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"