7 February 2025
Bedford Ian has been looking at recent goings on across Bedford Borough and has told us what he thinks of it all. This week, it’s a Full Council meeting special…
Mayoral misinformation
As (most of) the world reels at another politician overseas saying what he likes on social media without a care as to the real-world damage his comments might create, it seems we have a similar thing happening closer to home.
The mayor has been taken to task by several councillors in recent days for his comments about the “coldness” of some of his Non-Conservative colleagues over the prospect of house demolitions that might come if EWR’s Route E comes to fruition.
While this hyperbole wasn’t in itself too bad, when coupled with Bedford Borough Conservative Group’s recent (now deleted) Facebook post, containing the lie that it is only they who have fought against Route E, the comments are frankly irresponsible.
While there are now calls for the Mayor to apologise for his “offensive” remarks, one councillor took a pre-emptive strike against any possible social media misinformation being posted after this week’s full council meeting.
Read: Bedford’s mayor accused of “offensive” comments over EWR home demolitions
Cllr McMurdo (Independent, Sharnbrook) cited vigorously that he “neither supports six tracks or the demolition of any building in this Borough to facilitate East West Rail” and asked for that to be put on record.
Will this become a regular feature at the start of council meetings? With the length of time they take (see below) let’s hope the propagandists don’t force this to become a regular thing.
Car park clash
Cllr McMurdo continued to make more of a stir when questioning the accuracy of claims that Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust would have to pay for the rebuilding of Bedford Hospital’s car park to make way for EWR’s Route E.
Addressing his councillor colleagues, cllr McMurdo said he was “indebted” to Bedford Ian for the summary of a recent vote on which EWR option the council supports, who “points out that the council did resolve by a majority to support a northern route”. I’m honoured.
He then, quite rightly, reminds all councillors, but mostly the Executive, that they need to be careful what they say as “our residents think they can actually believe what they’re saying”.
He says he was prompted after Cllr Gribble (Independent, Renhold and Ravensden), claimed the new multi-storey car park at Bedford Hospital will be paid for by the aforementioned NHS trust.
Cllr McMurdo, read out what he has been told by the Trust and EWR, (and what has already been published by the area’s media) that EWR has “no expectations” for the hospital to provide any capital funding for the multi-storey car park.
The trust also states that it hasn’t yet seen all the options for the building and funding of the car park, and even so, it will not be able to enter into a new lease or capital agreement “without funding and approval by NHSE”
Read: Bedford Hospital responds to Borough councillor’s EWR car park claim
Cllr Gribble responded by saying that she understood EWR would be borrowing the money needed to build the car park but the NHS would be paying it back.
Now this might all be a little below my pay grade but neither of these answers the question of whose budget* it will be coming out of.
As cllr McMurdo says, “Bedford Borough Council needs to be part of the [EWR] solution and not part of the problem”, and the politicising and point scoring of a situation that may see some Bedfordians lose their homes is, putting it mildly, distasteful.
Maybe our elected officials, in particular the executive members in charge of their relevant portfolios, can find out exactly what’s happening, dispense some hard facts, and work together regardless of political affiliation for the great good of our Borough.
That would be better than scaremongering with assumptions to further their own agendas.
*I say budget because at the end of the day, it’s you and me, the taxpayers, who are really paying for it.
Liberal objections
You may remember a few years ago the good people at the Bedford Independent highlighted the “shambles” of local election counts and the length of time they were taking.
Read: Election count “shambles” – Bedford Borough Council criticised for delayed results
The issues around the count have largely been sorted thanks to the arrival of new council CEO Laura Church, who acts as the returning officer for our local polling day counts.
But, it seems the council might have a quota for taking its time over things and while vote counts may be getting quicker, meetings are getting longer.
This week’s full council meeting finished around 11pm, a whole 4.5 hours after it started, and that was 30 minutes earlier than the week before.
So what might have made the meeting go on for so long?
Aside from the pauses while cllrs tried to work their microphones and the speaker turned to colleagues to see what he was supposed to do next, which all add up, the main culprit seems to be two hours of objections from the Liberal Democrats.
Far be it for me to get in the way of the democratic process, but with eyelids getting heavier and snores beginning to emanate across the chamber, maybe they, as one person there put it, should have read the room and not bothered with some of them.
See you soon, Bedford Ian.
PS: If you see anything Bedford Ian might find amusing, let us know at news@BedfordIndependent.co.uk.
