Mayor Dave Hodgson has announced that Bedford Borough Council will construct a separate, dedicated cycle and pedestrian bridge alongside Bromham Road Bridge in Bedford. The Council has secured a deal with Network Rail to enable it to build the bridge over the railway, alongside the road bridge which Network Rail is replacing as part of its project to electrify the lines.
Mayor Dave Hodgson has said it will be a 'scandal' if the predicted 3.5% rail fare increase for next year is imposed on Bedford rail users, in light of the reduced and failing services they are experiencing.
The increase is set to be announced on Wednesday, 15th August, when official inflation figures are released, but Mayor Dave has said that any increase should apply to Bedford rail users due to the ongoing misery they are suffering in return for the high fares they pay.
NHS Commissioners have tonight brought the consultation on their plans to close Putnoe Walk-In Centre to an abrupt close, 9 days early.
In a message issued via the Bedfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group's Communications Team, Accountable Officer Alan Streets states that "We have had 1900 responses containing a wide range of views, and it is clear that we need to reconsider our proposals on the future of urgent care in Bedfordshire. For this reason, we have decided to close the current consultation phase today."
In his column for the August edition of the Bulletin, Mayor Dave Hodgson encouraged people to take part in the consultation on NHS Commissioners' plans to close Putnoe Walk-In Centre. Since then, the Commissioners have made the sudden, bizarre decision to close the consultation 9 days early. You can read more details of this surprise announcement here.
Bedford Borough's outstanding parks have again been recognised with a string of prestigious Green Flag awards this year.
Remarkably, Priory Country Park's Green Flag is its 17th in a row, while Addison Howard Park, Bedford Park and Harrold-Odell Country Park have also been awarded the coveted Green Flag.
In his July Column for the Bedford Borough edition of the Bulletin, Mayor Dave Hodgson wrote about the 'complete and utter shambles' since the overhaul of Thameslink services in May, and how rail users have been dealt a further 'devastating blow' by the Government's decision to almost entirely remove Bedford from the intercity rail network under the new East Midlands rail franchise from next year.
Mayor Dave Hodgson has been elected as chair of England's Economic Heartland's Strategic Transport Forum.
The Forum is the emerging Sub-national Transport Body for the Heartland region, which stretches from Swindon, through Oxfordshire and Milton Keynes to Cambridgeshire, and from Northamptonshire down to Hertfordshire.
The crucial, long-awaited upgrade for the notorious Black Cat roundabout and the A428 east of the A1 has been delayed, in a move described as "costly for business and desperately disappointing for motorists" by Mayor Dave Hodgson
The latest delay pushes back the scheme, which had been scheduled for delivery in 2019/20, to construction during 2021/22.
