ASK the time

Did you notice the clock above ASK on the Old Fire Station has not worked since before the work was done? You may have also seen the LB News article indicating that nothing has been done about it.

Well the good news it has not been forgotten and should be up and running in a few weeks. I have today been speaking to the officer at the District and there is a lot more too it than just being a clock.

It has been fitted with a lot of electronics that adjust automatically when the clocks go back and forward and also keep the time during power cuts. However, when the work was done to the building, it was turned off for so long, the battery went dead. When it was turned back on at the wrong time, the battery charged up and so by the time the District was notified, turning the clock off would and back on when the time changed to where the hands were would not work as it would know how long it had been off for and simply adjust itself! It needs a clock maintenance company to come out to it.

Due to the location, this involves specialist equipment so after much negotiation between ASK and SBDC, the clock will be inspected in a week or so and will hopefully be fixed 2 weeks after that.

If you do see problems like this, please TELL US ABOUT IT, too often people get upset or the news papers print a story but no one has ever actually told us there is a problem. The Town Council can be contacted on 01525 631 920 and the District on 01582 47 22 22. You can also pop along to Citizone on West Street for any Town, District or County Council related issues.

FASNET 2008

In January I visited our Twin Town again for "Fasnet", their Carnival week. It is a tradition going back hundreds of years and very different to our own carnival. The Mayor hands over the key to the town in a ceremony to mark the start of the "5th season" and then "the fools" who are the Carnival groups run the town. (yes we can all see the obvious joke here).

It is a real honour to be able to participate in the festivities, and ex-councillor and Twinning Chair Chris Hinchcliff and his wife were invited to participate representing our Towns and have had their own hand made wooden carnival masks. (below)



Even I got to dress up following the theme and walked around the town as a clown, performing as part of a musicl group in restaurants and bars. Apart from the big processions through the towns, there are also un planned visits by groups like ours that would go in to public place, perform and interact with the drinkers or diners etc and then leave to go to the next place as you can see from some of these groups that popped in to visit us during dinner. The man on the right is Dr Kropp, our host in Titisee-Nuesdadt

A swimming start to 2008

Welcome to my 2008 roundup. At the end of January, I only have 3 and a bit months of my Mayoral year left. 9 months has just flown by.

I attended the Leighton Buzzard Swimming Club awards presentation night on the 4th. I really like events like that as people work very hard not just swimming but in supporting the club and it is great for me to be able to show some appreciation for all the people that make Leighton Buzzard a nice place to be with lots to do.

Keeping to a sports them, I have also handed out grant cheques to sports men and women who applied through the sports council. If you have an interest in any sports please get in touch as we have probably have a group or club just right for you.

Finally on the 27th I attended the Holocausts Memorial Day service at Luton Town hall. People representing many faiths were present and it was a very moving service. There was also a chance to network with faith leaders and gain a better understanding of what they were trying to achieve locally.

Afterwards we were heckled by a group outside who thought we were only there because of the 2nd World War Holocaust but of course we were there for all Holocausts that have happened since and may still continue. I felt they did their cause no good by suggesting we were supporting a Holocaust in Palestine. It was a shame that they did not think to ask first about the event but these things do happen.

End of year round up

Ok for regular readers (do I have any?) you will realise I am actually writing this in 2008 as I have been really bad at updating the blog for the past few months.

Christmas was a great time for fundraising and networking in. My own Christmas Carol concert was very well attended and I think quite good fun too so I would like to thank everyone that visited and helped out. We did quite well on the collection too which was shared between my charities and the Church. I also got to go to many other concerts and services in the area including the Guides at Hockliffe Street Baptist Church, the Scouts service and some events in Aylesbury.

Just before Christmas I was also fortunate enough to get to visit all of our staff that work incredibly hard keeping our parks and cemeteries looking nice and working well. I felt a bit like Santa with my mince pies and mulled wine or fruit juice for staff driving company vehicles :(

A real eye opener was my visit just before Christmas to the Royal Mail sorting office where I saw all of our mail and many Christmas cards being sorted just in time for Christmas. I now realise just how important it is to use the postcode!

I spent Christmas working at the Crisis homeless shelter in South London. A very rewarding job where I met a number of very interesting people, not just the other volunteers but the centre users too.

Goodbye 2007, hello 2008 - Let's hope it's a good one!!

New Year road closure

Anyone living in, working in or travelling through Grovebury ward between 14th January and 27th January should be aware of a road closure at the END of STANBRIDGE ROAD where it meets Billington Road.


The official diversion is shown with the blue circles and because it has to be suitable for all vehicles, it involves going a very long way around the bypass. Local residents can use alternative routes.

The closure is between The Falcon Pub car park and Linwood Grove. Residents and visitors to Falcon Mews will be given access.

Christmas lights NOW ON

After 9 weeks of sitting there being tested, our Town Christmas lights were switched on last night by ITV Anglia News reporter Philippa Heap live on TV after a countdown led my your Town Mayor and Town Crier!

I have a video on my Facebook account of the switch-on which you can see if you have a Facebook account - Click Here

or you can go to the itvlocal.com website and see it - ITV Local

Remembrance Day Parade

For remembrance day on the 11th November I was pleased to be able to thank those who gave their life for our country but also pleased to thank the many local British Legion members who do so much good work locally.

Being at the front of the parade and laying a wreath from the Town Council on behalf of all Leighton-Linslade residents was a duty I was proud to perform.

Thank you.

Fireworks and Beds CC Chairman

I had an enjoyable weekend "mayoring" at two fundraisers this weekend.

On Friday I attended the Chairman of Bedfordshire County Council's (Cllr Robin Younger) reception. He is raising funds this year for the Bedfordshire Air Ambulance Appeal and Bedfordshire Advocacy Alliance.

On Saturday I was invited to light the bonfire at the Town's fireworks display organised perfectly by the Lions and held at Brooklands Middle School.

I am not yet sure how much money the Lions raised but the fireworks were great and importantly it was a safe way to enjoy them as many people did.

End of October 2007

Hello, I have to admit to cheating slightly here. I wrote this article at the end of November but backdated it to October so it flowed better!

So here we are at the end of October. We held an Extraordinary Meeting of the Council on the 15th to discuss Brooklands school. The school is supported fully by the Council and our response to the County's consultation made this perfectly clear.

There is no point closing a school when Beds CC admit it will not save money (it will actually cost more) and overall in the town, if Brooklands closes, the town does not have enough school places!!

UPDATE: At the executive meeting on 27th November, Beds CC postponed any decision until a thorough investigation on place numbers and housing growth in the town.


On the 19th October, I attended a Youth Action Conference with District and County Councillors where we met a number of youth groups from the County including students from Cedars.

It was good to see and hear first hand what young people wanted and I was able to point some to our existing Tactic Centre on Hockliffe Street (Youth Forum Website) which they were unaware of. Tactic staff will continue with school assembly visits to make sure more people are aware of the good work they do and I chair the committee that looks after the centre so I want to make sure it continues to be well used!

Saturday 20th October was a visit to Woodside Football Club at Brooklands school to see how much use they get from the school facilities. It was proved that football is not a sport I excel at.



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Living History Day

The 2007 Living History Day with the theme "Popular Pastimes" has been a great success last Saturday and I was pleased to be able to take part in so many activities.

With sports, arts, music, acting and general interest clubs all over the town there should be a club for everyone and the Town Council has details of a number of them. If your club wants some publicity I am happy to put details up here but there are already many official lists to use.

I took part in line dancing and Rapper dancing on the day. I had a practice Rapper dance in Germany when The Grand Union Rapper (from Linslade) performed in Titisee-Neustadt in the summer. I practiced with balloons so this was my first go with real swords!










My Charity Meal is at Mama Rosas on Wednesday at 19:30. We have 4 tickets available at £15 each - Phone Christine on 01525 631 921 to grab the last 4!

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NALC

Together with our Deputy Town Clerk, I attended the National Association of Local Councils conference in Bournemouth from Friday to Sunday.

Exhibitors were on hand to demonstrate some great pieces of playground equipment we may be installing soon as well as many other service we could use. There were also representatives from various associations all working hard in the background to support us but most importantly the same as last year, there were some excellent speakers informing us of changes we need to take in to account as well as ideas from other councils over the country.

I met a number of clerks and officers from other Town and Parish Councils given me the chance to get a different perspective on many projects we are working on including our work with young people, senior citizens and crime prevention.

I will be giving a full report to Council on Monday 26th November at 19:30 in The White House.

ASK is on its way

At a District Council meeting on Tuesday, it was asked by a member what was happening with the Old Fire Station / ASK restaurant in the town.

An update has arrived this morning for all the District Councillors with details of the delay but it does confirm it will still happen and they "anticipate that completion of the lease is imminent"

The Old Fire Station Action Group and threats of legal challenges has delayed the signing of the lease and hence opening of the restaurant. The good news is that they have been granted an alcohol licence which includes a pavement licence so we should have a nice place to have a meal and a drink outside in the summer.

Insurance and some valuation issues (best value implications) remain which should be sorted soon.

Full steam ahead!

This could be my worst ever headline pun but today I have been meeting representatives from the Indian Ministry of Railways when they visited the wonderful hard-working volunteers at the Narrow Gauge Railway right here in town.

As they are looking at improving the heritage and tourism side of their world famous railway, they have come here to Leighton Buzzard to see our volunteers and experts.

As part of the day we took a journey on a steam train to Stonehenge Works on Vandyke Road where I found myself painting some spare track to identify it for use afterwards as well as posing for pictures and discussing the benefit of the railway to the town and the money it generates elsewhere when people come to visit it.

I was lucky enough to get to drive the steam engine too. That really is me driving! If I get an invite to work on the Indian railway I will let you know ;)

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Poland in September

September started off slowly. I helped at Andrew Selous' MP surgery on the Tuesday 4th at the library and attended a Town Centres Management Committee meeting on the 6th before a weekend camping in Chingford for my birthday on the 7th.

I went to visit the Mayor of Czernikow in Poland with Bicester Town Twinning Forum as they looked to take their 5 year friendship to an official twinning status. We visited many local attractions in the area and in Krakow. We also visited Auschwitz which was a very moving experience.

We all stayed with and were fed by local families. They will be coming to Bicester soon and will be hosted in return. Twinning is a great experience and we have an active forum in the town which you are welcome to join.

Other towns nearby may look to build friendships with Leighton Buzzard and Linslade too as well.












This is me in the first picture with the Chairman of the Bicester Town Twinning Forum and the second one is me (again!) with the local Mayor.

St Neots Carnival

August was a quiet month, still the end of the summer "holiday" season. On the 25th I attended the Carnival at St Neots. The floats were very impressive and the entertainment superb with some very talented singers and performers.

I don't know how much was raised for charity in total but the collector seemed to be filling their buckets with coins quite quickly.

Summer Reception

I will use this post as a bit of a roundup over the past few days as I have been a bit quiet on here (my official site).

On Friday 17th, I was fortunate enough to take a tour of the Anglian Water Education Centre and Sewage Treatment works which involved a tour of the site where some of Leighton Buzzard and Linslade's waste water is processed before being pumped in to the sea.

It was a bit smelly on the site but you do get used to it and I would encourage schools to take groups there free of charge.

Later that day I was at the closing ceremony of the Guides camp having been there at the start almost a week before. Girl Guiding South Bedfordshire is one of my charities this year.

Saturday was my Summer Reception which was a brilliant day raising around £400 for my charities and I think everyone went away having had a great day with my unique style! We had a local band called The Synes as well as help from a few local young people with my Dad performing an unplanned magic act!

On Sunday I was launching in to public service the No. 778 train on the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway after many years restoration to the 90 year old steam engine.

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Police and Girl Guides

I am not suggesting there is any link between Beds Police and the Girl Guides although the Police held a cadet passing out parade on the same day the Girl Guides opened their County Camp with The Great Escape as its theme. I was at both events - Sunday 12th August.

There were not too many faces from Leighton Buzzard at the lunch time parade but a lot of officers have put a lot of time and resources in to a great service for 16-18 year olds in Bedfordshire, a large number of cadets go on to work for the force in some way. I was present along with the cadet's parents, senior officer, specials and Mayors from the other Towns and Parishes in the County.

In the evening I was at the Girl Guides County Camp. The theme was The Great Escape and as the Senior Section's prison theme was Feltham Young Offenders, their uniform was a pink hat with ASBO across the front (I was given one too). The South Beds division had The Maze as it's theme leading to a lot of Irish links and a maze at the entrance to the sub camp.

The teddy bears are Asbob and Millie. They got "married" at the camp!

That was a pretty full Saturday.

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The 2am Surgery

It's not every day you go in to town to the late night drinking establishments and end up having a discussion with the Mayor about traffic lights, education and general council business. Tonight was clearly no ordinary night!

I am not sure if other Mayor's and councillors have done it but I have just got back from a night out, joined by Cllr Ashley Ryder (who left EARLY about 1:30am!) and found a lot more people with an interest or an opinion on what we do.

At 1am I was tucking in to a burger when a group of people aged about 18-20 (Happy birthday to the lady who is 20 today) recognised me and actually wanted to speak to me about a range of topics, including saving Brooklands School. They now have a collection of photographs of me stuffing my face on their mobile phone.

I am sure seeing "The Mayor" in that setting was the last thing they expected but I am pretty normal really so don't be too surprised.

Then at 2am, I was stood outside with more introductions or people recognising discussing special education needs which I will be following up on on Monday and congestion in the town.

I have been out in the street with Councillors before when no one even looks at us so I am hoping events like Spaghetti Wrestling and the other things I am doing are taking politics to a new crowd, and to people that want to be involved but have always been left out by the old regime.

On the other hand, it may have just been one of those odd nights.

Who knows!!

If it was you I spoke to, please feel free to comment or send me your pictures and I will put them up on the site.

Since the smoking ban, I have realised just how much alcohol stinks on your clothes, but it's not as bad as coming home smelling like an ashtray :)

Canal Festival

The 5th Canal Festival took place on Saturday 28th, just before a charity BBQ I attended for The Mayor of Dunstable making Saturday a very full day.

It was good to see a lot of familiar faces from the town and also some new ones. Tiddenfoot pit is a big site and I ended up walking around it many times with the Police, St John, Air Cadets and others who were supporting the event.

A walk along the canal showed me some wonderful craft businesses operating and also some boat owners simply relaxing enjoying the canal. I handed out some flyers about boat crime prevention too so let's hope everyone keeps their boats secure.

The Lions Club and Young Farmers provided a lot of really nice food to keep us all going as we visited lots of fun and interesting stands.

This is a great event and if you did miss it this year, keep your eyes open ready for next year’s event.

First prize in the festival raffle - the winner of a hand carved wooden wishing seat by Dick Tilley of Spirits of Wood - was light pink ticket number 175 which was bought by Colin. The prize has yet to be claimed and the person with the winning ticket should contact the Town Council on 01525 631 920 to claim it.

Spaghetti Wrestling £200

Thanks to everyone who supported the spaghetti wrestling event, we raised just over £200 for my charities.

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Titisee-Neustadt

Last week I spent 5 days in Titisee-Neustadt in the Black Forest, Germany which is one of the 2 towns we are twinned with. The other is Coulommiers in France.

Their political system is very different with the local Mayor ("Burgermeister") being an elected but paid role more like a Chief Executive, overseeing huge budgets but being very accountable and local.

Also there were the Grand Union Rapper from Leighton Linslade performing their dance to large crowds in the Tourist town of Titisee.

I will let you know when our German twin residents come over here as I know the Twinning forum will be putting on some events for them.

Greener Taxis in the town

Well not just yet but they could be on their way...

I have been talking to licensing officers at SBDC about the possible benefits of licensed taxis using either greener fuels, hybrid engines and otherwise being less polluting than they are now.

It is early days and we are just starting to look at the implications and ways to encourage the use of greener vehicles. Then we will look at what other councils have done but this will take a while.

Spaghetti Wrestling

Here's an event for your diary, July 29th, 12pm at The Sun Pub on Lake Street.

We have SPAGHETTI WRESTLING, I realise spaghetti wrestling is not a traditional Mayor's event but I like to think when I was elected, people were supporting someone a little different and so this should come as no surprise!

This event is a fun, family event organised to raise money for my charities.

Turn up on the day to watch or even take part and it will all make sense. Yes it may be messy but it should also raise lots of money and be a good afternoon out.

Twenty Years of Rainbows

Girl Guiding South Bedfordshire is one of my charities this year and I was invited to the Rainbow's Section 20th birthday party today. The only problem was the theme was Disney and I had to dress up!

So this is my attempt at fancy dress (I am meant to be Mickey Mouse).

Visit the Bedfordshire Guides website

Also in the past 2 weeks, I have listened to a choir from Coulommiers (our French Twin Town) at Gilbert Inglefield Middle School and seen the musical Grease performed by students from Brooklands Middle School. Both events were excellent.

Honorary Burgess

Tonight at an event I hosted, Past Mayor Cllr Mark Freeman presented a new award to two people who have done a lot for the community in Leighton Buzzard and Linslade over the past 30 or so years.

Reverend Peter Lymbery and Roy Gibbons were both presented with an Honorary Burgess award and their names will be displayed on a new display in The White House on Hockliffe Street.

District Telephones and Markets

I had Full Council at South Beds tonight. Nothing major at the moment, 2 questions I raised were on the current situation with the new market operators as there had been some reports on counterfeit goods circulating in the press and also on the new district 0845 numbers.

All numbers for SBDC will now have an 0845 alternative which for most people will cost more to call than the 01582 number and they do not count as part of a package of say inclusive minutes on your mobile phone or free calls on your landline.

I will make sure the 01582 number is available to anyone who needs it. It doesn’t seem fair if you need to claim benefits or ask to be homed you should be paying more to the call council. There was no mention of revenue sharing so far so the council may not be taking a cut of the call revenue.

Cllr Hegley, Portfolio Holder responsible responded by saying they would move over to an 03 number later in the year when they are available. These again are “non geographic” meaning they can be anywhere in the country and change easily but will be included in your call packages treated equally to 01 and 02 numbers.

As for the market, not much could be said as Wendy Fair, the new operator, are in court at the moment facing these charges and until we have the verdict we are limited in what we can do or say.

Events Roundup

Since I last wrote about the events I have attended, I have been to many more representing the town.

On the 24th May I was a judge at The Carnival Princess Competition. That was very hard, having to pick just 2 people from a room full of young ladies that really wanted to win! In the end we chose Adrienne and Chloe

On the 26th, I attended the Leighton-Linslade Arts forum play which was superb, there is a lot of talent hidden in our local residents! They performed "Sir Christopher" showing the history of Sir Christopher Wren.

I was off to Buckingham on the 1st of June to meet their Mayor

I attended the Citizens Advice Bureau AGM on 14th June and the Sports Council AGM tonight.

On the subject of Sports, if your club is not yet a member, it costs just £10 per year and you can apply for financial support too using funds from the Town Council. In addition, you get the chance to network with other clubs and help the Sports Council represent your sport to Councillors and other authorities.

I asked tonight for a list of all the taster sessions the clubs are putting on over the summer but particularly those aimed at the youth and that we bring clubs together to avoid clashes. Once I have a list I will be promoting it and other summer events that are being planned...

Save Our School

I will shortly but putting up a an update on all the events I have attended but I wanted to discuss today's events.

Firstly, I handed out certificates to children in the Library yesterday for their entries in the BBC RAW (Reading and Writing) Campaign in conjunction with Beds County Council where the family all helped to write a short story.

After this, I opened the Brooklands Middle School Family Fun Day, just days after Beds County Council announced that on Tuesday 19th, the Executive Committee would be looking at a possible consultation on the school's closure.

The school under the leadership of Head Teacher Steve Harrington-Williams have produced t-shirts for all the pupils in the school uniform colours and I was pleased to wear one during the event.

I will discuss the possibilities of the closure in more detail but the whole of the Town Council is behind the school and are opposing its closure without good reason and insisting that a proper consultation with all concerned will take place. That includes not just teachers, pupils and parents but the many groups and clubs that use the school's facilities.

Please comment below.