Sir – Looking at the content of Bedford Town Centre Exhibition was one of the most profoundly depressing experiences of recent times for me.
Many important sites have been identified for new developments and the potential was there for a truly forward looking vision but we were presented with an array of banal, ill-thought out, badly drawn and occasionally perverse developer-led schemes.
The architects used have clearly been pushed into a neo-classical style by a council unwittingly wrecking this once pleasant town.
The level of design competence is uniformly abysmal and is frankly insulting to some of the fine historic buildings like the Shire Hall by Waterhouse, the Swan Hotel by Holland and the County Building by Champneys.
These architects would be turning in their graves at the sight of such tacky and shallow additions to our town.
History means nothing to our council, it seems, as it has consistently and absurdly parodied the past in the proposed new buildings around Charter Square and on Riverside Square.
Why are we allowing our town to be sold down the river to line the pockets of developers? Visitors to the exhibition found themselves discussing the issues and listening to explanations given by staff who had no technical or professional expertise at all.
It reflects very much the ignorance and complacency of a council which believes that it can foist virtually anything on an unsuspecting Bedford public.
Some of these schemes will happen and we will then see what we have lost forever and what a backward-looking style has been superimposed upon us.We elected the representatives and we get what we don’t deserve it seems.Our only hope for salvation it seems is that a declining property market will scupper some of this dross.
Anthony Mackay
Waterloo Road, Bedford
Car chaos looms with town’s redevelopment
Sir – I saw the exhibition of the planned revamp of Bedford.
There is no doubt that if all this development goes ahead then it will generate more traffic above the current level and that the town’s infrastructure will not cope.
The last time I parked on-street it cost me 90p an hour. How much will it be by then? Don’t forget that before long there will be nearly 6,000 extra homes built around the town.
There will always be cars. They may end up running on batteries or gas but the problem of congestion in the town will worsen.
My feeling is that the planners and ‘visionaries’ are not taking this fully into account.
D Meyers
Goldington Road, Bedford
Going down the pan
Sir – On reading your article about fly-tipping, it suddenly occurred to me why there has been such an increase in this offence over the past few years – it’s because the council has made it a lot harder for anyone to dispose of their rubbish at local tips.
We all now need to have a permit which we have to apply for, if you have a trailer or van.
We also have our rubbish collected every other week, so should the council be surprised when people are dumping their rubbish anywhere, and the taxpayer picks up the bill, when having it cleared up?
Making it easier for everyone to dispose of their rubbish properly by legal means and encouraging people to act responsibly might be a start to reducing fly-tipping.
Also you say there is zero tolerance, and if you’re found out you will be either sent to prison for up to five years or fined £50,000.
On your front page you have a scumbag who has robbed the identities of dead people and been part of a gang to steal and make people’s lives a misery – he gets twoand- a-half years in prison.
Dont get me wrong, I do not condone fly-tipping, but it just shows us where priorities lie. No wonder this country is going down the pan fast.
J Meadowcroft
Kimbolton Road, Bedford
The threat from within
Sir – It is commonplace in the private sector to pay retention bonuses but only if staff remain at work until their services are no longer required.
What is to prevent the county council’s top officials staying until October 8, receiving their bonus and then leaving before their six months’ notice has expired? Only the knowledge that the council might sue them for damages – the costs caused by not fulfilling their contracts of employment by giving the required length of notice.
Not a real threat, perhaps, except if their employer is litigation minded! Trevor Moisey Brereton Road, Bedford
Sir – With over half a million pounds set aside to tempt senior county officers to stay on the stage for the final act, the devil may be in the detail in that all they have to do is not hand their notice in before October 8.
Assuming a six month notice period they will still be about to ensure that all their knowledge gleaned over several years is passed to the new authorities.
Where this goes wrong is the fact that both the chief executive and one of her main directors are going fairly quickly (April and May respectively) so the six month notice has obviously been waived there.
In one case the leaver had only been there since last May so having spent two or three or months getting into the swing of a very well paid job they’ve then spent the last few months getting out of it.
Predicting the future, I bet that come October we will see a rash of officer departures before the six months notice period making off with our cash.
And it’s not going down at all well within County Hall as the people who have actually been doing all the donkey work who are not eligible for such generosity are realising that they have been well and truly spun a line.
Steve Watson
Chapel Lane, Willington
Eco-town vote winner
Sir – Re Nirah, presumably Mrs Dorries would still prefer the scheme to have gone to her native city of Liverpool? In view of her remarks against stadium development at Junction 12 in relation to the area not requiring more employment opportunities, this would be another unnecessary project.
Maybe Mrs Dorries can focus her eloquent and publicity-attracting tomes to the plight of the threat to that area of natural countryside under very serious threat from this Eco-town mania. It would be worth quite a few votes for her.
Keith Cox
Watson Way, Marston Moretaine
Plaudits for planners
Sir – The planners at Bedford Borough Council are to be congratulated on being only the 11th district council to complete an approved Core Strategy and Rural Issues Plan to provide the council with a policy framework on which planning applications will be decided.
I am also pleased to read in that document that the arguments that Bletsoe residents have been making against the proposal for a gypsy and traveller site in the village have been reinforced by clear, unequivocal statements in CP9 which must all be satisfied before such a site can be approved.
Geoff Venn
Bletsoe
Dart bus farce
Sir – What is the point of the East Beds Dart? I see these vehicles in the Biggleswade and Sandy area and make a habit of seeing how many people are inside other than the driver.
On the vast majority of occasions the total is zero and the maximum that I have seen has been two.
Who is paying for this farce, adding to congestion and pollution?
R H Cox
Park Court, Sandy
Carbon neutral by 2050
Sir – Tony Mitchell and Bedfordshire Climate Change Forum are to be congratulated for their work in both raising awareness and taking practical local action to combat climate change.
Mr Mitchell points out the need to cut carbon emissions by 60 to 80 per cent to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
In fact the latest scientific evidence suggests that anything less than an 80 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2050 is simply not enough to prevent significant climate change.
That is why the Liberal Democrats have set out plans to make the UK carbon neutral by 2050, and are pressing the Government to change its proposed 60 per cent reduction target to 80 per cent in its climate change bill.
Cllr Michael Headley
Bedford Borough Liberal Democrat Group Leader
Why the secrecy?
Sir – I have always been against undue secrecy in local politics and your last issue demonstrates why.
The county council, which in 2004 had pledged to loan – not give – Nirah £2million at a commercial rate but attempted to renege in 2006 is considering letting Nirah have £400,000, that is half of the outstanding amount.
Instead of doing it openly it attempted to do so in secret.
Predictably, Nadine Dorries, one of the scheme’s few opponents – other than the ‘animal rights’ lobby – seized upon this for a diatribe which carefully ignored the fact that the money had already been pledged more than three years ago and was a loan not a gift.
Nirah is not in breach of the conditions of the loan.
Had the county council not spent most of 2006 trying to avoid the obligations it had signed up to, arguably Nirah would have been much further forward now. But that is hardly Nirah’s fault.
Frank Branston
Mayor of Bedford
Taking the cheap route
Sir – I have the greatest sympathy with Mr Bingham (letters April 13).
I have also noticed that the resurfacing of roads in my ward is not prioritised as common sense would suggest, that is depending simply on their condition.
I investigated this with the county council’s roads contractor Amey and was told that due to limited funds, it has to prioritise work on newer, more lightly used roads because they are cheaper to maintain and to help the council meet performance targets set by the Government.
Thus, as Mr Bingham rightly complains, resurfacing a cheaper but little used road with a retrievable surface will frequently be preferred to a more expensive but busy road with a bad surface.
Years of underfunding by the county council for road maintenance is forcing residents who use older, heavily used roads and pavements to put up with deteriorating and often hazardous conditions.
The county council, and the new Unitary Authority from next year, must make funds available in order to bring all our streets and pavements up to a satisfactory standard.
Cllr David Sawyer
Bedford Borough Council Liberal Democrat De Parys Ward
Excellent character
Sir – Re: The Hearse and Jockey, front page (April 6). Although it may have been unintentional, the reporting tarnished Mr Bill Garrat’s otherwise proud and excellent character.
Together with his wide array of many good friends, I can categorically promise that Bill is not a trouble maker.
He does not mince his words but rather he is refreshingly forthright.
Occasionally when he expresses his views to those who may be of a somewhat weaker character, his style may result in an unwarranted reaction which I suspect may have been the cause of the current situation.
Bob Reynolds
Templars Way, Sharnbrook