VOTE PARVEZ AKHTAR FOR BEDFORD'S MAYOR!

PARVEZ AKHTAR - THE CONSERVATIVE MAYORAL CANDIDATE

Our Conservative campaign to elect Parvez Akhtar as the Mayor of Bedford is proving successful. Parvez outshone the other 5 candidates on the Sunday BBC Politics Show and at the Wootton Upper School Debate last Thursday evening. David Cameron, Leader of the Conservative Party, came to Bedford today to support Parvez' campaingn and Eric Pickles, Party Chairman is coming here tomorrow.

Parvez is a highly intelligent and well educated senior Ford Engineer. He is one of "Thatcher's children" whose father came to England to work in the Stewartby Brickworks. Parvex is a living example of social mobility, fostered by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980's, which has almost disappeared over the last 12 years under an incompetent and spendthrift Labour Government.

Parve is a modest, unassuming family man with a gentle charm and polite manner. He cares deeply about Bedford and its people and will be an excellent Mayor. As a father of 5 children, all at Bedford schools, he is passionate about education as the key to future success in life. It is time we had a fresh pair of eyes and brain leading Bedford Borough, instead of the same old politicians who have run Bedford Borough Council for 20 years and failed to solve our major transport, infrastructure, policing and employment problems.

I fully support Parvez' campaign and have worked hard over the past 10 days organising the delivery of 7,200 leaflets to the villages of Elstow and Wilstead. Election Day is in just 3 days' time........

Vote for Parvez Akhtar on Thursday for strong leadership and a vibrant Bedford Borough in which we can all be proud to live.

UNITARY ELECTION RESULT

Andrew Philips travels on horseback to vote in Wilstead

Well it is all over! I lost my seat after 7 years as a Bedford Councillor in spite of strong support from voters in Elstow and Wilstead - thank you to all those who voted for me and especially to my small dedicated band of campaign helpers.

I had a very tough election campaign against a well known Independent candidate, born and bred in Wilstead, who resigned from the Conservative Party in April. My vote was only 70 less than in 2007 but I lost by 153 votes, because 100 Conservative
supporters switched due to their anger over the MP expenses scandal and I was the victim of a 'dirty tricks' campaign just before Election Day from the Independent Councillor I defeated in 2005 and 2007.

No one can say I did not try hard enough - after knocking on 2,000 doors and distributing 10000 leaflets and letters, which led to the damage to my leg which will take some time to heal. At present I am having to use a walking stick and I could not possibly issue a rebuttal in time to the potentially libellous letter.

One Conservative voter, Andrew Philips, travelled to Wilstead Village on horseback to vote as a protest over his situation. His farmhouse is in Haynes, Central Beds and is accessed from Haynes High Street, but his farmland is in Wilstead, Bedford Borough Council. After the Unitary reorganisation, Andrew and his family were put on the Bedford Borough Council electoral roll. Andrew is Chairman of Haynes Parish Council and his house can only be accessed from Haynes, so naturally he wants the boundaries changed so that he can vote in Central Bedfordshire. I have supported Andrew's campaign for several months but the Boundaries Commission will not be able to resolve the anomaly until 2010, when the Ward Boundaries are reviewed.

TWO DAYS TO GO.......

I am still smiling although I can hardly walk after straining the Achilles tendon in my right leg on Sunday while delivering 300 letters to voters. Panic set in as my leg swelled up and I wondered how to continue my election campaign and deliver another 800 letters.

By Monday morning my fighting spirit had returned and I persuaded 5 friends to deliver most of the letters for me. Fortunately I can still drive as my right foot is unaffected; only the ankle and calf hurt. My leg is in a tubular support bandage and my doctor says it will take a long time to heal and there is a 6 week waiting list for physiotherapy - the joys of the NHS! In July 2004 I sustained a similar injury to my left leg which took nearly 12 months to heal completely.

Over the past five weeks, I have knocked on 2,000 doors and delivered thousands of leaflets in Elstow and Wisltead, and two other areas - Oakley and Castle Wards to help out fellow Councillors. Thank goodness it will all be over on Thursday.

LAST WEEK OF ELECTION CAMPAIGN

CANVASSING TEAM IN CASTLE WARD

Yesterday I took 2 hours off my own Election Campaign to help my fellow Conservative Councillor Andrew McConnell and David Fletcher campaign against two Independent Councillors in Castle Ward in the centre of Bedford. Most people were surprisingly friendly on the doorstep on a lovely sunny afternoon.

In the present political climate it is hard to fight Independent candidates, as I am also doing, because the electorate are angry with the 3 main political parties. However, Nigel Farage, UKIP Leader, has just boasted that he has claimed £2 million in expenses since he was elected as an MEP. UKIP have achieved nothing since 2004, apart from expelling 2 MEPs including Tom Wise for alleged expenses fraud. As for their 2004 claim that UKIP would take Britian out of Europe - a small group of UKIP MEPs is no match for the other 700+ MEPs committed to the European Union.

Tom Wise, a former police officer and Leighton Buzzard resident, had the audacity to try to stand again this year as an Independent MEP candidate until he was advised that he had to face fraud charges in court in mid June for misappropriating £40,000 of expenses! Let's hope he receive a jail sentence and drops out of public life.

As for my own election campaign I have now knocked 2,100 doors, mainly on my own, and delivered 9,000 leaflets and letters, with another 1,000 to go out this week. Most of the hard work has been done by me, with a tiny band of helpers. I would love to see Esther Rantzen, David Van Day and other TV celebrities tempted to enter politics deal with all the walking and door knocking in blazing sunshine that I and thousands of other election candidates have done for several weeks in this Election Campaign, dealing with a lot of public hostility about MP expenses.

Last weekend I voted by post, as I have done for many years due to past business commitments. Be prepared for a long yellow sheet of paper listing 14 different parties and dozens of candidates. Voters will be confused by all the new fringe parties this time - Liberata, Jury Team, UK Democracy, Christian Party etc.

If you want to get rid of the worst Prime Minister in living history, just vote Conservative and forget all the others!

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.

THE CYCLE OF LIFE and QUEEN VICTORIA

These two photographs epitomise the Cycle of Life from 0 to 110 years.


Last weekend I attended two christenings - the first of Eleanor Milligan, the 3rd chld of Philip and Katherine in the Roman Catholic church in Flitwick. On Sunday I sang in Elstow Abbey choir at the Anglican christening of Isabella Rose Sanderson. Both events were joyous family occasions attended by many relatives and children.

Elstow Abbey is a popular venue for christenings because it is a beautiful and historic church, where John Bunyan was baptised in 1628. Also we have a charismatic Vicar Jeremy Crocker and in the next 2 weeks we will have the baptisms of Natalie, granddaughter of our organist Steve McDonald and Alice, Martha and James Matthews, the triplet grandchildren of my fellow chorister Teresa.

The 2nd photo is of Margaret Fish, the oldest person in Bedfordshire who lives in Wilstead and celebrated her 110th Birthday on Friday 6 March. Sam Whitbread, the Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire, personally presented Margaret with her 7th telegram from the Queen. There are only 30 people aged 110 years in whole of the UK.

Margaret was born in London in 1899, the year the paper clip was invented and Coca Cola was first bottled in America. The population of Britain was only 29 million. Mrs Fish was a dressmaker, married in 1928 and moved to Bedfordshire with her husband during the 2nd World War bombings. She visited her daughter in Australia at the age of 90, lived independently in Cople until she was 104 and was still digging her garden at the age of 100! And her favourite TV programme is "Dancing on Ice".

Margaret was born during the reign of Queen Victoria and on Saturday evening I went to see the new film "The Young Victoria". Victoria became Queen when she was just 18years old and faced a daunting task, surrounded by a dominant mother and power hungry politicians and courtiers. Fortunately Victoria found the ideal husband in Prince Albert, who was intelligent and had a strong social conscience and inspired the 1951 Great Exhibiton at Crystal Palace. It was a true love match which resulted in 9 children and many grandchildren who married into most of the royal houses of Europe - Germany, Spain, Greece, Norway, Italy, Denmark,Russia, Sweden.

Victoria ruled for 64 years, the longest reign in British history and ruled an Empire which covered 25% of the world in the 19th Century. Her great granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II has followed in Victoria's footsteps, having become Queen at the age of 26 and she has reigned for 57 years.

WILSTEAD FOOTBALL CLUB

Wilstead is a small Bedfordshire village (population 2,300) but it has a splendid Football Club with several adult and youth teams, ably led by the Chairman James Struthers and Chief Coach Ben Wisson. Recently I gave the Club a grant from my County Community Leaders' Fund to refurbish their showers and on Saturday I watched them play a home match against Renhold. They scored 2 goals but Renhold scored 4 so Wilstead lost the match but there was lots of action.

My home town is Portsmouth and my 2 brothers once dragged me to watch Pompey play a match at Fratton Park when I was a teenager. I was bored stiff because no goals were scored until the 89th minute and swore I would never go again. Apart from watching World Cup football on TV I have never watched another football match since until Saturday but it was fun - I just blocked my ears to the occasional four letter words!

I drove 160 miles south down the M1 from Leeds for the match as I was at the CCA (Conservative Councillors' Association) Annual Conference, at which David Cameron was due to speak. David could not attend as he is in mourning for his 6 year old disabled son Ivan who died on Wednesday. David and Samantha Cameron have been devastated by the sudden loss of their eldest child and his funeral takes place tomorrow in Oxfordshire

Alan Duncan gave a keynote speech instead of David Cameron and we had a feisty after dinner speech from Baroness Warsi, the youngest and sole female Moslem peer in the House of Lords who described her relentless battles against discrimination and prejudice, especially from within her own Moslem community in Dewsbury, Yorkshire.

Thank you to Cathy Burridge, from Texas, USA who sent me the following kind comment:

"I have just visited your lovely town and was delighted to have also visited Elstow, what a beautiful place you live in!

It was a whistlestop tour of the City of Bedford, but it was such a shame I did not get to meet a local celebrity as yourself.

Thanks for this blog. Its very informative, it looks like you too travel a lot, have you been to Cambridge, its fantastic?

Oh, I so agree with you, your country needs more trees, so I hope you will be planting some more soon. Best wishes Councillor Lynne"

FREE PARK AND RIDE FOR CHRISTMAS

ELSTOW PARK AND RIDE SERVICE FREE DURING DECEMBER

Just to remind you all that you can use the Elstow Park and Ride Service free during the whole of December. Also Christmas shoppers can park free in Bedford Town Centre car parks on 19, 20, 22 and 23 December. These measures have been introduced by Bedfordshire County Council and Bedford Borough Council to help Christmas shoppers and small businesses fight the Credit Crunch.

BEDFORDSHIRE POLICE

My blogging colleague Andrew McConnell has criticised Bedfordshire Police in Blogging for Bedford over the recent crime wave in Bedford. While I agree with much of what he says, I must praise our local Police Beat Manager, Guy Steel-Jessop and his 2 PCSOs Lisa and Emily for providing a good local police service to the residents of Elstow and Wilstead.

Recently we have had a spate of rural crime, with thefts from farms and sheds in Wilstead but after some good detective work, drawing on local information, 2 men have now been arrested for the thefts, so we hope the thefts will now stop.

ROAD SAFETY - DO YOU KNOW YOUR RULE 243?
A new Road Safety Campaign - '243' - was launched yesterday in a bid to warn motorists that parking in dangerous places can cause accidents and is often illegal.

The Highway Code - Rule 243 states that No driver should park in the following places:

* near a school entrance
* at or near a bus stop or taxi rank
* opposite or within 10 metres of a junction (except authorised parking spaces)
* near the brow of a hill or hump backed bridge
* opposite a traffic island
* in front of the entrance to a property
* on a bend
* where the kerb has been lowered to help wheelchair users
* where you would obstruct cyclists' use of cycle facilities
* anywhere you would prevent access for Emergency Services
* on the approach to a level crossing

243 signs will be put up soon at sites where drivers are particularly abusing these rules. £70 fines, under the Traffic Management Act 2004, will be imposed where vehicles are parked inappropriately.

You have been warned!

'BABY P' REPORT PUBLISHED

Today the OFSTED 'Baby P' Report was published, highlighting a 'catalogue of failings' by Haringey Children's Services Department and its senior management. Action has finally been taken to dismiss 3 senior Haringey Managers, including Sharon Shoesmith, the Director who claimed that her Department was 'effective' - but totally failed to protect a tiny child from being tortured to death in spite of 60 official visits by health visitors, social workers and the Police.

As Vice Chairman of Bedfordshire Children's Services Committee, I questioned our Director of Children's Services at a recent meeting about our Bedfordshire child protection procedures. He issued a detailed statement which reassured Councillors that the Bedfordshire child protection system now operates to a very high standard, having been radically reformed during the past 3 years.

The Labour Government imposes endless performance targets and central controls on local Councils so strategies, box ticking and management speak dominate. Whatever happened to simple common sense? Also in today's world top politicians and highly paid public sector managers happily take high salaries but refuse to take the blame when their flawed systems go badly wrong.

ARE WE NOW LIVING IN A POLICE STATE?

Now in an even more sinister turn of events the Government has lost control over the flow of information, in spite of its own constant information leaks to press, eg information on the Pre Budget Report realsed before Alistair Darling's Speech.

Damian Green MP, a Shadow Conservative Miister, was treated like a terrorist and dragged off to a police station at dawn by an army of police officers for 9 hours' questioning, simply for receiving information from a disillusioned civil servant, in exactly the same way that Gordon Brown did as a young politician!

Whatever happened to civil liberties? The Government's hypocrisy and Metropolitan Police 'overkill' are mind boggling and the Home Secretary, Jackie Smith denies all knowledge of what is going on in her own Home Office! If this is true, who is really in control?

Arresting Opposition MPs for spurious reasons is a tactic used by police states across the world, especially by Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, but until now I believed that England was a civilised and democratic country accountable to its people.

WHAT DO COUNCILLORS ACTUALLY DO?

D Jones has criticised me for attending concerts and asks if I do anything as a Councillor. If he read ALL my Blogs he would see that I am a very active Councillor but my daily routine makes dull reading.

Today I met with my local Police Team, replied to dozens of emails and telephone calls from residents and am organising some small grants for village organisations. Tonight I will chair a Borough Corporate & Resource Committee and attend another meeting.

Contrary to popular belief local Councillors do not receive a salary, but an expense allowance and their role is only part time. As a County and Borough Councillor I work 30+ hours a week on Council duties and related activities, daytime and evenings.

I attend many Elstow and Wilstead village social functions including concerts, so that I am free to talk to residents. I hold regular surgeries, attend evening parish council meetings and reading endless Council documents. Also I am involved in other voluntary activities - I am a school governor at Elstow Lower School and chair the Trustees of the Friends of Elstow Abbey Church, raising funds for church repairs.

At present I am one of only 2 Councillors out of 220 across Bedfordshire who bothers to write a Blog which I use as another form of communication with local residents.

My main income comes from pensions and a 3rd part time job as an Employment Tribunal Member. In truth I am far more active than many other Councillors and the majority of people of my age and hardly ever sit at home and watch TV in the evening.

REMEMBRANCE DAY - TUESDAY 11 NOVEMBER

Yesterday I attended the Remembrance Sunday Service in Elstow Abbey and the wreath laying ceremony at the Elstow Bunyan Christian Fellowship, followed by a lunch with members of the Wilstead Branch of the Royal British Legion.

Tomorrow is Remembrance Day and the 90th Anniversary of the 1918 Armistice. At 11am there will be a 2 minute silence in the County Council and offices across the UK. A special service will take place at the National Memorial Arboretum, 150 acres of trees and memorials devoted to the concept of Remembrance in the heart of England.

The Arboretum is in the National Forest of Staffordshire at Alrewas, where my younger daughter Helen lives with her 2 small children. Jessica, aged 6, was thrilled to be chosen to take part in the Alrewas Remembrance Sunday Service.
The Arboretum is the home of the Armed Forces Memorial, opened in October 2007. It is a striking and emotive Memorial giving recognition and thanks for those who have died whilst on duty or as a result of terrorist action since the Second World War and acknowledges the enduring sacrifice of those who mourn the loss.

A few years ago I visited Ypres in Flanders, Belgium to view the notorious trenches where thousands of Britons and Europeans died during the First World War. Sadly many died of disease and on one day alone 23,000 men died - a terrible waste of young life. Red poppies grow profusely in Flanders as in the photograph above and the poppy was chosen as our annual Remembrance symbol.

In May 2006 I visited Washington DC during their Veterans' Weekend and was struck by the large numbers of young families who came from all over America to remember the sacrifices of thousands of Americans who have died in several wars.

A few years ago, Remembrance Sunday had little appeal for the young in the UK, but in recent years it has enjoyed a revival, mainly because of the sad deaths of so many young servicemen and women in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and in Northern Ireland.

LOCAL DEMOCRACY WEEK 2008

Next week sees the start of the run up to 2008 Local Democracy Week, encouraging young people to engage in local politics. Throughout next week I will be involved in an Internet based dialogue with young people in 9 schools across Bedford.

Make sure you visit my Blog regularly next week to find out what I am doing to engage with the young people of Bedford Borough.........

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.

JOHN BUNYAN and ELSTOW

John Bunyan was a 17th Century preacher, born in Elstow village and baptised and married in Elstow Abbey. Bunyan was imprisoned in Bedford Gaol for his beliefs and in 1678 he wrote Pilgrim's Progress, the most widely read book in the world after the Bible. This stained glass window in the Bunyan Meeting Free Church became famous during Terry Waite's imprisonment in the Middle East when a Bedford resident sent him this photograph on a postcard - and it arrived safely.

Elstow Abbey was a Benedictine Nunnery founded by Countess Judith, a niece of William the Conqueror in 1078 and became Elstow Abbey Church in 1539 after the Dissolution of the Nunnery in 1539 by Henry VIII. His Seal is still in the Abbey.

I represent Elstow and Wilstead on Bedfordshire County and Bedford Borough Councils. I am also Chairman of the Trustees of the Friends of Elstow Abbey, who have raised £37,000 in 12 years towards Abbey repairs. We have just donated 2,000 towards organ repairs and plan to run a Music Festival starting on Saturday 1 November with a Concert by the Flitwick Singers, a Christmas Concert by Hitchin Town Band on Monday 1December and an Organ Recital on Saturday 31 January.

Another historic Elstow building is the 15th Century Moot Hall, built on Elstow Green as a Market House. It houses many John Bunyan artifacts, including the door of the County Gaol where Bunyan was imprisoned and a 16th Century living room.

Every year we have Elstow May Fair on Elstow Green. This year the Fair was opened by Nadine Dorries, our local MP and hosted by our Patron, Charles Whitbread and me. The large crowds made good use of the new wooden Elstow May Fair bench, donated by Bedford Borough Council and myself and installed in time for the 2008 May Fair.

AFTERNOON TEA IN BEDFORDSHIRE

My colleague Cllr Andrew McConnell is supporting the Tesco campaign to boost tea sales with an interesting history about the ritual of afternoon tea on his Blog.

For the cheapest cup of tea and homemade cake in Bedford, visit the Steppingstone Cafe in Bedford Park on Saturday/Sunday afternoons during the summer. When I was a Councillor in Brickhill with Andrew and Peter Hand, we persuaded Bedford Borough Council to provide a £25,000 grant to renovate the cafe, run by volunteers from Brickhill Baptist Church. On Sundays there is free live music - a great way to economise and avoid the impact of the Credit Crunch!

Two other places for afternoon tea and homely lunches are the Danish Camp,Willington and Harrold Country Park, owned by Bedfordshire County Council. In 2005 when I was first elected as a County Councillor for Wilstead and Elstow I was promoted to Cabinet Member for Cultural Services - 50 countryside sites, 17 Libraries, Albion Archaeology, the Archive & Record Service and Bedfordshire Music - quite a daunting portfolio! Most of these won awards, eg the Archive Service with 5 Charter Marks.

For those who prefer coffee to tea, why not drop into Central Bedford Library which has just started providng coffee and cake using Fair Trade Coffee.

On Sunday I enjoyed a splendid Strawberry Tea and Jazz Concert in Bedford at the home of Shirley Groves. Guests included the County Council Chairman and Lady Skeet and we drank Pimms instead of tea in Shirley's lovely garden.

CHILDREN'S CENTRES IN BEDFORDSHIRE

Bedfordshire has 25 Sure Start Children's Centres, 18 of which were planned, built and equipped against a challenging Government timescale and opened in April 2008.

Wilstead has a new Children's Centre providing pre school care, lunch clubs, after school care and family support. The finance came from Government, the County and Borough Councils, business sponsors and a lot of hard work by volunteers including Wilstead Pre School parents and local residents.

Recently I attended an Exhibition of our Children's Centres, showcasing their key role in supporting families and children especially those in disadvantaged areas. Eastcotts Centre runs cookery classes for parents and small children, aiming to address child obesity - 9% of five year olds are obese in the Bedford Borough area and by the age of 10 the figure has risen 16.9% - a shocking statistic. This is a major challenge for parents, the National Health Service and the nation.

Also many adults and children cannot read. The National Bookstart Programme provides packs of free books for all babies and toddlers. Our Children's Centres support parents by encouraging them to read to their small children to inspire an enthusiasm to develop good literacy skills at school.

There are 5 million adults in the UK with a reading age of 12 or less, which has a devastating effect on their ability to work and enjoy a fulfilled life. To understand why watch the new Channel programme on Mondays "Can't Read Can't Write" Phil Beadle, an award-winning teacher, tries to teach a group of adults to read.

Bedfordshire's Children's Centres are helping to address this serious problem by encouraging small children to want to learn to read and write at an early age.

CLASSICS ON A SUMMER EVENING

Last week in my capacity as Vice Chairman of Beds County Council I attended the Bunyan Meeting Free Church in Bedford, the venue for a charity concert in aid of the Bedford Hospitals Charity Cancer Screening Appeal and Sue Ryder Care - St. John's Hospice at Moggerhanger.

The Ensemble of London gave a wonderful performance of music by Mozart, Bach, Purcell, Scott Joplin and Uruguayan pieces arranged by Antonio Cucchiara, a leading British violinist. However, the undoubted star was David Cohen, Belgian born Principal Cellist of the Philharmonia, who, playing a priceless 1735 cello, thrilled the audience with the Moses variations by Paganini, a Boccherini cello concerto and Zigeunerweisen by Sarasate. Cohen reminded me of the late Jacqueline Du Pre as he hugged his cello - man and instrument combined to produce riveting world class music for an appreciative Bedford audience.

I was delighted to support these worthy charities, having recently lost two close female relatives within 7 months. The Cancer Screening appeal is close to raising £400,000 for new endoscopy equipment at Bedford Hospital, where my mother in law was treated for cancer. She died at the Moggerhanger Hospice who provide a wonderful service to patients and their famiies, but need to raise £1 million annually to fund their work.

The Bunyan Meeting Free Church is a perfect venue for a concert, with its famous window of John Bunyan, Bedford's most famous son. Bunyan was born in Elstow where I live and am proud to represent Elstow and Wilstead on two Councils.

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

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.