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...