Canvassing Sandhills

I along with our MP Andrew Selous and a couple of candidates from outside Leighton Buzzard were canvassing tonight around Sandhills.

The main issue to come up was one that I have been working on for some time and that is the road adoptions. You can see from previous blog posts that this has been one of the worst handled adoptions in the history of house building it would seem and the delays have been caused by the builders and Anglian Water.

To reiterate previous points, we hope to have the roads adopted by the end of this year for both Billington Park and Sandhills and will then continue discussions with the Royal Mail about installing post boxes and continue with plans to address the parking problems. Officers will meet with residents to discuss where parking controls should be implemented and crucially where they will not.

Big Bike Ride

On the 5th July 2009 I will be taking part in the WOBURN BIG BIKE RIDE raising money to supporting the NSPCC's Child's Voice Appeal.

It costs £5 to take part (£2.50 under 16s) and is suitable for all the family as there are two routes to chose from (2.5 and 3 miles). Come along and ride around as many times as you like and when you have finished, you can picnic in the park or take advantage of reduced price entry to Woburn Abbey or the Safari park (on the day of the event and participants only).

Click the link above to register but if anyone wants to go with me, just post a comment below or send me an email.

Happy Cycling

Wheelie Bin Race 2009

On Sunday 10th we held the second Wheelie Bin Race in aid of the Mayor's Charity Fund.

Seven teams took part in two heats with The Golden Bell, Church Square the clear winners followed in second place by heat 1 winners, The Culture Cafe on the First Floor of the Library.

Around £150 was raised for the charity fund which was great fun for all those taking part and the spectators. It was also great fun for me to organise the race for the second year.

I will be doing this again in 2010 and will raise money for the new Mayor's charity fund as well. The preliminary date will be Sunday 9th May 2010 so please put it in your diary now.

We would like 4 hairdressers, 4 pubs, 4 estate agents, 4 banks, 4 cafes, 4 community groups and so on so we can have the winners from each heat going in to the semi final.

This year the participants were (in no particular order) :

The Golden Bell (Church Square)
Havoc Motorcycle Club (Meets in Milton Keynes)
The Ashwell Arms (Ashwell Street)
Culture Cafe - The Library Coffee Shop (First Floor, The Library, Lake Street)
Absolutely Fabulous (Market Square)
The Town Council (Hockliffe Street)
The Sun (Lake Street - voted pub of the year 2009)

NatWest were unable to get a team together but will be donating the entry fee and The Top Bell have already made their donation.

In addition to the entry fees, almost £70 was raised from donations being thrown in to the winning bin.

An idea for next year is to have all bins paraded around the crowd with half the money donated going to a charity of the entrants choice and half to the nominated charity - The Town Mayor's Charity Fund. What do you think?

Persons Nominated

The elections to Central Bedfordshire are on the 4th June. In Grovebury Ward you are selecting TWO Candidates for Central Bedfordshire. You can also vote for your MEP on the same day.

I would like to state on the record I am extremely pleased to be standing against a full slate of candidates, 2 Liberal Democrats and 2 Labour Supporters. A quick look through the list that has been published today seems to show every single seat has been contested by the three main parties and a fair few ex South Beds Councillors standing independently as their own party did not select them.

In Houghton Regis they have the most standing in one ward - THIRTEEN!! Our Leighton Linslade Central Wards is just behind that at twelve.

We have had a little change around and joining me asking for your vote is long term Town and District Councillor Ray Berry. He is joining us in place of our regular George Rolfe who is standing in Southcott and Paul Record who has taken a back seat role this time round on health grounds.

In terms of what we stand for, hopefully many of you will know this already as I try to get around the ward as much as possible between election time and residents' meetings etc. but if not, don't worry as I will be posting information leading up to the election.

You don't need your polling card to vote but you do need to be registered. If you are not and need help or need a postal vote, please contact me now!