At a meeting of Full Council on Wednesday (13th October), Bedford Borough Liberal Democrats secured a commitment to review the council's planning procedures to protect residents', councillors' and parish council voices in planning decisions.

Liberal Democrat Group Leader Councillor Christine McHugh moved a proposal to review the issue of 'reserved matters' for large planning applications which can't come to the Council's Planning Committee.

The Green Flag Award is celebrating its Silver Jubilee, marking 25 years of excellence. This week the environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, has revealed the names of over 2,000 parks and green spaces across the UK that have collected a coveted Green Flag Award for 2021.

Bedford Park, Addison Howard Park, Harrold-Odell Country Park, and Priory Country Park have once again been awarded the Green Flag.

The Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes area (BLMK) is one of the worst hit areas in the country by the growing shortage of GPs, new analysis by the Liberal Democrats has revealed. It comes as many people are struggling to book an appointment with their GP, with services increasingly under pressure from rising demand.

In June 2021, Bedford Borough Council asked students at several schools in the borough to help them rename two of their recently purchased eCargo bikes.

After receiving lots of great suggestions from local students, the Council have chosen to name the eCargo bikes Keygo and Greenwise, thanks to the help of the two competition winners who are pupils at Westfield Primary School.

Bedford Borough Mayor Dave Hodgson has written to all primary schools in the Borough and to PLACE (Parent-led and community based education) inviting pupils to help design the 2021 Christmas card.

This year's theme is 'Kindness'.

Mayor Dave said "Last year we had lots of fantastic pictures from children across the Borough and I enjoyed seeing them all, choosing a winner was particularly hard. I look forward to seeing this year's entries."

Following a public consultation at the start of 2021, Bedford Borough Council is introducing a new service delivery model for children's centres at venues across the Borough.

From 1 October, a new model sees current provider Early Childhood Partnership (ECP) Bedford, on behalf of the Council, offer support to early years children and families from a number of venues across Bedford Borough.

As Libraries Week comes to an end, below is Mayor Dave's most recent column for the Bedford Bulletin and Kempston Calling:

Protecting and extending our library service

Libraries are very important and I am glad that not only have we protected all our libraries from closure we have actually extended our library service by the introduction of Library Plus.

The latest weekly Coronavirus snapshot for Bedford Borough has been published.

The figures show that in the seven days up to 3rd October:

• 9,421 PCR tests were taken
• There were 684 Coronavirus cases (33 more than the previous week)
• The weekly positive cases per 100,000 population was 391.6 (up from 372.7 in the previous week)