THANKSGIVING SERVICE FOR BEDFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL 1889 - 2009

Today as County Council Vice Chairman I attended a Thanksgiving Service at St. Paul's Church, Bedford to celebrate 120 years of Bedfordshire County Council from 1889 until 31 March 2009 when the County Council is abolished. The Salvation Army played and we sang the famous John Bunyan hymn "He who would valiant be". The County Council motto "Constant Be" on the crest above is taken from this hymn which has a special meaning for me as I live in Elstow, home of John Bunyan. The Chief Executive gave an address on the Council's long history and the Bishop of Bedford preached the sermon.

Afterwards we had tea at County Hall before watching the Minden Band of The Queen's Division conduct a Sunset and Beating Retreat ceremony. Then the Bedfordshire County Council flag was lowered for the last time by Bedford Sea Cadets. It was an emotional occasion for County Councillors and staff, some of whom do not know if they will have a job after 1 April. Many senior staff are leaving on 31 March.

The Minden Band consists of 35 talented musicians including 3 women, and are based at Bassingbourn Barracks in Royston near Cambridge. The Band supports 3 Regiments of the Queen's Division - The Royal Anglian, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and The Prince of Wales Royal Regiment and perform at high profile civilian events.

Bedfordshire County Council is handing over its services to Bedford Borough Council and Central Bedfordshire in excellent order. For example, during March the Highways Department have filled over 1,000 potholes across the County caused by the recent severe weather, investing £400,000 to put the roads in good order for the new Councils. Recently I visited Hertfordshire where the local paper said that Herts County Council was still surveying its potholes so Bedfordshire was ahead of the pack once again.

On 1 April Bedford Borough Council takes on 5,5000 new staff and responsibility for many new services - Children's Services including 79 schools, fostering and adoption and the youth service, Adult Services including residential care and mental health, highways, waste management, strategic planning, archives & records, libraries, etc.

The present 54 Bedford Borough Councillors will remain in post for two months until Thursday 4 June when Unitary Elections take place. Then there will be only 36 Unitary Councillors taking over the current 72 County and Borough Council roles.

WOTHOLES?

Bedfordshire in the snow

Remember all that snow we had in February? It all seems like a bad dream now, but it devastated our roads and we now have large potholes everywhere. Bedfordshire County Council disappears on 31 March and the Bedfordshire roads will then become the responsiblity of Bedford Borough Council and Central Bedfordshire Council.

The public get very upset about potholes as they can cause nasty accidents. Therefore as a gesture of goodwill Beds County Council launched its "Wotholes?" campaign last week, allocating £400,000 extra funding to repair as many potholes as possible across Bedfordshire before 31 March. The photograph on the left is of my County Council colleague Tom Wootton, Cabinet Member for Highways and Waste Management, standing by one of the larger potholes created by the severe weather in February.

Already after only one week £75,000 has been spent on filling over 600 potholes in Bedford, Bromham, Harrold, Kempston, Dunstable, Leighton Buzzard, Biggleswade and other places.

If you see any dangerous potholes which need repairing, please call the Wotholes Hotline on 01234 228661.

Last night as Vice Chairman of Bedfordshire County Council I co hosted a final reception for Town and Parish Councils before handing over to the new Unitary Councils on 1 April 2009. There are 125 'settlements' in Bedfordshire, including four large towns -Bedford, Dunstable, Kemspton, Leighton Buzzard and Houghton Regis, smaller towns like Ampthill, Arlesey, Biggleswade, Flitwick, Sandy, Shefford and Stotfold, and dozens of villages. There are 20 town councils and dozens of parish councils. My Division includes just 2 villages, Elstow and Wilstead, but some councillors represent large numbers of small villages. Tom Wootton, a local farmer, represents rural North East Bedfordshire which has 24 villages and 14 parish councils.

On Monday I chaired two Personnel Appeals at County Hall, one a Grievance Appeal and the other an Appeal against Dismissal.

When Bedford Borough Council takes over County Hall on 1 April 2009, the building is to be renamed Borough Hall, although some Central Bedfordshire staff will continue to work in the building for the foreseeable future.

TREE PLANTING EVENT MARKS 120 YEARS OF BEDFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

WILSTEAD P3 WALKING GROUP





Last Sunday 1,000 trees were planted by staff and councillors to celebrate 120 years of Bedfordshire County Council. In total 24,000 trees will be planted at the Forest of Marston Vale forming Legacy Thrift, a new Woodland to help regenerate the Marston Vale and celebrate the 120 years of Bedfordshire County Council from 1889 - 2009.

For too long the Marston Vale has been blighted by clay extraction, brick making and landfill. The aim is to bring local communities together and create new wildlife habitats and "green lungs" in an area where 20,000 new houses are planned, so that local residents can enjoy their leisure time in beautiful Bedfordshire countryside.

This Sunday I joined 10 members of the active Wilstead P3 Walking Group on a 6 mile walk in Holwell, Hertfordshire. We then enjoyed a well earned drink in the historic Motte & Bailey Pub in the village of Pirton where I lived for 15 years. Then I returned to Elstow for an excellent Sunday roast dinner in my local, The Swan Pub.

It was a nice change to get some fresh air after a busy week looking after 2 lively small grandchildren, sitting on a complex 3 day employment tribunal and attending an interesting conference in London on "Championing the Older Generations".

Variety is the spice of life.....

GRITTING BEDFORDSHIRE ROADS IN THE SNOW

SNOWBOUND LUTON TRAFFIC

Day 5 and yet more snow falls in Bedfordshire! Some Bedfordshire schools have closed for 3/4 days although Elstow Lower School was one of the few to stay open on both Monday and Tuesday. London came to a standstill on Monday when all the underground trains stopped and buses were cancelled because one bus was seen on CCTV to slip on the ice. Bedfordshire buses kept running on Monday because of the daily gritting of the extensive A and B road network by Bedfordshire County Council.

In spite of the snow I have driven on local roads every day this week. After 5 days of snow Bedfordshire's supply of salt and grit is down to 4 days' supply. On Wednesday the Government threatened to withdraw all the Cheshire Salt Union supplies from Local Authorities, so that the Highways Agency could use it for motorways. Fortunately Bedfordshire has more salt and grit due to arrive next week.

Bedford Borough Council is running out of grit for Bedford roads and the Mayor of Bedford has criticsed the County Council in his Blog for not sharing their fast diminishing grit supply. No doubt he will also criticise the County Council next week if they run out and fail to grit A and B roads. You are damned if you do and damned if you don't! Even if the County Council had any grit to spare, the Mayor can hardly expect a friendly response when he has continually criticised the County Council, long after Bedford Borough Council won the Unitary battle. Also even he cannot blame the County Council for the Borough's failure to order enough grit.

Luton is in such a mess with snowbound traffic that it has banned motorists from entering the town centre today. Also hundreds of flights have been cancelled at London Luton Airport and many parts of the country just ground to a halt. Therefore we should be grateful that Bedfordshire County Council was well prepared for the snow and has enabled many people to get to work and school this week.

I'M DREAMING OF A GREEN CHRISTMAS.....

RECYCLE MORE TO HELP THE ENVIRONMENT AND CUT TAXES

Now that Christmas is over the Bedfordshire County Council Recycle Now! Team are urging people to recycle some of our 6.5 million Christmas cards and other Christmas items. Those of us who now have orange-lidded bins have no excuse not to recycle more goods. Here are a few recycling tips from the Recycle Now! Team:

* Recycle Christmas cards for charity by taking them to WH Smiths, Tesco, M&S or TKMAXX stores between 2 and 31 January 2009 or put them in your orange lidded bin.
* Recycle some of the 750 million bottles and glass containers used over Christmas in your local bottle bank or Household Waste Recycling Centre.
* Take real Christmas tree to your local Household Waste Recycling Centre for composting.
* Take unwanted clothes, household items and toys to charity shops
* Use reusable shopping bags and rechargeable batteries.

BEAR PROJECT
The BEAR Project (Bedfordshire Energy and Recycling Project) has announced that all the Bedfordshire local authorities - Beds County Council, Bedford Borough Council, Central Bedfordshire and Luton Borough Council have formed a partnership to deliver a 25 year residual waste management solution for their communities. 32,000 new orange lidded bins were delivered to homes in Bedford Borough before Christmas. Those who do not want these bins will continue to use orange recycling sacks.

RECYCLING TARGETS ACHIEVED
Bedfordshire has exceed stretching Government recycling targets in the first 6 months of 2008/9 by diverting 49% of municipal waste and 46% of household waste from landfill, an average of 48% overall. The 5 Household Waste Recycling Centres, which include Barkers Lane, have averaged 70% recycling rates and achieved 90% customer satisfaction levels.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!
Tomorrow I am off to Madeira on a private visit to watch their New Year Fireworks, do some levada walking and 'recharge my batteries' for 2009 so I will not be blogging again until after Sunday 11 January.

Happy New Year to you and your families

TOP RATINGS FOR BEDFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL CHILDRENS SERVICES

OUTSTANDING OFSTED RATING FOR CHILDREN'S SERVICES
Bedfordshire County Council has been given an 'Outstanding' rating by Ofsted for keeping children safe and making a positive contribution to children's lives. This year's Ofsted Annual Performance Assessment (APA) rated the County Council's Child Protection Service as one of the best in the country. This is very reassuring after all the recent national media coverage of the horrific treatment of Baby P and the poor quality of Haringey Council's Child Protection Service.

As Vice Chairman of the Council's Children's Services Committee I am very proud of this accolade, particularly as the Service was poor and in 'Special Measures' before my election in May 2005 as a County Councillor and has made a dramatic improvement since then.

'FOSTERING AND ADOPTION SERVICE IS OUTSTANDING AGAIN
Bedfordshire County Council's Private Fostering and Adoption Service has also been rated Outstanding by Ofsted, the third Outstanding rating for the Service in 2008. Ofsted commented "All features of the service are outstanding and yield good outcomes for the children and young people involved" - high praise indeed!

The County Council will be supporting a National Campaign which runs 19-23 January 2009 to highlight the potential vulnerability of children living in private fostering arrangements and will promote the need to notify the local authority of such arrangements.

YOUTH OFFENDING SERVICE IS NO.1 IN THE COUNTRY
As previously reported Bedfordshire County Council's Youth Offending Services is now rated No.1 in the country and has reduced the number of first time offenders by 28.1% in 2007/8.

BEDFORD SCHOOLS ARE OUTSTANDING
Putnoe Lower School has just received an Outstanding Ofsted report and was a finalist in the DCSF National Teaching Awards Sustainable Schools Awards. Congratulations are due to the Head Teacher, Gillian Peck, pictured above with some of the children, for this tremendous achievement, supported by teachers, governors, parents, children and the County School Improvement Team.

Queens Park Lower School was also recently rated Outstanding and Elstow Lower School, where I am Vice Chair of Governors was the first Lower School in Bedfordshire to be rated Outstanding in 2005.

John Bunyan Upper School has also just been praised by Ofsted for its continuing performance improvement under the strong leadership of its new Head Teacher, Ursula Byrne, who has formed a partnership with the University of Hertfordshire. Ofsted particularly praised the school for its social cohesion, racial harmony, excellent pastoral initiatives and improved examination results. This improvement should continue when the school becomes an Academy in 2010.

Bedford Upper Schools achieved their best ever GCSE results in 2008, with Sharnbrook Upper School achieving an 80% GCSE pass rate for the first time.

This excellent news is in sharp contrast to the blatant misinformation in Beds on Sunday and Bedford News about 'poor' Bedford Schools, which is untrue and unfair to the hardworking staff and students at our rapidly improving Bedford schools.

MY ORANGE LIDDED RECYCLING BIN HAS ARRIVED

Our orange lidded recycling wheelie bins have at last arrived in Elstow! The first bins were delivered to Bedford homes in early November but as ever the 40 villages had to wait their turn. All bins should have been delivered by the end of the year.

Bedfordshire County Council offered £1m to Bedford Borough Council in 2007 to pay for the new recycling bins. The Borough accepted this offer early this year but there was a 6 month wait for the new bins due to a huge bin order from Germany - the German people are very enthusiastic about recycling, as I discovered when I stayed with my German friend Irmgard in Bamberg in October 2007.

The Labour Government is now forcing local councils to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill dumps by imposing huge Landfill Taxes (called LATS). If Council Taxpayers do not want to pay much higher taxes in future, we must all recyle, reuse and reduce our waste in future.

There are two sizes of orange-lidded recycling bins, but some people
do not have enough space for these bins and have opted to retain the
orange recycling sacks. If you have not yet decided whether to have an orange lidded bin, I urge you to consider ordering one by calling Tel. 0900 121 888.

In Bedfordshire we have successfuly increased our recycling rate from 24% to 40% in two years, and we are now aiming to increase recycling rate to 50%.

CHRISTMAS IS COMING SOON!

FREE PARK & RIDE HELPS CHRISTMAS SHOPPERS FIGHT CREDIT CRUNCH

Bedfordshire County Council has announced that its Park and Ride Service will be free over the Christmas Period, starting on Monday 1st December until 31 December, to help shoppers and small businesses fight the Christmas credit crunch.

This is one of a series of initiatives where the County Council is helping residents and small businesses fight the credit crunch. Recently the Council launched its new PayPlus scheme to help its small business suppliers receive fast track payment of invoices within 20 days or less.

Bedford Borough Council has also announced that free town centre car parking will be provided for Christmas shoppers on 19, 20, 22 and 23 December.

ROAD SAFETY AWARENESS

On a more sober note, Beds CC's Road Safety Team, who recently won an International Road Safety Award, have launched a new road safety campaign "17-25 year olds - no time to die" to encourage safe driving in young motorists. Fatal crashes involving 17-25 year olds account for 40% of all road accidents nationally. Over the past 5 years, 32 men and 8 women between 17 and 25 years have died in road crashes on Bedfordshire's roads. The Road Safety Team will be handing out torch key rings, using the motto 'see the light, read the risk' to young drivers to act as a reminder.

The Road Safety Team are also carrying out free safety checks around Bedfordshire on child car seats. A recent campaign by Trading Standards and Road Advisory teams revealed that 140 child car seats were fitted incorrectly and needed adjustment.
For further advice on child car safety, please visit the following website: www.childcarseats.org.uk.

LONDON 2012 HERE WE COME!

On Sunday Bedfordshire welcomed home Victoria Pendleton from Stotfold, our World Cycling Champion who won an Olympic Gold Medal in Beijing in the Women's Cycling Sprint.

Victori'as success helped Bedfordshire County Council to be chosen to receive one of only 500 Olympic Handover Flags, delivered to selected councils, embassies and HM Forces worldwide. This flag symbolises the formal handover to London which will host the 2012 Olympic Games and will be flown at County Hall for the next 5 weeks.

Other Olympic Gold Medal Winners have been welcomed home, incoluding Rebecca Atherton, 19, from Mansfield who won 2 Gold Medals for swimming. Mansfield people were ecstatic at her success and are renaming both the local swimming pool and a pub in her honour. Stotfold has renamed a road Pendleton Way but wants to commemorate Victoria's Olympic success - does anyone have any bright ideas?

During the wet and gloomy days of August with the credit crunch and the war between Georgia and Russia, these young British Olympians cheered us all up by winning 47 medals, including 19 gold and restored British confidence in our sporting prowess.