We have had the good news this month of the publication of the tender for consultants to start work on the business case for the Leighton Buzzard primary care facility by the end of this month. This is happening because we now, at long last, have the capital and revenue in place as we have legal clearance to release the capital value from the 4 acres of land which the NHS owns in the town.
I was also able to raise air quality issues on Luton Road in Dunstable in a debate in the House of Commons. Local residents were expecting less HGV traffic along Luton Road as a result of the Woodside link road opening in 2017 and this has not happened so the matter requires further consideration and urgently given the health implications for those who live along the road.
A planning application in Houghton Regis for a small number of houses came to my attention and I was shocked to see contributions towards infrastructure of half a million for education, a quarter of a million for environmental mitigation, £100,000 for play equipment and only £50,000 for health. I quoted these figures in Parliament and I’m investigating further to find out why so little money has been given towards extra health facilities when they are so badly needed.
I also had a meeting with housing developers, CBC and two hard-working Eggington Parish councillors about the danger on unadopted roads in Clipstone Park and Linmere because there is no legally enforcable traffic regulations in place. This needs to be sorted urgently.
It was also very good to meet again with BP LightSource who have a solar farm in Eggington as well as to host in Parliament the Renewables UK exhibition on tidal power which can generate 11% of the U.K.’s electricity, and this is an area in which the UK is a world leader. It was a huge honour to open the Reclaim Life centre in Bridge Street as well.
It was good to see that the Armed Forces families strategy is now implementing many of the recommendations of the report I was asked to write to improve life for Armed Forces families. I was also pleased to record a podcast to encourage veterans to come forward to serve again in other areas of public life.
I have very much noted the concerns about the future of the Leighton Buzzard ticket office and would encourage everyone to respond to the consultation which closes on the 26th of July. I am also asking for complete transparency from Central Bedfordshire Council on where the six pothole repair gangs are working across the local authority and on how many potholes they are filling in each week. Yet again, I raised the need to urgently amend the police funding formula to be fair to Bedfordshire.
I was delighted to see that teachers and Royal Mail staff have now settled their industrial disputes as have the nurses, and I very much hope that doctors, radiologists and staff on the railways will do the same.
It was particularly good to meet with the education secretary to talk about apprenticeships given that levy is now been fully spent and that we will soon have 21 institutes of technology across the country. A quarter of apprentices already have a degree and apprenticeships are often a very good way to get the skills to earn a good wage with no debt.