A Labour councillor has criticised Bedford Borough Council’s administration for what she described as a lack of urgency in progressing vital healthcare projects – particularly in Kempston.
Referring to a later agenda item giving an update on the healthcare estate at Wednesday’s Executive (23 April), Cllr Sue Oliver (Kempston North, Labour) said: “In section six, which is the alternatives considered and rejected in this report, it states that with regards to the Great Barford project the option, of ‘do nothing’ has been rejected.
“Are we therefore to infer from this that, with regards to Biddenham, Kempston, Wixams and Wootton, do nothing is exactly what’s happening?”
Cllr Martin Towler (Riseley, Conservative) the portfolio holder for neighbourhoods and communities: health and wellbeing, said: “No. All business cases are being worked through at the moment – it’s a very slow process.
“We have to be very inventive to find the money for these projects.
“Kempston is a very interesting project, we’re looking at buying, hopefully, the police station.
“That is an ongoing project so ‘doing nothing’ is not on the agenda,” said the Conservative member for Riseley.
“We have a population that is growing at 20 per cent – three times the national average – which does not have the services it should have.
“We have to get in front of the curve and it’s not a project that we can dismiss.
“We need to get all GP services up and running as fast as we possibly can.
“It’s finding the money,” he said.
Cllr Oliver responded: “Thank you for your answer, although I’m not very reassured by it.”
She added that during a meeting in December to discuss a new Kempston health facility, attendees were told that they will meet again in March, once the consultants had refreshed the findings of the 2019 strategic outline case.
“I’ve received an email this afternoon asking for my availability on June 2, three months later than this meeting was promised.
“So it seems to me that in Kempston’s case it is certainly true that nothing happens unless Kempston councillors demand action.
“And the only things set in stone are the feet of you and your administration.”
By John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
