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Good start for public health in Luton as Council looks at infant mortality
Some praise for Luton Borough Council — it looks like it has made a good start at taking on its new responsibilities for public health. Since April (2013) local authorities have had a new responsibility to provide leadership for public health in their areas, alongside some new statutory functions, with the local Director of Public Health becoming an employee of the council. I say “new” but in many ways this a return to how things…
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Luton Council ignores calls to censor Councillors use of Twitter
Last month the local press reported that the most recent meeting of the full council of Luton Borough Council was going to debate some guidance on how Councillors should use the social networking service Twitter. This is the paper that was presented to Councillors at that meeting on the 16 July 2013: http://www.scribd.com/doc/156507641/Report-to-Luton-Borough-Council-on-Social-Media-July-2013 The paper is an obvious fudge. From a careful reading I reckon that the true story is probably something like the following;…
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Random Thoughts for 31st July 2013: hats, elephants and things to celebrate
This is the latest in my series of Random Thoughts posts with links, things found on the web and other stuff that has occurred to me between 17th July 2013 and 31st July 2013: Residents offered chance to speak about town’s outdoor sports facilities Back when I was a councillor and a portfolio-holder I remember trying to get the Council to do some work on developing a proper strategy for outdoor sports. Sadly I got…
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Council to decide on the future of Luton’s libraries
This evening (Monday 29 July 2013) the Executive of Luton Borough Council will consider the results of the recent public consultation on the future of the town’s library service and make some decisions on what shape it will take in the future. How libraries are provided in Luton is a little bit complicated, although I believe the system works well. Luton Borough Council has a statutory obligation to provide a library service for the town…
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Luton Liberal Democrats hold Wigmore
On Wednesday evening Alan Skepelhorn was elected to Luton Borough Council winning the local by-election for the Wigmore ward. This means that Luton Liberal Democrats have held on to this seat and we keep our numbers at 8 on the Council. The by-election was held after the sad death of long-standing local campaigner Roy Davies. I am really pleased. Not least because Alan was a colleague of mine when I was on the council —…
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Wigmore by-election to be held on 10 April 2013
Following the sad death of Liberal Democrat Councillor Roy Davies a by-election to Luton Borough Council for the Wigmore ward is to be held on Wednesday 10 April 2013. Note that polling day is a Wednesday — not the usual Thursday. There are six candidates — all men — for the vacant place in this three member ward. The other two councillors for Wigmore are both Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrat candidate will be former…
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Consultation on the future of Luton’s Libraries
Luton Borough Council are currently consulting on the future of the library service in Luton. In common with many other councils, given the current financial constraints, LBC is looking at ways to change the provision of libraries in Luton in order to find budget savings. In comparison to the savage cuts that libraries are facing in some places the proposals are relatively modest. Although they do mean that some parts of the Town will lose…
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A tribute to Roy Davies
Those who have been involved in campaigns for the Liberal Democrats in Luton over the years will be sad to learn of the death of Councillor Roy Davies. I served alongside Roy as part of the Liberal Democrat group during my eight years on Luton Borough Council and I want to pay tribute to the determination and commitment that he gave to the Party and the Town. He was a proper local councillor — someone…
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A big weekend for Luton: Love Luton Festival, Carnival and Olympic torch
I’ve been getting quite a few visitors here looking either for information about the procession of the Olympic torch through Luton or the date of this year’s Luton Carnival. In an attempt to be helpful here is some basic information about the events of this coming weekend and links to other sources of information. Friday 6th – In the evening there will be day one of the Love Luton Festival in Popes Meadow headlined by…
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Six achievements as a Councillor
A few weeks ago I was trying to put together a review of all that I’d written on this blog over the past year. I didn’t get that far with it, and now it is February the moment for it seems to have passed. However, in doing it I was reminded of the posts that I’d written over the summer where I talked about what I saw as my achievements over the eight years that…
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The missing element from Luton’s free school meals campaign
The latest edition of the council’s free newspaper, Lutonline, leads with a front page story about a new council campaign to get more people to claim for free school meals. The story claims that more than 5,000 children in Luton are missing out on the free school meals they are entitled to. So the Council wants to make sure that the number of parents claiming rises. This is a good thing. Over recent years we…
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Luton Labour’s appointments to the Bedfordshire Police Authority descends into farce
Over the last few weeks I have been blogging about the ridiculous mess the Luton Labour party have got themselves in over the nominations from Luton Borough Council to fill Luton’s places on Bedfordshire Police Authority. You can read my previous posts on this here: Labour cock up leaves Luton without representation on Bedfordshire Police Authority “Labour Party spokesman” wrong on Police Authority formula Meet the Bedford Labour Councillor the Luton Labour Party want to…
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Meet the Bedford Labour Councillor the Luton Labour Party want to throw off the Police Authority
Meet Councillor Colleen Atkins MBE. She is a Bedford councillor, a member of the Labour Party, and is currently Portfolio Holder for Performance and External Relations in the administration of Bedford’s Liberal Democrat elected Mayor Dave Hodgson. She is also one of the two Bedford Council representatives on the Bedfordshire Police Authority. I’ve covered here before how the insistence by the Luton Labour Party that all three of Luton Council’s places on the Police Authority…
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Luton Borough Council and climate change
I wrote in a previous post about how during my time as an elected councillor on Luton Borough Council I got the Council to sign up to the Nottingham Declaration on tackling climate change in 2006 and how that was used as a lever to get the Council to take the issue seriously. On two occasions last year I was asked to be a guest speaker and facilitator at the Climate Change Leadership Academy organised…
