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.