Bedford's Big High Street Showcase is back tomorrow, Saturday 2nd of June, when Bedford High Street will be taken over by a very special summer festival of fun.
This annual event was introduced by Mayor Dave Hodgson in 2013 to promote Bedford town centre and its traders, and to showcase the very best it has to offer. Since then, this Bedford Borough Council-organised event has become an annual fixture of Bedford's busy events calendar and has attracted thousands of visitors to the town.
With chaos continuing on Thameslink rail services well into the second week of new timetables which remove fast intercity peak services from Bedford, Mayor Dave Hodgson has written again to Govia Thameslink and insisted on an urgent meeting to seek answers on behalf of Bedford rail users.
Commenting tonight on his Facebook page, Mayor Dave said:
Mayor Dave Hodgson has spoken of his delight that Bedford Borough Council has planted more trees in this planting season than in any other in over 10 years.
The planting season for trees generally runs from October to April, and this planting season saw over 200 trees planted.
A variety of trees have been planted on highways verges and residential streets for people to enjoy across the Borough, as well as in parks and open spaces including Bedford Park and Jubilee Park.
In addition to new locations, trees have also been planted to replace those which had to be removed, such as the diseased Horse Chestnuts near the Embankment.
Mayor Dave Hodgson said "It is always sad when we have to remove trees due to disease, but I am delighted that we have been able to replace the trees near the Embankment in addition to planting in new locations across the Borough. I look forward to seeing these trees grow and flourish throughout the seasons for many years to come."
The first week day of the drastically re-written rail timetables was filled was filled with delays and cancellations, as Bedford's downgraded rail service got off to a chaotic start on Monday.
Mayor Dave Hodgson went to Bedford station before 7:30am to talk to commuters about the introduction of the changes, and was back there during the evening rush hour, as the list of cancellations and delays grew on the day that the government's removal of peak-time intercity trains from Bedford took effect.
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.
