Mayor Dave Hodgson has welcomed the news that the maximum stake for fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) 'gaming machines' will be cut from £100 to £2 under new rules announced by the government.

Currently, people can bet up to £100 every 20 seconds on electronic casino games on the machines, such as roulette. A cross party campaign over recent years has highlighted the harm that the ease and the speed with which people can lose money does to communities, and the Government this week responded with the announcement of plans for the cut in the maximum stake.

Mayor Dave Hodgson has announced the expansion of his popular programme to install average speed cameras where local communities want to see them.

After listening to the concerns of communities across the Borough about speeding traffic on local roads, Mayor Dave made Bedford Borough the first place in the country to introduce average speed cameras on residential roads in 2012.

Mayor Dave Hodgson has challenged the Rail Minister Jo Johnson MP over the imminent loss of peak time fast intercity trains from Bedford in a meeting on Bedford rail issues. During a meeting on Bedford rail issues, which was also attended by Bedford and Kempston MP Mohammad Yasin and North East Beds MP Alistair Burt, Mayor Dave insisted that the Government must do more over the loss of peak time fast trains, and bring fast intercity services back.

Children in Bedford Borough were once again far more likely to be offered a place at their first choice primary school than they were elsewhere across the country on 'national offer day'.

With Press Association analysis based on figures from a majority of councils indicating that the local authority average for first choice offers was 88%, the proportion of Bedford Borough 4 year olds who have been offered a place at their first choice school in September has risen again to a massive 96%. Meanwhile, over 99% of children were offered a place at one of their three preferred schools, a figure again well ahead of the national average.

Writing in his April column for the Bedfordshire Midweek, Mayor Dave Hodgson looked at the range of measures designed to make parking in Bedford Town Centre cheaper, safer and more convenient, including the freeze in annual charges, the new surface car park opening this summer (pictured) and investment in additional CCTV.

Mayor Dave Hodgson put the first spade in the ground at the Council's i-Worx development project, which will feature an advanced Technology and Engineering Workshop Cluster offering twelve modern workshop spaces.

The development, located at the new Bedford Commercial Park off the A421 near Wootton, is going ahead following Bedford Borough Council's successful bid to the South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership for £2.5 million of Local Growth Funding.

Two major new regional distribution centres are to be built in Bedford Borough for popular nationwide retailers which will create an estimated 1,400 new jobs for the area.

Bedford Borough Council worked closely with land owners Gallagher Estates in developing the opportunity, sourcing and facilitating their investment to the employment area of Wixams, off the A6 to the south of the Borough.

The full, final list of council tax rises across the country has revealed that just 3 out of 56 unitary councils have a lower increase than Bedford Borough for 2018/19.

The list confirms that in addition to being a lower rise than all of its neighbouring authorities, Bedford Borough's increase under Mayor Dave Hodgson is amongst the lowest in the country.