National News

LABOUR’S BIG POWER GRAB

New Labour council adopts Tony Blair-style "sofa government" Scrutiny, transparency and accountability fall victim to new regime Your local neighbourhood priorities torn up as power is centralised again When the Lib Dems ran the council between 2004-2011, we made a huge effort to open up the governance of the city and push decision making down to the local level.

1 Aug 2011
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Eileen + bus

Eileen Birch demands that all buses stop at the new bus station

Many Graiseley residents have contacted Eileen Birch and the Liberal Democrat FOCUS Team regarding the bus reorganisation. The big concern is that most buses the Graiseley area do not call at the new bus station and Lichfield Street seems to have turned into a mini-bus station.

1 Aug 2011
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Bar Chart Showing size of Bedford Borough Council's Funding Gap to 2015

Council Funding Gap: The Scale of the Challenge

I have written before about the financial challenge facing Bedford Borough Council, but as consultation begins on the first set of proposals to modernise Council services and make them more cost-effective, it is worth considering the figures involved in order to really grasp the full scale of that challenge. Bedford Borough Council has to save £36 million over four years in order to balance the books. That's an awful lot of money by any reckoning, but the fact that it represents over a quarter of the Council's current total net budget of £129 million brings the size of the task ahead into even greater focus (the bar chart on the right provides a graphical illustration). There is no escaping this; the Council is legally required to deliver a balanced budget, and cannot make a policy decision not to make all the savings, for example. What we can do, however, is to work with all parties on the Council, with staff and crucially with residents to make sure the savings are made carefully and in the fairest way poss

31 Jul 2011
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