email I have is confidential so I cannot disclose the details but I read the newspaper with interest and could not find much in the story to fault!

I am fighting this in many meetings and outside of the chamber alongside the residents and I look forward to being able to give you all the details in due course.

Councillor Owen seems un-moved by what NALC may or may not have said ;) and is ploughing on regardless. Full Council is on Monday 26th when the issues will be bought up.

Pat Kingsnorth, our town clerk put this item on the agenda and it appears that Councillor Owen attempted to have it taken off but there was not enough time so we do get to discuss our legal position.

It would have been a dark day in local politics if one councillor had have been able to silence possible legal problems to win his argument.

Setting the Question

On the 5th June I attended the Policy and Finance Committee. Amongst the normal issues, the agenda had a small mention of Pages Field.

The issue of setting the Page Field referendum question came up. We were aware that the questions was to be set by the three committee chairs which are all members of the Liberal Democrat party and could be seen as slightly biased.

Cllr Paul Record suggested that we should have Conservative and Labour representation in the group. Cllr Goodchild (Grovebury Ward's Lib Dem Town Councillor) who was chairing the meeting stated that as the Conservatives has voted against the referendum, he couldn't see why we should be involved in setting the question!

I pointed out that when his Lib Dem group decided to apply for planning permission in the first place, as the majority of Council members voted in favour, it became a "council decision" and one we must all suffer as members of the council. Therefore the fact that a referendum will take place makes it a town issue and not a party issue so in the interests of democracy, all parties should be represented.

After some thought, he agreed to this and it was decided to allow the other group leaders to be involved in setting the question. So now Peter Rawcliffe (Cons) and Maurice Blackman (Lab) are to play their part. Although with 3/5 of the group coloured yellow I wonder what the results will be....

Where have I been?

Sorry for the delay everyone, I have written my notes but have not put a thing up on the blog for May yet. I will do this soon and backdate it to show May's dates.

The carnival is coming along nicely. My role has not been particularly great as the Town Council's Representative to date but I hope to be of use a lot on the day.

I am waiting for a reply to a question I have raised with the council officers over the state of the refuse bins in Pages Park and Field after a resident contacted me with pictures showing them overflowing.

I have also been contacted by a resident regarding the lack of flags flown around the town supporting England. Apparently there is some kind of football game happening at the moment.

Okay, I say that jokingly and supporting our nation's efforts in a world wide sporting event is a great thing but I fear once the football is over this so called patriotism will once again fade away and many people will go back to their old ways. Maybe 2006 will be the year of pride for your home country, heritage and community.

Referendum

What a disgrace. I guess someone left the door open in the council chamber and democracy slowly escaped.

I try not to get too party political but my Conservative colleagues have all made their views known in the chamber and in public that we do not want to appeal over the District Councils planning refusal to allow 100 homes or so to be built on Pages Field.

Having hoped to gain the support of our Labour colleague at a meeting a few weeks previously and finishing the matter once and for all we were then presented with the option of a referendum at yesterday’s Policy and Finance meeting.

With 4 Conservative Councillors voting against a referendum, and 4 Liberal Democrats voting for it, Cllr Steve Owen had the final say pushing the vote in favour of a referendum.

My issue is not in giving people that chance to speak, anyone that knows me knows I want to see more public opinion coming forward but how many times we will ask the question until we get a different answer?

It is said by a few on the council that Pages Park Community Association (PPCA), the others who signed the 1,000 strong petition against seeking planning permission, the 200 plus people who came out to the demonstration, oh and the 50 or so who stood outside the SBDC offices are just a few locals living on the edge of the field protecting their own back garden trying to get in Steve Owen’s way as he creates his “legacy” for the town.

This is incorrect. PPCA had already formed and had to fight to protect the land that whole town benefits from as one of their first tasks. Of those who signed the petition and demonstrated, a good deal came from outside of Grovebury ward.

People in the town do not normally come out in such numbers to protest. I believe public opinion has already been demonstrated legally, correctly and adequately.

Will we keep re-asking the question until people eventually give in? We will keep asking the question to the whole town while promising them greater riches if just one little group of our town suffer?

Grovebury residents are being portrayed as a thorn in Cllr Steve Owen's side, unfairly stopping him from creating his vision of Leighton Buzzard and making the rest of the town suffer.

This is utter nonsense, if it was not for the hard work and dedication of people mainly in Grovebury, but all of you who have shown support for us here, this town would be a different place and not for the better.

The fight goes on. It might be Grovebury today but it can be your ward and your back garden next.

Town Carnival Meeting

The carnival is coming along nicely. Keep an eye out in the press over the coming weeks for details on the events planned and the Carnival Princess competition.

The people of Leighton Buzzard always put on a great show with the carnival, May Day fair and various other events that are so well supported by the residents and visitors.

I look forward to seeing you all on the 9th September.

Appeal on Pages Field

Last night was the Policy and Finance meeting at the White House.

Quite a short meeting finishing at 22:15 and we had questions from the public which I feel we don't get enough of.

One of the points to be discussed was an appeal over the planning rejection for Pages Field. Hence the residents turning up!

It was pointed out from the members of the public that the local plan had Pages Field as open space and not houses and the chance of overturning the plan was very slim.

It also became clear having listened to points raised by Cllr Steve Owen, and our very own ward Councillor, Cllr Russ Goodchild that as we have Pages Park in the ward, the loss of Pages Field was a small sacrifice for the good of the town as a whole yet the sale of alternative pieces of land elsewhere in other wards was of no interest.

The Town Council will now explore the costs of purchasing the quoted 120 acre plot as a solution to the shortfall of land using a loan. There will also be discussions at a later date as to the costs associated with an appeal.

It could be as much as £30,000-£40,000 once we (which of course means you) consider having an archaeological dig to see if the site has historic value and pay the fees of our consultant to guide "us" through the appeal.

Oh, and if the cash cost wasn't bad enough the land would be rendered useless by the dig!

As always, watch this space for updates...

Sandhills first meeting

I (and I am sure many of the residents) would like to thank Margaret Denny for coordinating and chairing the inaugural meeting of "The Sandhills Community Association" on April 4th.

A number of issues were resolved, the committee was elected and existing complaints were aired.

There are a number of issues that I will be able to assist with but many of them are still developer issues and we will need to wait until the roads are adopted.

I have an A4 map of the roads being produced over the next few days. The spelling mistake on Elliot Road is also on the list of signs being fixed.

I will also work on the lack of posts boxes, bins and yellow lines but there will be a wait until the roads are adopted. This could take up to 2 years!

Reply to Steve Owen

Below is my reply to the letters Cllr Steve Owen has written to the LBO and the LB on Sunday. He likes to write to all the papers so I may have missed one!

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Again with the letters, always the letters, I am for the umpteenth time having to respond to Cllr Owen’s accusations through the media and not in the Council chamber.

You may be forgiven for thinking that as your councillors we spend time working towards a better town infrastructure, supporting local residents and groups and also overseeing the spending of your money but sometimes I think we just write letters in to the paper slagging each other off.

Cllr Owen and I can get on, at the Town Mayor’s Charity stall yesterday , whilst helping at a weekend Scout camp, I came back for the morning to assist in setting up and raising money for his chosen charities and had a very amicable chat with Steve yet the next day I read in the paper that I am apparently partly responsible for the loss of green spaces around the country as I live on an “ex greenfield site”

I would love for Councillor Owen to pack his bags and visit us in “the far east” of our town and see the small block of flats that I live in that a few years ago was a defunct car auction site. Hardly football players, dog walkers and sunbathers. More like old tyres, rubbish and oil spills.

Without naming the person, one of my neighbours is a senior figure in our Town Council so maybe we should both take responsibility for depriving you and the Grovebury residents of the town’s much loved and only car auction site.

By the tone of his letter, I assume Cllr Owen does not like “newcomers” in his town. Leighton-Linslade must be a local town for local people so when the thousands of new families move in to the south, I don’t expect Cllr Owen to drop a new home card through the door or lend a cup of sugar.

Come on Steve, how about a new deal and a brighter future for the people of our town?

Sandhills Residents Association

I spent some time last weekend and time before that working with residents at Sandhills to set up either an association, a homewatch scheme or both. Last Saturday we delivered around 400 leaflets and by the time we had got back, we already had forms returned offering support!

People that replied are being contacted now by residents to set up the scheme and we aim to have everything in place in the next 4 to 5 weeks.

There is a small homewatch scheme already in the area and we hope to grow that to cover the whole estate. I am keen to set up more residents associations like this across the whole of our ward to represent the feelings and needs of our neighbours.

It is much easier for a small body to represent the views of their community to Councillors and the Council than it is to ask 6,000 people for their views on an issue so joining one is very beneficial.

If you do not have one and want one where you live please let me know.

Narrow Guage Railway

Yesterday, I was invited to take the second train journey of the season out of Pages Park Station up to the Stonehenge Works end of the track.

The Narrow Guage Railway is run by a very dedicated group of professional and knowledgable volunteers but the most interesting point of the NGR is the number of people that travel from all over the country and even the world to visit the railway.

You can visit the railway's website at www.buzzrail.co.uk

As the issues with Arnold White Estates develop, I and other ward councillors will be supporting the railway. There have been quite a few people that have contacted the railway directly as well as through me to offer support and this appreciated by all.

Still Conservative

If you have read the Leighton Buzzard on Sunday today, I am NOT A LIBERAL DEMOCRAT, whilst there is nothing to be ashamed about if I was a Lib Dem, I am not, and Lui Straccia, the author, must have just got a bit confused!

I guess when deadlines are fast approaching mistakes can happen.

Another group wins

Another group who came out winners at the District Planning meeting was the Billington Park Residents Association.

They were opposing the Town Council's decision to build a temporary car park on the site of the current running track at Astral Park.

I had a very hard decision over this application. I really wanted to sit on the fence. While I agreed we need the car park space, I was unhappy with its location and the damage it would cause to those living on the estate in its proposed location.

I was lucky to be taken on a tour of the estate meeting with a number of residents who all were opposed to the car park and I was more convinced of the effects it would cause.

I didn't publically support the objections due to the other campaigns I was involved in (but I do hope my conversations with members of the committee was of some use) but also as I thought it would be given permission despite its obvious drawbacks. However, thanks to the community working as a team, the residents got the result they wanted and the car park will not be built.

In September when the football pitches are laid out I am sure we will have parking problems and I hope we can find a solution nearer the time.

Pages Field is SAFE...

... for now.

I got back from the District Planning Committee meeting at 23:40 tonight (well yesterday now) and I left early!!

After about 60 people turned up in the rain holding banners outside the council offices we all squeezed in to the council chamber.

Pages Field was the first application to be discussed. 3 local residents spoke against it after hearing Pat Kingsnorth (Town Clerk), Barry Wardle (Assistant Clerk) and "the town's" consultant speak in favour.

After all the objections were raised, I too spoke, but only briefly, as the resident's had already spoken perfectly on the issue and had raised all the important points.

After much discussion amongst the District Councillors the application to grant outline planning permission on Pages Field was rejected!

Reading between the lines, I don't think the Council will appeal, although the committe reminded everyone present that it was an option, and it was also suggested by certain members that if the council did decide to try the same trick on other pieces of green space in the town, they could expect a similar outcome.

In late September, early October 2005, I produced a leaflet for all the residents in this ward. In it I promised to help save Pages Field. 5 months later and the promise has been kept.

However, I strongly believe that while what I did helped, it was YOU the residents that got this result. So many people pulled together to make this happen. The argument was researched, well presented and crucially well supported. If it wasn't for the massive shows of support by normal residents, I could well be writing a very different articles now.

Community can be forgotten a lot with the pressures of life but I sincerely hope the community spirit that was shown over the past months continues. There will always be another fight that has to fought and as long as I am a Town Councillor I will support community groups to stand up for what they believe to be right.

It may be the market (see below) or it may be Pages Park (see this weeks papers or my blog over the next few days) but together people can get what they want.

Sorry, it went a bit corny at the end but I saw more than a few tears of joy when the decision was made so I'm not the only one getting emotional.

Save the market

I have been talking to market traders over the past few days about the District Council passing control of the Tuesday and Saturday market over to either the Town Council or a private operator.

There is a lot of opposition from the traders to a private operator taking over and I will support them in working not only for their best interests but the interests of the town too.

Our market is over 1,000 years old and it would be terrible if it suffered as a result of a bad decision.

The Town Council will be making an offer to take the markets over and I will assist traders and council officers where I can. There is a lot more work to do but not much time so everyone with an interest in keeping the market Council controlled should come forward.

Pages Field NEXT WEEK

Next week, March 8th at 19:00 the application for planning permission on Pages Field will be decided at the District Council Offices in Dunstable.

Supporters of the field and open spaces will be meeting outside from 6:15.

I must stress that I and the organisers of the past events want this to be democratic! The meeting is purely a show of strength and there will be representatives speaking at the meeting to put the case forward.

Pages Field Demo

Despite the cold, up to 200 people came out in force this afternoon to show their support for keeping Pages Field.

The event had been publicised in advance on BBC Three Counties Radio and BBC Look East and today we had Anglia TV there. We are expecting it to be on at 18:25 tonight!!

It was great for myself, Cllr Paul Record, and Cllr Peter Rawcliffe to be invited today to support the work done by local residents. Cllrs Maureen and George Rolfe were with us in spirit and all are thrilled with the public show of support.

I really hope this shows others on the council that the views of ALL residents count and people will stand up for what they believe in.

Andy Littlechild and June Walker were interviewed for the news programme and came across brilliantly. I look forward to your next campaign!! Cllr Owen was later interviewed and I look forward to seeing the clip tonight.

Traffic and Roads

Wow, roads really get to people! I have had many comments and complaints about roads, traffic lights and congestion. All are valid concerns and at the Traffic Management Working Party they have been discussed.

No decisions have been made yet but a number are being looked in to now.

Including -

• The roundabout being made more visible where Falcon Mews joins Stanbridge Road
• The lights at Morrisons and their "interesting" timing
  
• Congestion at Lindler Court from cars queuing
• Bridge Street/A4146 cycle safety

Not a complete list but a few that stick in my mind. Thanks to everyone that brings up issues like this.

Council Surgery 5th Feb

A number of points were raised on Town issues to both myself, Cllr George Rolfe and Cllr Maurice Blackman at the library on Saturday.

One of the big issues was the general upkeep of certain areas and traffic/parking.

All these issues will be dealt with as soon as we can and in fact many concerns were being dealt with on Monday.

Over the coming weeks I will be contacting those who spoke to me with an update.

Pages Field - Residents involvement

Today is the last day for the District Council to receive objections to the application.

I have had a great response from local residents via email, the blog and in person and it really is appreciated to know that what I am doing is the right thing for others in the town. I have had responses from people all over the ward, not just those backing on to it.

Incidentally if anyone does see me in the street on my bike (silver bike, black helmet) please do stop me. I try to visit a different area of the ward every week or so but I guess in this weather some people might just think I am a strange person out on a bike!

There was a covenant on Pages Field (image attached) from 1978 that would prevent the council from selling it and this was bought to my attention from a Weston Avenue resident but sadly WAS is the important word as the covenant was dated for only 21 years which has since past but I have attached it now as it does show the spirit in which this land should be used.

Also a letter from the Council to another Weston Avenue resident from September acknowledges that there is a "shortage of playing fields" and clubs are continually being asked to provide more facilities.

The letter, signed by our Town Clerk and neighbour, Pat Kingsnorth, explains that disposing of Pages Field could answer this question and lead to developments elsewhere but of course any central land will be of more value as a building plot and hence force the sports facilities to the edge of town.

It states that Pages Field is of poor quality, is on a slope and prone to flooding. I have been there on a Sunday and together with residents of The Vines have collected details of the clubs using the field almost every week and while it may not be the best quality of land it is a much used public asset that is wanted by our towns voters.

The town council can see no way forward, it is up to us now to show the support for the field and I have also contacted footballing organisations to look at ways to show support and even help financially to improve the changing facilities and drainage works the town council have said the field needs.

This is not the end and I hope that with the dedication Weston Avenue and The Vines homeowners have shown we can get the decision that the people want and not what the councillors living miles away want!

Pages Field to be developed?

Certain members of the Town Council have discretely applied for planning permission to build on Pages Field. They have though since issued a press release with more spin than a frisbee! However a lot of the discussion and decisions to do this were purposely kept out of the public view for fear of reprisal.

I promised to fight the sale and development of this land and I am sticking to this and all promises made. I have been meeting with local resident groups recently and I would like to invite you ALL to the District Council Offices where the planning application will be discussed and I will let you know the date as soon as it is announced.

Hopefully it will be denied permission but that does not stop the Council selling it.

Cllr Steve Owen wants to use the money to build a 120 acre site elsewhere in the town which I believe to be at the far end of Stanbridge Road, barely even in the town. This would mean that people would invariably need to drive to the site creating more congestion.

I do not believe the town needs or wants one or two big sites but small patches in the heart of the community where it becomes a personal and neighbourly space for sports and recreation. A kick about near home is the only practical option for our residents wanting to enjoy themselves. Not everyone wants to join a team or be a professional.

When a 10 year old and his friends want to play outside instead of sitting by a TV, it is better to walk a few minutes around the corner to a safe local site overlooked by residents than have to either cycle, be driven or walk for a long time to an “out of town” sports centre.

If this proposed area is at the end of Stanbridge Road, there will be access problems for pedestrians and cyclists making the car essential to use our sporting facilities.

So now you need your car to play football. Well please don’t misunderstand this as flippancy, it is not, this is a very serious problem but a car is no good in a game of football Cllr Owen – It only has one boot!