End of year round up

Ok for regular readers (do I have any?) you will realise I am actually writing this in 2008 as I have been really bad at updating the blog for the past few months.

Christmas was a great time for fundraising and networking in. My own Christmas Carol concert was very well attended and I think quite good fun too so I would like to thank everyone that visited and helped out. We did quite well on the collection too which was shared between my charities and the Church. I also got to go to many other concerts and services in the area including the Guides at Hockliffe Street Baptist Church, the Scouts service and some events in Aylesbury.

Just before Christmas I was also fortunate enough to get to visit all of our staff that work incredibly hard keeping our parks and cemeteries looking nice and working well. I felt a bit like Santa with my mince pies and mulled wine or fruit juice for staff driving company vehicles :(

A real eye opener was my visit just before Christmas to the Royal Mail sorting office where I saw all of our mail and many Christmas cards being sorted just in time for Christmas. I now realise just how important it is to use the postcode!

I spent Christmas working at the Crisis homeless shelter in South London. A very rewarding job where I met a number of very interesting people, not just the other volunteers but the centre users too.

Goodbye 2007, hello 2008 - Let's hope it's a good one!!

New Year road closure

Anyone living in, working in or travelling through Grovebury ward between 14th January and 27th January should be aware of a road closure at the END of STANBRIDGE ROAD where it meets Billington Road.


The official diversion is shown with the blue circles and because it has to be suitable for all vehicles, it involves going a very long way around the bypass. Local residents can use alternative routes.

The closure is between The Falcon Pub car park and Linwood Grove. Residents and visitors to Falcon Mews will be given access.

Christmas lights NOW ON

After 9 weeks of sitting there being tested, our Town Christmas lights were switched on last night by ITV Anglia News reporter Philippa Heap live on TV after a countdown led my your Town Mayor and Town Crier!

I have a video on my Facebook account of the switch-on which you can see if you have a Facebook account - Click Here

or you can go to the itvlocal.com website and see it - ITV Local

Remembrance Day Parade

For remembrance day on the 11th November I was pleased to be able to thank those who gave their life for our country but also pleased to thank the many local British Legion members who do so much good work locally.

Being at the front of the parade and laying a wreath from the Town Council on behalf of all Leighton-Linslade residents was a duty I was proud to perform.

Thank you.

Fireworks and Beds CC Chairman

I had an enjoyable weekend "mayoring" at two fundraisers this weekend.

On Friday I attended the Chairman of Bedfordshire County Council's (Cllr Robin Younger) reception. He is raising funds this year for the Bedfordshire Air Ambulance Appeal and Bedfordshire Advocacy Alliance.

On Saturday I was invited to light the bonfire at the Town's fireworks display organised perfectly by the Lions and held at Brooklands Middle School.

I am not yet sure how much money the Lions raised but the fireworks were great and importantly it was a safe way to enjoy them as many people did.

End of October 2007

Hello, I have to admit to cheating slightly here. I wrote this article at the end of November but backdated it to October so it flowed better!

So here we are at the end of October. We held an Extraordinary Meeting of the Council on the 15th to discuss Brooklands school. The school is supported fully by the Council and our response to the County's consultation made this perfectly clear.

There is no point closing a school when Beds CC admit it will not save money (it will actually cost more) and overall in the town, if Brooklands closes, the town does not have enough school places!!

UPDATE: At the executive meeting on 27th November, Beds CC postponed any decision until a thorough investigation on place numbers and housing growth in the town.


On the 19th October, I attended a Youth Action Conference with District and County Councillors where we met a number of youth groups from the County including students from Cedars.

It was good to see and hear first hand what young people wanted and I was able to point some to our existing Tactic Centre on Hockliffe Street (Youth Forum Website) which they were unaware of. Tactic staff will continue with school assembly visits to make sure more people are aware of the good work they do and I chair the committee that looks after the centre so I want to make sure it continues to be well used!

Saturday 20th October was a visit to Woodside Football Club at Brooklands school to see how much use they get from the school facilities. It was proved that football is not a sport I excel at.



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Living History Day

The 2007 Living History Day with the theme "Popular Pastimes" has been a great success last Saturday and I was pleased to be able to take part in so many activities.

With sports, arts, music, acting and general interest clubs all over the town there should be a club for everyone and the Town Council has details of a number of them. If your club wants some publicity I am happy to put details up here but there are already many official lists to use.

I took part in line dancing and Rapper dancing on the day. I had a practice Rapper dance in Germany when The Grand Union Rapper (from Linslade) performed in Titisee-Neustadt in the summer. I practiced with balloons so this was my first go with real swords!










My Charity Meal is at Mama Rosas on Wednesday at 19:30. We have 4 tickets available at £15 each - Phone Christine on 01525 631 921 to grab the last 4!

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NALC

Together with our Deputy Town Clerk, I attended the National Association of Local Councils conference in Bournemouth from Friday to Sunday.

Exhibitors were on hand to demonstrate some great pieces of playground equipment we may be installing soon as well as many other service we could use. There were also representatives from various associations all working hard in the background to support us but most importantly the same as last year, there were some excellent speakers informing us of changes we need to take in to account as well as ideas from other councils over the country.

I met a number of clerks and officers from other Town and Parish Councils given me the chance to get a different perspective on many projects we are working on including our work with young people, senior citizens and crime prevention.

I will be giving a full report to Council on Monday 26th November at 19:30 in The White House.

ASK is on its way

At a District Council meeting on Tuesday, it was asked by a member what was happening with the Old Fire Station / ASK restaurant in the town.

An update has arrived this morning for all the District Councillors with details of the delay but it does confirm it will still happen and they "anticipate that completion of the lease is imminent"

The Old Fire Station Action Group and threats of legal challenges has delayed the signing of the lease and hence opening of the restaurant. The good news is that they have been granted an alcohol licence which includes a pavement licence so we should have a nice place to have a meal and a drink outside in the summer.

Insurance and some valuation issues (best value implications) remain which should be sorted soon.

Full steam ahead!

This could be my worst ever headline pun but today I have been meeting representatives from the Indian Ministry of Railways when they visited the wonderful hard-working volunteers at the Narrow Gauge Railway right here in town.

As they are looking at improving the heritage and tourism side of their world famous railway, they have come here to Leighton Buzzard to see our volunteers and experts.

As part of the day we took a journey on a steam train to Stonehenge Works on Vandyke Road where I found myself painting some spare track to identify it for use afterwards as well as posing for pictures and discussing the benefit of the railway to the town and the money it generates elsewhere when people come to visit it.

I was lucky enough to get to drive the steam engine too. That really is me driving! If I get an invite to work on the Indian railway I will let you know ;)

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Poland in September

September started off slowly. I helped at Andrew Selous' MP surgery on the Tuesday 4th at the library and attended a Town Centres Management Committee meeting on the 6th before a weekend camping in Chingford for my birthday on the 7th.

I went to visit the Mayor of Czernikow in Poland with Bicester Town Twinning Forum as they looked to take their 5 year friendship to an official twinning status. We visited many local attractions in the area and in Krakow. We also visited Auschwitz which was a very moving experience.

We all stayed with and were fed by local families. They will be coming to Bicester soon and will be hosted in return. Twinning is a great experience and we have an active forum in the town which you are welcome to join.

Other towns nearby may look to build friendships with Leighton Buzzard and Linslade too as well.












This is me in the first picture with the Chairman of the Bicester Town Twinning Forum and the second one is me (again!) with the local Mayor.

St Neots Carnival

August was a quiet month, still the end of the summer "holiday" season. On the 25th I attended the Carnival at St Neots. The floats were very impressive and the entertainment superb with some very talented singers and performers.

I don't know how much was raised for charity in total but the collector seemed to be filling their buckets with coins quite quickly.

Summer Reception

I will use this post as a bit of a roundup over the past few days as I have been a bit quiet on here (my official site).

On Friday 17th, I was fortunate enough to take a tour of the Anglian Water Education Centre and Sewage Treatment works which involved a tour of the site where some of Leighton Buzzard and Linslade's waste water is processed before being pumped in to the sea.

It was a bit smelly on the site but you do get used to it and I would encourage schools to take groups there free of charge.

Later that day I was at the closing ceremony of the Guides camp having been there at the start almost a week before. Girl Guiding South Bedfordshire is one of my charities this year.

Saturday was my Summer Reception which was a brilliant day raising around £400 for my charities and I think everyone went away having had a great day with my unique style! We had a local band called The Synes as well as help from a few local young people with my Dad performing an unplanned magic act!

On Sunday I was launching in to public service the No. 778 train on the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway after many years restoration to the 90 year old steam engine.

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Police and Girl Guides

I am not suggesting there is any link between Beds Police and the Girl Guides although the Police held a cadet passing out parade on the same day the Girl Guides opened their County Camp with The Great Escape as its theme. I was at both events - Sunday 12th August.

There were not too many faces from Leighton Buzzard at the lunch time parade but a lot of officers have put a lot of time and resources in to a great service for 16-18 year olds in Bedfordshire, a large number of cadets go on to work for the force in some way. I was present along with the cadet's parents, senior officer, specials and Mayors from the other Towns and Parishes in the County.

In the evening I was at the Girl Guides County Camp. The theme was The Great Escape and as the Senior Section's prison theme was Feltham Young Offenders, their uniform was a pink hat with ASBO across the front (I was given one too). The South Beds division had The Maze as it's theme leading to a lot of Irish links and a maze at the entrance to the sub camp.

The teddy bears are Asbob and Millie. They got "married" at the camp!

That was a pretty full Saturday.

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The 2am Surgery

It's not every day you go in to town to the late night drinking establishments and end up having a discussion with the Mayor about traffic lights, education and general council business. Tonight was clearly no ordinary night!

I am not sure if other Mayor's and councillors have done it but I have just got back from a night out, joined by Cllr Ashley Ryder (who left EARLY about 1:30am!) and found a lot more people with an interest or an opinion on what we do.

At 1am I was tucking in to a burger when a group of people aged about 18-20 (Happy birthday to the lady who is 20 today) recognised me and actually wanted to speak to me about a range of topics, including saving Brooklands School. They now have a collection of photographs of me stuffing my face on their mobile phone.

I am sure seeing "The Mayor" in that setting was the last thing they expected but I am pretty normal really so don't be too surprised.

Then at 2am, I was stood outside with more introductions or people recognising discussing special education needs which I will be following up on on Monday and congestion in the town.

I have been out in the street with Councillors before when no one even looks at us so I am hoping events like Spaghetti Wrestling and the other things I am doing are taking politics to a new crowd, and to people that want to be involved but have always been left out by the old regime.

On the other hand, it may have just been one of those odd nights.

Who knows!!

If it was you I spoke to, please feel free to comment or send me your pictures and I will put them up on the site.

Since the smoking ban, I have realised just how much alcohol stinks on your clothes, but it's not as bad as coming home smelling like an ashtray :)

Canal Festival

The 5th Canal Festival took place on Saturday 28th, just before a charity BBQ I attended for The Mayor of Dunstable making Saturday a very full day.

It was good to see a lot of familiar faces from the town and also some new ones. Tiddenfoot pit is a big site and I ended up walking around it many times with the Police, St John, Air Cadets and others who were supporting the event.

A walk along the canal showed me some wonderful craft businesses operating and also some boat owners simply relaxing enjoying the canal. I handed out some flyers about boat crime prevention too so let's hope everyone keeps their boats secure.

The Lions Club and Young Farmers provided a lot of really nice food to keep us all going as we visited lots of fun and interesting stands.

This is a great event and if you did miss it this year, keep your eyes open ready for next year’s event.

First prize in the festival raffle - the winner of a hand carved wooden wishing seat by Dick Tilley of Spirits of Wood - was light pink ticket number 175 which was bought by Colin. The prize has yet to be claimed and the person with the winning ticket should contact the Town Council on 01525 631 920 to claim it.

Spaghetti Wrestling £200

Thanks to everyone who supported the spaghetti wrestling event, we raised just over £200 for my charities.

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Titisee-Neustadt

Last week I spent 5 days in Titisee-Neustadt in the Black Forest, Germany which is one of the 2 towns we are twinned with. The other is Coulommiers in France.

Their political system is very different with the local Mayor ("Burgermeister") being an elected but paid role more like a Chief Executive, overseeing huge budgets but being very accountable and local.

Also there were the Grand Union Rapper from Leighton Linslade performing their dance to large crowds in the Tourist town of Titisee.

I will let you know when our German twin residents come over here as I know the Twinning forum will be putting on some events for them.

Greener Taxis in the town

Well not just yet but they could be on their way...

I have been talking to licensing officers at SBDC about the possible benefits of licensed taxis using either greener fuels, hybrid engines and otherwise being less polluting than they are now.

It is early days and we are just starting to look at the implications and ways to encourage the use of greener vehicles. Then we will look at what other councils have done but this will take a while.

Spaghetti Wrestling

Here's an event for your diary, July 29th, 12pm at The Sun Pub on Lake Street.

We have SPAGHETTI WRESTLING, I realise spaghetti wrestling is not a traditional Mayor's event but I like to think when I was elected, people were supporting someone a little different and so this should come as no surprise!

This event is a fun, family event organised to raise money for my charities.

Turn up on the day to watch or even take part and it will all make sense. Yes it may be messy but it should also raise lots of money and be a good afternoon out.

Twenty Years of Rainbows

Girl Guiding South Bedfordshire is one of my charities this year and I was invited to the Rainbow's Section 20th birthday party today. The only problem was the theme was Disney and I had to dress up!

So this is my attempt at fancy dress (I am meant to be Mickey Mouse).

Visit the Bedfordshire Guides website

Also in the past 2 weeks, I have listened to a choir from Coulommiers (our French Twin Town) at Gilbert Inglefield Middle School and seen the musical Grease performed by students from Brooklands Middle School. Both events were excellent.

Honorary Burgess

Tonight at an event I hosted, Past Mayor Cllr Mark Freeman presented a new award to two people who have done a lot for the community in Leighton Buzzard and Linslade over the past 30 or so years.

Reverend Peter Lymbery and Roy Gibbons were both presented with an Honorary Burgess award and their names will be displayed on a new display in The White House on Hockliffe Street.

District Telephones and Markets

I had Full Council at South Beds tonight. Nothing major at the moment, 2 questions I raised were on the current situation with the new market operators as there had been some reports on counterfeit goods circulating in the press and also on the new district 0845 numbers.

All numbers for SBDC will now have an 0845 alternative which for most people will cost more to call than the 01582 number and they do not count as part of a package of say inclusive minutes on your mobile phone or free calls on your landline.

I will make sure the 01582 number is available to anyone who needs it. It doesn’t seem fair if you need to claim benefits or ask to be homed you should be paying more to the call council. There was no mention of revenue sharing so far so the council may not be taking a cut of the call revenue.

Cllr Hegley, Portfolio Holder responsible responded by saying they would move over to an 03 number later in the year when they are available. These again are “non geographic” meaning they can be anywhere in the country and change easily but will be included in your call packages treated equally to 01 and 02 numbers.

As for the market, not much could be said as Wendy Fair, the new operator, are in court at the moment facing these charges and until we have the verdict we are limited in what we can do or say.

Events Roundup

Since I last wrote about the events I have attended, I have been to many more representing the town.

On the 24th May I was a judge at The Carnival Princess Competition. That was very hard, having to pick just 2 people from a room full of young ladies that really wanted to win! In the end we chose Adrienne and Chloe

On the 26th, I attended the Leighton-Linslade Arts forum play which was superb, there is a lot of talent hidden in our local residents! They performed "Sir Christopher" showing the history of Sir Christopher Wren.

I was off to Buckingham on the 1st of June to meet their Mayor

I attended the Citizens Advice Bureau AGM on 14th June and the Sports Council AGM tonight.

On the subject of Sports, if your club is not yet a member, it costs just £10 per year and you can apply for financial support too using funds from the Town Council. In addition, you get the chance to network with other clubs and help the Sports Council represent your sport to Councillors and other authorities.

I asked tonight for a list of all the taster sessions the clubs are putting on over the summer but particularly those aimed at the youth and that we bring clubs together to avoid clashes. Once I have a list I will be promoting it and other summer events that are being planned...

Save Our School

I will shortly but putting up a an update on all the events I have attended but I wanted to discuss today's events.

Firstly, I handed out certificates to children in the Library yesterday for their entries in the BBC RAW (Reading and Writing) Campaign in conjunction with Beds County Council where the family all helped to write a short story.

After this, I opened the Brooklands Middle School Family Fun Day, just days after Beds County Council announced that on Tuesday 19th, the Executive Committee would be looking at a possible consultation on the school's closure.

The school under the leadership of Head Teacher Steve Harrington-Williams have produced t-shirts for all the pupils in the school uniform colours and I was pleased to wear one during the event.

I will discuss the possibilities of the closure in more detail but the whole of the Town Council is behind the school and are opposing its closure without good reason and insisting that a proper consultation with all concerned will take place. That includes not just teachers, pupils and parents but the many groups and clubs that use the school's facilities.

Please comment below.

Allotments

I am ashamed of my allotment.

I have not visited for weeks and it is full of weeds which don't seem to understand I don't want them there. Every time I go I dig them up then a week later they are back!

I think I should start trying to grow them, that is guaranteed to kill them.

I will be going back soon (Hayfever permitting) to put my tomato plants in but if anyone wants to join me thinking an allotment, or even half of one is too much, you are more than welcome to a few feet of mine. Just ask - I need the help as I am only using a very small part of it.

Surgery

Traffic and Rubbish. Today's theme at the County, District and Town Councillors surgery at the Library today starting at 10am.

I had 4 people visit during the two hour session and overall it was a very constructive day. We talked about traffic calming, speeding motorists and the implications of the new waste collection system to come in to force in September which is also the time when the new bypass is due to open.

A couple of planning issues still need to be followed up by me but I have started to speak to the right people regarding most of the traffic and transport issues so if you came to see me today, watch this space and I will update you soon.

Also today I am pleased to tell you that our market inspector (now under new management) dealt with the police to remove a trader from the market illegally selling alcohol. I am sure the papers will have more on this in the middle of the week.

Charities Announced

It took a while, and I would like to thank everyone for their ideas but I have now chosen three charities for this year.

I wanted a charity that would benefit local people, was based locally, did not get ongoing national funding and did not spend large amounts of money on "admin" although local bramches of national charities would not be ruled out if they fitted the above criteria.

So, the chairites for this year are :-

• Sparx Theatre Company - Holding regular theatre workshops for people with special needs and is open to all ages and disabilities.
  
  
• Salveson Ski Group - To enable a local child to participate in this year's trip. (Salveson is a national charity which enables young people with disabilities to visit the National Centre for Disabled Sport at the Winterpark resort in Colorado, USA)
  
  
• Girl Guides - South Beds District

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Events so far

This first week and one day as Mayor has been amazing, so many events meetings with other Mayors who of course I am hoping will come to my events later in the year and buy lots of raffle tickets for charity :)

Starting on Monday 14th May I chaired the majority of the AGM working through the agenda in between the numerous mistakes and pauses to learn the finer procedural points that as a member of the council you tend to just accept until you are the one chairing it.

Tuesday 15th was an induction day for SBDC, the whole day in a stuffy room with the worst tea I have ever tasted (sorry Donna!). A lot of very interesting facts and figures about the district and an introduction to the men and women keeping the District running smoothly (ish).

Wednesday I actually went to work and had only a very brief afternoon meeting with my secretary regarding upcoming civic events.

Thursday 17th was my first SBDC full council meeting where Cllr Mrs Beryl Meakins was elected as our Chairman. Committees were agreed and I went on to the Local Governance committee as well as a substitute on Licensing and JPTC (Joint Planning and Transportation Committee).

Friday night I was off to Aylesbury attending the Town Council's AGM where their new mayor was elected.

Saturday was a full and packed day with a ribbon cutting and official opening of The Whole Tooth Dental Practice (www.wholetooth.co.uk) in the morning and an event marking the 30th anniversary of Vandyke Upper School opening - put back from September 2006 (www.vandyke.beds.sch.uk)

Monday 21^st was a more local outing for me attending the Dunstable Town Council AGM and today was a work catch up day!

I am the Mayor

At tonight’s Town Council AGM I was voted in as the new Mayor of Leighton Buzzard for 2007-8!!!

I am of course thrilled and honoured and know I have a big reputation to live up to from the previous Mayor Cllr Mark Freeman.

I am looking for a charity or two to support and would appreciate suggestions. I am looking for charities that do not automatically get nationwide publicity and lots of money and one where receiving a modest amount from us locally would make a big difference.

Please make suggestions below or email me.

I have a busy couple of weeks ahead visiting the Mayors of neighbouring authorities and I even have my first ribbon to cut which I will be sure to "blog" about.

I was proposed by Cllr Paul Record (leader) and seconded by Cllr Ray Berry (new deputy leader). All the Conservative group voted for me and the Liberal Democrat group voted for Cllr Peter Snelling's suggestion of Ken Sharer, the past Deputy Mayor.

George Rolfe is my Deputy Mayor and fellow Grovebury Ward Councillor. That means that Grovebury is fighting strong with the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Council Leader all in this ward.

Phone masts

Do you have a mobile phone? I have 2 (one work and one mine) and some people I know have 3 or more and they can be very important items to have. However, of all those people that use a mobile phone, how many really wouldn't mind a mast placed within 100ft of your back garden?

This is the problem we face in Leighton Buzzard and Linslade. Mobile networks need to fill in gaps in their coverage yet so many people do not want a phone mast visible from their window and I would have to agree with them, I wouldn't really like to look out on an obvious one.

Ofcom grant "code powers" to mobile operators which gives them the right to install masts after discussion with planners even if planners do not want a mast, that is not necessarily the end of the matter. Ofcom also though does encourage mast sharing so we have one mast with a number of company's transmitters on it.

This does not always seem to happen so I would be interested to hear your views on this. If we can work with the mobile phone companies whose services the majority of us use to encourage them to mast share and find more suitable sites we may find a solution to this common complaint.

We do like Mondays

James Chard from the Citizen has kicked off the "press coverage" with a story that the leading Conservative Group has moved the Town Council meetings to a Thursday meaning that 4 out of 5 Liberal Democrat Councillors can not make the meetings.

While I appreciate your rights to know what is going on (hence this blog!) I do wish people would get it right and listen to us when we try to get the truth out as both the papers and opposition group have been informed that this is not the case.

You will see at our full council meeting this MONDAY (19:30 at The White House - residents welcome) that this is not true and Council will continue to meet on a Monday.

Not all meetings will be on a Monday, there have always been meetings on other days of the week as there are simply too many meetings each week and meetings that bring people in from other organisations as well so we can't always do a Monday.

The District Council will be liaised with so that we have as few clashes as possible but as has been the case previously they do happen from time to time.

In the past when we were the minority, we had to put up with the fact that the Liberals together with Maurice Blackman (Labour) got their way on most decisions and we had to fit in. Like when I had to miss Scouts for Thursday meetings or miss climbing on Monday evenings.

Now we have 16 councillors on the council and a clear majority of over half the council, (that’s right, we can have 11 of our members away and still have the majority) we do not need to move meetings around so the Liberals cannot make it but we do have to think of the majority of the council which is exactly the justification used during the past 8 years and if it was good enough for them then it should be good enough now!

I will be publishing details of future meetings once they are confirmed on Monday and again you are all more than welcome to attend the majority of meetings. The only major exception are working parties and times when personnel matters or contract issues etc. are being discussed.

Town Results in now

Thank you for the second time today.

Myself, George Rolf, Maureen Rolfe and Paul Record have been elected as your Grovebury Ward Councillors.

In total there are now 16 Conservative Councillors and 5 Liberal Democrat Councillors.

There will be some meetings early next week to put in place a lot of the plans for the coming year and then shortly after that it will be back to work working with you all as before.

A number of blank ballot papers were received, hopefully this was a "statement" as opposed to a mistake and we appreciate you making your voice heard. We even had one ballot paper wth a UKIP vote on it!!

So once again, please contact me by phone, public comment on the blog or email and we will do our best to help.

The full results :-

All Saints
Bowater, David …………… 611 (Elected)
Ryder, Ashley …………… 560 (Elected)
Sharer, Kenneth …………… 542 (Elected)

(2494 total votes)

Grovebury
Fahn, Adam …………… 979 (Elected)
Record, Paul …………… 684 (Elected)
Rolfe, George …………… 853 (Elected)
Rolfe, Maureen …………… 816 (Elected)

(3997 total votes)

Linslade
Freeman, Mark …………… 622 (Elected)
Freeman, Susan …………… 591 (Elected)
Pughe, Kevin …………… 594 (Elected)

(3339 total votes)

Planets
Breen, David …………… 429 (Elected)
Guess, Anne …………… 409 (Elected)
Price, David …………… 428 (Elected)

(2407 total votes)

Plantation
Berry, Ray …………… 957 (Elected)
Perham, Gordon …………… 767 (Elected)
Sadler, Brian …………… 766 (Elected)
Sadler, Patricia …………… 771 (Elected)

(4165 total votes)

Southcott
Brandham, Alan …………… 1012 (Elected)
Cursons, Karen …………… 956 (Elected)
Hopkin, David …………… 908 (Elected)
Snelling, Peter …………… 918 (Elected)

(6399 total votes)


The totals are votes, not voters as each person could vote for 3 or 4 candidates.
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District Council

With 913 votes (the second highest of the night in the town) and a fraction under 58% of the total, I have been elected to South Bedfordshire District Council.

Thank you.

As promised on the door step, in leaflets and in previous blog posts I will be ensuring Leighton Buzzard as the largest and best town in the District continues to be recognised as such and we as a ward and town stand proud in our district.

The results were :-

Fahn, Adam (CONSERVATIVE) ………… 913
Gray, Anne Elizabeth (LIBERAL DEMOCRAT) …… 407
Ross, Duncan (LABOUR) ………… 261

(25.6% Turnout)

I really must add that obviously this was down to those who voted for me but equally the work done by the rest of the District and Town group in our ward and I am grateful to George and Maureen Rolfe and Paul Record.

9 hours left

Just 9 hours left until the polls close.

I will be back on early Friday morning with the results...

Election Shutdown

As the election is now just under 1 month away I will be pausing my blog so as to keep everything above board.

I will be standing in Grovebury for both Town and District.

If anyone does not yet have their postal vote sorted pleased get it sorted NOW or arrange for a proxy voter on the day so you do not miss out.

If you are a first time voter either aged 18-22 or older but feel "we are all the same" then please stop and give it some real thought for a minute.

Life is full of difficult decisions where you are "stuck between a rock and a hard place" yet you have to make a decision. So please don't duck out of this situation, you are given you chance, if you get in a bit quicker next time you could even be elected yourself!

If you really can't decide, turn up at the polling station and do what some people did last year, write a note on the ballot slip explaining that you just can't decide or don't want any of us. At least that will get closer to 100% participation!

If anyone needs help getting to the station, give me a shout (or whichever candidate you do want to vote for) and I am sure we will all try to help.

p.s. I have just got back from a 5 day Scout Camp to Snowdonia which included mountain biking around Betws-y-Coed, walking up Snowdon (and back down!) and all the usual Scouting activities. No time to rest though, election leaflets will be dropping through your doors soon...

Parish Meeting

There will be the Annual Parish Meeting TONIGHT starting at 19:30 at Vandyke Upper School.

This page tells you about it on the Council website - HERE

With the agenda being a bit more hidden - HERE

Three Tier Tour

Hello left hand, allow me to introduce you to right hand...

Do you ever get the feeling that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing and between LLTC, SBDC and BCC the three councils sometimes lose messages between them?

The good news is that my Cycling Tour mentioned only last week is growing in popularity and has become a Three Tier Tour with Leighton-Linslade Town Council, South Beds District Council and Beds County Council support all planned. All three in the same place at the same time, it is a chance to look at the little items that are not usually a priority.

The date is set for SATURDAY 14TH APRIL

Sergeant Bull has also offered one of our local officers subject to nothing major cropping up in the mean time.

I am planning to start around the Brooklands area, moving South East to Billington Park, on to Sandhills then through to Chartmoor Road and Grovebury Road. We can use the foot paths to cross in to Linslade then move on to the town centre, finishing the tour in the Heath and Reach and Leedon area.

BUT WE NEED YOUR IDEAS

I need to know of the smaller issues that affect you. Are there cars parked inconsiderately all the time near you? Is rubbish regularly dumped? Have street lights been out of order for some time? Do you have potholes that have not been fixed? Do you need more or less road signs? Are there dangerous junctions?

Hopefully you get the idea. Please come out and see us on the day and add a comment to this article with your suggestions.

Thank you

Cycling Tour

With the help of the Cycling Forum, Leighton-Linslade is getting close to being a Cycle Friendly Town, something that I have asked for in the past and I have supported the Cycle Forum to achieve this.

I am attempting to put together a cycling tour of the town in the coming weeks and have invited Council Officers, Councillors and the Police amongst others to join me.

The aim is to feedback problems to the Highways Authority with regards to roads, signs and lights etc but also with the Police involvement we can see areas causing concern for ASB (anti social behaviour) and also crime.

It would be nice to stop and speak to local residents on the day so watch this space and hopefully all those invited will be able to join in.

ASK for a debate

What's your view on the Old Fire Station/ASK Restaurant situation?

I supported and still support the District Council's decision to grant ASK the right to turn it in to a high quality restaurant, returning it fully refurbished to the Town at the end of the lease and paying a good rent.

I have received emails from people in the past setting up a support group FOR ASK as much of the publicity recently has been against the restaurant.

This is not a pizza takeaway, it is a restaurant, and serving a wide range of food I believe it could the first of a number of changes needed to bring life back in to our town centre. Take a look at the ASK Website to see what they have done in other buildings of a similar kind.

If you are interested in joining the support group for the restaurant (started by local residents) their email address is asksupport@hotmail.co.uk.

I respect views for and against it, but the decision should be made by local people in possession of all of the facts and not just based on which group shouts loudest so please have a look and make your own mind up.

Deputy Group Leader

I have been promoted!

Following the resignation of Peter Rawcliffe as Conservative Group Leader (he is still a Councillor just not the group leader), Paul Record has moved on to be the leader of our group and I am now the Deputy Leader.

This is a great opportunity for me having been on the council for little over 15 months now and I think it marks the continuation and future increase of what our group has achieved over the past few years. It wasn't that long ago there were just 4 Conservative Councillors on the Council and over that time at full elections or by-elections more people have been voted on and joined our group to represent the electorate.

One of my main roles now is to plan the election campaign when I will stop posting on the blog around March/April until the results on the 3rd May 2007.

We will be writing and distributing a manifesto in time which I hope you will like whatever your political persuasion. There is a lot in it for continued improvements in the town but it will also be acknowledging the good work done in previous terms by all groups and seek to build from it.

I am keen to see new members elected on to the council so if you have always wanted to be a Councillor and didn't know who to speak to or what to do, please get in touch if you would like to join us.

Young Enterprise

On Sunday I was a judge at the Young Enterprise Trade Fair in Milton Keynes, I was asked to do this as an employer and not as a Councillor but it is worth mentioning here as it is a great chance for groups of young people to experience business while at school.

There were some very good companies and a company from Cedars won an award too.

Have a look at www.youngenterprise.org.uk and if you have business experience and can act as a mentor for a school group, we would love to hear from you.

Good Advice from Mids Beds

In a desperate bid to cling on to some power, Councillors at Mid Beds and South Beds are considering options for them to join up and kick out the County Council.

While I support the County Council's Unitary bid (although I am only up to page 52 of the 84 page proposal) I can understand South and Mid Beds (S&M Beds) decision to put in their own but find the press release they issued very interesting

In it, Tricia Turner, Leader of Mid Beds said “We feel that big is not best, that local services provided by local councils independently recognised as sound managers and held to account locally is the best way forward. There will be savings, the removal of inefficient management layers and we will ensure local council tax is spent on local services.

If only South Beds read this a bit closer and realised she may well have been talking about the benefits of our Town Council over the District.

Big is not best she says which means District Councils are not as good as a truly local Town Council and using the sound managers we at LLTC already employ is the best way forward. The removal of inefficient management layers could be the removal of an inneficient District council and she further supports the line that local council tax should be spent on local service.

So based on Trish's comments, I would say she supports LLTC in all its disagreements with SBDC and yet they still think they should be allowed to remain in power!

Combating Crime

At yesterday's CCWP (Combating Crime Working Party) we received reports from Inspector Barrett and Sargeant Bull amongst other issues

The good news in theft of a vehicle has dropped but theft FROM a vehicle is on the increase. There are numerous campaigns and strategies the police are working on now but the best advise is to remove Satellite Navigation Systems from you car - COMPLETELY. Don't hide it in the glove box!

Areas in Grovebury ward have been frequented by the police lately and they have moved on a number of "unsociable people" but if you are worried about your area please get in touch with either the police or me and they will continue to alter where they patrol.

Gate Update

Earlier this year I spent some time with the residents involved in the gating order on Russell Way looking at the legal paperwork involved including some guidance documents obtained from The Home Office.

It was very interesting legal stuff which took a few reads to figure it out and it has since been presented to SBDC from one of the residents who are now considering our findings.

More updates to come as we get them...

Planning and Environment

Planning and Environment tonight. A few planning applications, including some rather odd looking extensions, Christmas lights and a few of the usuals coming up.

Don't forget Monday January 22nd is Full Council. Starting at 19:30 please feel free to come along.

Crisis

As the new year is with us, it won't be long until we are having the usual banter in the Council chamber, resident's issues to deal with, community events and so on so I thought before we get in to the mad rush of life, I would share my Christmas story with you of volunteering at a Crisis shelter in central London over Christmas.

http://www.crisis.org.uk

It was the first year I volunteered for despite meaning to do it for many years before. When I lived in the London area, you would see the adverts and news reports every year but by the time you were reminded, it was too late with family plans and so on. Thankfully this year I registered in November for 2 night shifts leading up to 08:30 on Christmas morning. A note is already in the 2007 diary.

It was an amazing experience, I didn't know what to expect but I went with an open mind. I can't claim to really understand homelessness fully, yes the local authority systems aren't perfect, there are limited resources and people slip through the net but it seems very wrong to me that in this country with all of our success stories and comforts, there are people that don't have a home of any standard nor access to medication, regular food and so on.

While I was open minded, I was surprised at the different stories from the "guests" using the shelter. Not everyone was a drunk or drug user as many people seem to think. Although I was at the only "wet" centre used by alcoholics even those with an alcohol problem were very positive and as you should expect, were very nice people to spend Christmas with,

One of the guests, Tony, is a talented artist who worked with the volunteers and other guests to create a huge mural on a wooden 8 foot square board erected by the build up crew in the weeks before the centre opened. Others guest like Dave have now been homed and are gradually rebuilding their lives.

If you want to do something meaningful at Christmas, whatever your religious beliefs at this time of year I can recommend volunteering for Crisis.