In February, I was able to report that there was a glimmer of hope for more health facilities in Leighton Buzzard because of the new found ability to use and release value from the 4 acres of land owned by the NHS off Vandyke Road in the town. This land has been covenanted for health use since 1988, and on the 8th March, the Minister for primary care and public health convened a meeting with our health authority and Central Bedfordshire Council at which the decision was taking to start scoping the provision of general practice, community health, mental health, reablement and hospital outpatient services. We need to consult widely and well with local people and then get on with it. I will have a laserlike focus on getting this project delivered.
My objective still remains to get the much loved Old Palace Lodge back in use for the people of Dunstable by the spring of next year, and I will do everything I can to achieve that and to help the hotel to prosper in the future. I had a fantastic visit at Dunstable Fire Station to watch the pioneering new relationship between the Fire and Rescue Service and the Ambulance Service to help people who have fallen and to respond to a range of life-threatening calls. It is brilliant to see Bedfordshire at the cutting edge of new partnership working.
I was pleased to welcome the Minister for roads and buses to Hockliffe, where average speed cameras will shortly be installed by National Highways. He also travelled further up the A5 to see another ground breaking project, where electric buses and vehicles will be charged by renewable power in one of the first of its kind in the country.
It was a great honour to be asked to speak to the Armed Forces veterans breakfast club at The Chequers In Houghton Regis about the work I have undertaken for the Ministry of Defence to improve life for Armed Forces families. I am looking forward to repeating my talk with the Royal British Legion in Leighton Buzzard at their breakfast club on the 18th of March.
Lastly, I would like to very warmly congratulate all the schools in my constituency, who are part of the Chiltern Learning Trust. Out of 2,000 Trusts in the country, they are the fourth highest performing trust at GCSE. If you remove the selective Trusts, then they are, in fact, the second highest performing Trust in the country. Cedars also had the highest performing sixth form in the county.