NORMANDY D DAY INVASION 65TH ANNIVERSARY

President Barack Obama & Prince Charles at the D Day Ceremony


Normandy D Day Invasion 65th Anniversary events in Portsmouth and Normandy, France

Today marks the first day of my new life after nearly 20 years public service as a Councillor in Bedfordshire and North Hertfordshire.

This morning I went to Elstow Abbey Church, read the Epistle and the Gospel and listened to the beautiful singing of the Amity Singers from Jersey. They are part of the Bedford-Jersey Arts Festival, celebrating a 60 year link between Bedford and Jersey children who were evacuated to Bedford during the Second World War.

Yesterday marked the 65th Anniversary of the Normandy D Day Invasion by the British, American and Canadian fleets, which led to the Allies winning and ending the Second World War in 1945. Ceremonies were attended by the Heads of State of France, USA and Canada, plus Prince Charles and Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister. The Queen should have been invited but was not due to errors by both the French and British Governments, and Prince Charles was only invited at the last minute after protests.

Britain was Germany's chief opponent at the beginning of the War, and thousands of Britons died during the Normandy Invasion to save France from the Nazis. This was a gross discourtesy and yet another example of the incompetence of Gordon Brown and his tired Labour Government. It 's time for a General Election and change!

President Sarkozy. the French President is only interested in hitching his waning star to the glamorous President Obama, the most poopular world leader, which is perhaps unsurprising as he hopes that some of the stardust will rub off on him.

My late father was decorated by the French Government with the Croix de Guerre for his role in the 1944 Normandy Invasion. He was a navigator in HMS Frobisher, the leading frigate in the British fleet, one of the first ships to arrive in Normandy.

The photographs above are a sample of the various events taking place in Portsmouth, where I grew up as the child of a naval family, and Normandy, including the beach at Arromanches. All the remaining veterans are in their 80's and 90's and very frail.

UPDATE ON ANTI BULLYING WEEK IN BEDFORDSHIRE

This is the yellow Anti Bullying Bus which arrived at John Bunyan Upper School on Monday morning, marking the official launch of Anti-Bullying Week in Bedfordshire.

Tuesday was "Be Kind and Make a Difference Day" and children from two schools, one pictured above, went to the Grove Theatre to watch a showing of "The Tiger Who Came to Tea" - my daughters' favourite book when they were little. On Friday Chiltern FM will host an event for young people from 9 Middle Schools to display their musical, dance and drama talents before a judging panel.

Today I attended the 5th and final Bedfordshire Countywide Assembly at Cranfield University with 180 representatives from 100+ organisations including 4 local Councils, NHS, Police, Fire Service, Parish and Town Councils, voluntary organisations etc.

We were discussing our Local Area Agreement and the challenges facing the people of Bedfordshire in 4 main areas - Health & Children, the Economy & Environment, Safer and Stronger Communities and the setting up of the two new Unitary Councils, Central Bedfordshire and Bedford, which replace Bedfordshire County Council on 1 April 2009.
Topics covered included Child Obesity and Poverty, Enterprise and Carbon Reduction, Civic Participation and Domestic Violence.

Tomorrow I am off to London for a 2-day Public Services Innovation Conference, organised by the Local Government Association, to share bright ideas on how to improve people's lives. This Councillor's life is never dull, just very busy!

ANTI-BULLYING WEEK IN BEDFORDSHIRE

Yesterday the Anti-Bullying Bus came to Bedfordshire to mark the official launch of Anti Bullying Week, a national event organised by the Anti-Bullying Alliance. Bedfordshire Students Against Bullying representatives joined Cllr David Reedman, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People at John Bunyan Upper School in Bedford to unveil the yellow double decker bus.

This year's theme is "being different, belonging together' and aims to raise awareness of the serious impact of bullying on young people. There are a series of events involving schools and local communities across Bedfordshire this week.

Jayden Rai, a Year 11 student at John Bunyan Upper School and a Bedfordshire Students Against Bullying Representative said "We want to make sure people know that bullying is not just in school, it's outside - in parks, on the street, even at home and on the buses. We want to raise awareness, so we're doing posters, badges, assemblies, an internet forum and even role play".

200 children aged 9-12 years entered an Anti-Bullying Superhero Art Competition in 17 Bedfordshire Libraries and 12 winners have been chosen to receive prizes at a special Award Ceremony on Thursday 20 November in Flitwick.

NATIONAL BLOGGING AWARDS FOR THE FAULKNER JOURNAL

GOOD NEWS!

The Faulkner Journal has been voted one of Total Politics Top 200 Political Blogs AND in the Top 100 Centre Right Political Blogs in the UK after a poll which was conducted in Total Politics Magazine and on 75 different Political Blogs. My Blog features in Iain Dale's new 2008/9 Guide to Political Blogging.

My success is remarkable as this Blog is new and started only 3 weeks before this UK Blog Poll was conducted. I am thrilled and honoured to be listed with famous global Political Bloggers like Iain Dale, John Redwood MP and Conservative Home.

Bedfordshire political bloggers in the Top 100 Right Wing Blogs include Nadine Dorries MP for Mid Beds (20th) who topped the 2007 Poll and Andrew McConnell's Blogging for Bedford (49th). My position was 69th so we Bedford Bloggers have performed extremely well against nearly 600 competitors across the UK.

Thank you to all those who voted for me and for your many compliments. Your feedback is always welcome to stimulate debate so please keep sending in your comments.

BEDFORDSHIRE'S SEXIEST POLITICIAN

The closing date for the Blogging for the Bedford Poll to find Bedfordshire's Sexiest Politician is tomorrow 21 August. So far I have 131 votes and I am in 3rd place. Please vote for me now - the website is www.bloggingforbedford.blogspot.com.

Here are 2 comments received from my Blog readers -

"Nice pictures and informative Blog"

"Councillor Faulkner your modesty does you proud. Best of luck in the Poll. It's good to see a strong woman in politics who combines good looks with sound judgment. More power to your elbow and keep on blogging. I'm a Faulkner Journal addict"

Thank you Birdy and Chris Lake - please keep the comments coming. I hope you like my Olympic blog on our British Women who keep winning Olympic Medals in Beijing!

BEDFORDSHIRE'S SEXIEST POLITICIAN

Many thanks to 124 people who have voted for me in the Blogging for Bedford Poll for Bedfordshire's Sexiest Politician and put me in 3rd place. The closing date for voting is 21 August

My vote was helped by by John Ball in Beds on Sunday who was amused by my Blog reader Wayne Blythe in Barnsley. Wayne said he would rather have me as his Councillor as I am much better looking than his Labour Councillors in Barnsley!

Maybe you just like my Blog, especially my blogs on the Beijing Olympics. I have never been a sportswoman but I became an Olympic TV addict last week. It is enthralling to watch our superb British cyclists, rowers, sailors, swimmers and athletes achieving Olympic glory. Great Britain is tiny compared with China but we are 3rd out of 204 countries in the medal table with 33 medals. We are punching well above our weight and laying firm foundations for more Olympic successes in London 2012.

In between watching the Olympics I am fulfilling a different role, looking after Emma, my 6 year old granddaughter. Tomorrow we are visiting the Summerfields Miniature Railway, Haynes, which is celebrating its 60th Anniversary this year and also plan to visit Wild Britain in Wilden. We local politicians are a versatile lot!

Your comments are always welcome.

OLYMPIC GOLD FOR BEDFORDSHIRE CYCLIST VICTORIA PENDLETON

Victoria Pendleton, our own World Champion Cyclist from Stotfold in Bedfordshire stormed home in the Olympic Women's Sprint today in 11.1 seconds to win her first Olympic Gold Medal and the first Gold Medal for Bedfordshire and the Eastern Region.
Victoria's Gold Medal brings the Cycling Team's total medal haul to an astonishing 14medals, including 8 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze - 7 golds in Track Cycling alone.

Chris Hoy battled with his British team mate Jason Kenny in the Men's Sprint Finals to win his 3rd Gold Medal and Jason won the Silver Medal. Chris Hoy has achieved three Olympic records. He is the 1st Briton to win 3 gold medals (+ 1 silver) in one Olympic Games for 100 years, the most successful Scottish Olympic athlete ever and the most successful track cyclist, with 4 Olympic gold medals and 1 silver medal. British cyclists have dominated the Beijing Olympics, winning a gold and silver medal in 3 events and have totally outclassed cyclists from other nations.

The first Gold Medal today was won by Paul Goodison in the Sailing Laser Class and this afternoon Christina Ohuruoga unexpectedly won Britain's first Athletics Gold Medal in the Women's 400 metres. Also Germaine Mason won a Silver Medal in the High Jump with a jump of 2m 30. On Monday a 3rd gold medal was won by Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield in Sailing which has the highest gold medal total after the cyclists.

Britain now has an amazing 33 medals, including 16 Gold in 8 different sports - our best result for 100 years and it is all down to our dedicated young athletes and their superb coaches who have worked hard for years to achieve Olympic glory.
We salute you all and look forward to more successes in future.

RECYCLING WASTE

Much of a Councillor's daily work is mundane and we rarely receive compliments, but last week a resident thanked me for my help over a recycling issue. She had tried without success to get a green bin from Bedford Borough Council to recycle her garden waste, so she wrote to me last Sunday evening.

I followed up the problem immediately and on Tuesday a new green bin was delivered to the resident who then emailed me:

"I had a pleasant surprise this evening when I returned home - to find a green bin waiting outside my house. This must be some sort of record for dealing with a resident's concern! I am beyond impressed! Thank you very much indeed for your help"

Councils are keen to increase their recycling rates because the Government is discouraging the use of landfill sites and is introducing punitive Landfill Taxes which council taxpayers will have to pay if recycling rates do not rise rapidly.

Bedfordshire has a Waste Management Strategy to increase recycling eg the Barkers Lane Household Waste Recycling Site in Bedford was refurbished and achieved 80% recycling for the first time in June. The County recycling figure for June was 45%,
5.4% more than 2007. Bedford households will soon have orange lidded bins to increase their dry recycling, as well as green lidded bins for garden waste, reducing dramatically the amount of waste from black bins going to landfill.

Remember that the more waste you recycle, the less landfill tax you will pay in future years.

ELSTOW ABBEY

Elstow Abbey Church held a lively family service today to celebrate our Holiday Club run by a willing team of volunteers led by Tracey Hinson and Margaret Baron. Up to 70 children attended daily and this year's theme was Batman and Gotham City, with leaders and children all dressed up as Batman, Superman, Wonderwoman or Rangers.

Elstow Abbey was founded in 1078 as a Benedictine Nunnery by Countess Judith, niece of William the Conqueror. King Henry VIII dissolved the nunnery in 1539 and it then became a Church. John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's Progress was born in Elstow and baptised in Elstow Abbey in 1628 in the Font which is still used today for baptisms - our popular Vicar, Jeremy Crocker baptised four children this afternoon.

Like all historic buildings Elstow Abbey is expensive to maintain. In 1995 The Friends of Elstow Abbey were created to raise funds - so far £40,000 - to pay for church repairs. In May I was elected Chairman of the Trustees and we have just donated £2,000 towards organ repairs so the fundraising has to continue.

This Autumn we are holding Elstow Abbey's first Music Festival with 4 concerts starting on 1 November with the Flitwick Singers. On 1 December Hitchin Town Brass Band Ensemble will procvide a Christmas Concert. On 31 January there is an Organ Recital and on 28 February Luton Male Voice Choir - an interesting programme.

2008 OLYMPICS LAUNCHED IN CHINA

China launched the 2008 Olympic Games with a spectacular Opening Ceremony in front of 80 world leaders and a worldwide audience of 8 billion. Number 8 has religious significance for the Chinese, so the Opening Ceremony began at 8.08pm on Friday 8 August 2008 with a £25 million extravaganza.

The British Olympic Team includes Paula Radcliffe, Bedford trained 2007 New York Marathon winner and 2005 World Champion. Other Bedfordshire sportswomen including Gail Emms, who won a silver medal in badminton at Athens in 2004 and Victoria Pendleton, 2007 World Champion cyclist. So far the British women swimmers and sailors are performing well and in their first heat the 200 metre men's relay swimmers broke the British record. Let's hope that the British team can beat the 30 medals they achieved at Athens in 2004.

WILSTEAD W I GARDEN PARTY

Wilstead Women's Institute tried to hold a garden party today but rain forced us indoors to Wilstead Village Hall for our strawberry cream teas. Wilstead WI has 43 members and is one of the largest and most active WI Branches in Bedfordshire.

The Women's Institute is the largest voluntary organisation for women in the UK with 205,000 members and started in 1915. It is non party political but campaigns nationally on issues important to women, eg the imprisonment of people suffering from mental illness. In 1997 Tony Blair, then a very new Prime Minister was slow handclapped at a National WI Conference when he attempted to deliver a patronising party political speech - WI ladies are feisty and not to be underestimated!

A recent Bedfordshire WI Federation was addressed by a Conservative Peer, Baroness Perry of Southwark, former Chief Inspector of Schools, who entered the House of Lords in 1991 when there were few women. Today 20% of Peers are female and their wealth of experience is invaluable to the House of Lords who have successfully challenged badly drafted Government legislation on ID cards, cloning and the proposal to hold suspected terrorists for 90 days.

THE SANDWICH GENERATION (1)

THOMAS - A VERY SERIOUS YOUNG MAN


Like many 'Baby Boomers' I have elderly relatives as well as children and grandchildren. So after a busy week sitting on 3 separate Employment Tribunals,
attending Council committees and conducting a Saturday Advice Surgery in Wilstead
I am off to a Jungle Birthday Party in Watford for my smallest grandson Thomas, who is 3 next week and is mad on animals and the film Madagascar.

On Sunday I have to head south to my home town Portsmouth for 2/3 days to finalise the move of my frail 92 year old aunt from a sheltered flat into a nursing home.

In Elstow this week we have had a dropped kerb installed at Bunyans Mead to enable wheelchair bound residents to access the social centre more easily and very soon we should have a lorry ban sign and better road signs installed at the Elstow roundabout to prevent continental lorries straying on to the Abbeyfields Estate.

Wilstead has one of the largest Women's Institute Branches in Bedfordshire, with 40+ members, including me. On Thursday we had a fascinating talk entitled "All About Chocolate" from Jill, a Bedfordshire Librarian, who told us the history of chocolate using 7 chosen books and gave us a taste of 5 different types of chocolate.

Wilstead also has a first class amateur dramatic group, the Wilstead Players, who have won several awards with a one act play "Lear's Daughter". They are giving a charity performance of this play on Wednesday 9 July at 8pm in Wilstead Village Hall.

Have a good weekend

A6 Elstow Roundabout No Right Turn Campaign

The planned Wixams Development of 4,500 new houses led to the A6 being diverted, and the new dual carriageway reopened recently. In my first blog you see a photograph of me with Tom Wotton, County Council Cabinet Member for Highways, who officially opened the new A6 road.

When the new A6 Elstow roundabout was planned the previous 'No Right Turn' sign would have disappeared. Villagers were very concerned that A6 commuters would use Elstow as a short cut to Bedford and it became a major campaign issue in the May 2007 local elections.

My political opponents created a lot of hot air and local media coverage, with no result.

I am a Councillor who prefers to seek solutions to problems rather than just scaremongering.

Therefore I persuaded the County Council to instal four large 'Access Only' signs so that the only traffic turning right at the new roundabout should now be vehicles heading for Elstow village.

These new signs have been so successful that some Elstow residents have contacted me to ask why they cannot now turn right at the roundabout - they had not read the sign properly.

Above is a photograph of me on the day of the official opening with Tom Wootton, Basil Jackson, Assistant Director of Highways, and Sam Clark, Elstow Parish Council Chairman, celebrating the successful conclusion to this project and the opening of the new A6 road.

Festival of Older People

Bedfordshire County Council aims to provide support for an increasingly large population of older people. Come and join us for the Festival of Older People on Wednesday 2 July from 10am to 3.30pm at the Corn Exchange, Bedford. Activities include music, dance, prize draws, free refreshments and informations on everything from health to welfare benefits.

Bedford Borough Council, Age Concern and the Bedford Guild House are also involved in the event. What are you waiting for?

Henley by Election

Turning to National issues - what a fantastic victory for Conservatives in Henley last Thursday! Gordon Brown must have been very unhappy when he learned that his Labour candidate came 5th and lost his deposit. Not only that - he polled 1066 votes. 1066 is a highly significant date as it was the last time we were invaded and defeated by William the Conqueror - enough said?

Zimbabwe

The traged of Zimbabwe goes on. Today I was very upset to see a horrifying photograph in the Sunday Times of a small baby whose legs were broken by Robert Mugabe's ZANUPF thugs simply because they could not track down his MDC Councillor father.

Zimbabwe is a lovely country with the friendliest of people. My uncle lived there for 33 years and I visited the country as a child. It is terrible to watch the Zimbabweans being starved and intimidated by their own Leader. Whatever problems we have in this country, at least we all enjoy freedom of speech and can express our political views free of intimidation. We also enjoy a genuine democracy and a free choice of candidates at every election.

Have a good week.

Welcome to my blog

Hi! My name is Lynne Faulkner and I represent the 5,500 residents of Wilstead and Elstow (birthplace of John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s Progress) near Bedford, on Bedfordshire County Council and Bedford Borough Council.

I have 25 years’ experience of local government politics, having served 12 years on North Hertfordshire District Council, including two years as Chairman and Vice Chairman of Council. After a short break to concentrate on my career as an International Human resource Manager, in May 2002 I was elected to Bedford Borough Council where I am Chair of Corporate and Resource Policy Committee and represent the Council on the East of England Regional Assembly.

In May 2005 I was elected as a County Councillor and I am now Vice Chairman of the County Council, Vice Chairman of Children’s Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee and Chairman of the Redundancy Panel.

Active in local village organisations, I am Chairman of Elstow Abbey Trustees, Patron of Wilstead Players, Vice Chair of Elstow Lower School Governors and also conduct regular help and advice surgeries for residents.

However, this is the 21st Century and like my local MP Nadine Dorries, I have decided to launch my own blog to communicate more easily with my constituents.

I plan to use this blog to offer my thoughts and ideas on local and national politics and to update you on my work as your local Councillor.

Join me on my 21st Century blogging journey.