Wednesday 8th May 2019 - Council Annual Meetings

Over the next few weeks both LLTC and CBC will be holding their Annual Meetings. 

The CBC Annual Meeting will be held at Priory House, Chicksands, at 6.30pm on Thursday 16th May, and the LLTC Annual Meeting is at Astral Park at 7.30pm on Monday 20th May.

At the CBC Annual Meeting, the new Chairman will be announced, together with the appointments to the Council's Executive. The make up of committees will also be agreed.

Similarly, at the LLTC Annual Meeting, the new Mayor and Leader of the Council will be agreed, and the committee appointments. 

The LLTC Annual Meeting will also see the outgoing Mayor, Cllr Clive Palmer, make presentations to his charities for the past year.

Just a very quick thank you to everyone who supported David, Ray and myself in yesterday's elections - we are all delighted to have been re-elected  to serve on both CBC and LLTC for a further 4 years.

We would like  to record a massive thank you to the counting team at CBC - they have done a phenomenal job today, particularly considering that most seemed  to have been manning polling stations until late last night. They  demonstrated patience and diligence under immense pressure and scrutiny - thank you.

Obviously there have been some losses today in line with the national  trend. We have lost several long serving Councillors from both CBC and  LLTC. However, we have also gained some excellent experienced  Councillors who, although not being Conservative, we have worked with previously and we know we can work with again.

We would like to reassure everyone that we have listened to you on the doorstep over the past 6 weeks, and fully understand there are things that we need to address over the coming months and years. We hope that together with our colleagues we will be able to deliver the town that you want to live in.

Full results for all Leighton Buzzard seats are available here - 2019 Results

The most controversial issue in these local elections - aside from Brexit - is the expansion of Leighton Buzzard.

This article from the Leighton Buzzard Observer from September 2006 explains how the Town Council (at the time, it was not under Conservative leadership) created the problems we now have: 'The blueprint [for expansion to the east of LB] ticks all the boxes for improved amenities demanded by Leighton Linslade Town Council in exchange for controversially including the town in government plans for urban growth.'

Cllr Tom Nichols, chairman of the joint planning and transportation committee, said members were surprised at the detailed brief submitted by the ELL Partnership.

He said: "This is a very serious application by the developers. It had never been our intention to focus on Leighton-Linslade as part of the urban growth area but the town council requested it and now the town council has got it.

Only your Conservative candidates can be trusted not to sell Leighton Buzzard out to developers. We are committed to mitigating the damage that has arisen from these decisions that were taken by previous LLTC administrations.

Read the full LBO article here - https://www.leightonbuzzardonline.co.uk/news/town-could-nearly-double-in-size-1-987611

The ongoing farce in Parliament has one theme running through it - everyone can tell us what they don't want and what they won't do, but nobody is coming forward to tell us what they will do.

We are seeing this from some of the candidates in these local elections (those who have actually attempted to engage with the voters of LB South). They tell us what they would have opposed, what they wouldn't have supported, that they would have done it differently.

But have any of these candidates actually told you what they will do? What do they support? What will they do?

Your Conservative Candidates have been very clear about the things they will do. The things they do support. As a reminder, here are some of those pledges:

1. We will maintain front line services and invest in the local community whilst keeping Council Tax rises to a minimum.
   
2. We are delighted at the recent announcement from Central Bedfordshire Council of the plan to build a new leisure centre in Leighton Buzzard. We will work with all stakeholders to ensure the delivery of this exciting project is brought forward as soon as possible. 
   
3. We are pleased to see investment from both Central Bedfordshire Council and Leighton Linslade Town Council in community safety projects. However, we will continue our fight for a fair share of police resources for Leighton Buzzard.
   
4. We will work with developers to ensure that new developments are sustainable and are delivered with supporting infrastructure and community facilities. The redevelopment of the south side of the High Street is vital to the continued success of the town centre, and we will push for progress. 
   
5. As Leighton Buzzard continues to grow the pressure on local health services is increasing. We fully support the development of a local health hub, and will put pressure on local health providers to make this a reality.
   
6. Recognising our aging population, we were delighted to see the recent opening of Greenfields extra care facility. We will continue to ensure the needs of older people are met, both in terms of housing and leisure facilities.

It is very easy at the moment to become lost in all the negativity surrounding Brexit, but locally there are a lot of positive things happening.

• When LLTC refurbished the toilet block in Parsons Close Recreation Ground, they added a small refreshments kiosk. We are delighted the ‘Café in the Park’ is now being fitted out, and look forward to it serving the many thousands who visit Parsons Close Rec over the summer months.

• Work on the long awaited speed restrictions on Kestrel Way and Johnson Drive are now underway.

• Grovebury Road retail park is booming – it took a long time to jump through various legal hoops but it is now open for business. 

• Repairs to Grovebury Road are planned for early July – we are sorry for the delay in getting this sorted, but it is now in the Highways team’s schedule for the summer.

• Work on the eastern relief road is well underway, and will help to ease congestion in the town centre.

• And work is progressing on the new roundabout on the junction of Stanbridge Road with the A505 southern bypass.

• CBC have committed to building a new leisure centre in the next 3-4 years.

• The revised local plan - that is due to be reviewed by the Planning Inspector over the summer - will protect Leighton Buzzard from anymore large scale developments.

It is likely that some of the candidates in these local elections will be fighting on national issues - issues over which local councils have little or no influence. And a lot of the services that are delivered by local authorities are dictated by policies set by the Government and Parliament.

Over the next few weeks, if and when candidates knock on your door, don't be fooled by promises made over things they cannot possibly deliver on. 

And at the same time, judge local candidates and their parties on what they have done locally, not on the performance of MPs and Parliament.

Today we have been continuing to deliver to registered postal voters across the whole of LB South.

Did you know that there is still time to register for a postal vote? You have until 5pm on April 15th. Visit the Central Bedfordshire Council website for more information.

One of the comments we often hear in the run up to elections is that we only appear when there is an election. We understand that for some of the candidates in the forthcoming elections this is true - they have appeared from nowhere (and in several cases, have hidden their addresses on the nomination papers so they remain 'from nowhere'), and will probably disappear until the next elections.

I hope that over the past 4 years you will have seen this is not the case with your current Conservative Councillors - we have continued to deliver our regular 'In Touch' newsletters to all homes in LB South, we have held monthly surgeries, and have maintained a presence across local social media sites. 

We have had the pleasure of meeting many of you in person, and over the next few weeks we will be knocking on every door across LB South to introduce ourselves and find out about the issues that most concern you.

We are committed to being part of the local community, and being accessible for local residents, all year around.