Ampthill Town Council - Useful InformationCentral Bedfordshire Council

Your Unitary Councillors

Gary Summerfield (Liberal Democrat)

• View Attendance Record and Declarations at meetings, plus committee appointments

Paul Duckett (Conservative)

• View Attendance Record and Declarations at meetings, plus committee appointments

Useful Links

• Committee structure
• Council Meetings & Committees
• Calendar of meetings
• Council Decisions

Ampthill Town Council - Useful Information

• Meeting - Agendas & Minutes
• Councillors

Council Watcher

• Central Beds Council Computer System Failure - on Monday 15th February 2010 the Central Beds 'state of the art' IT system crashed as did it's back up server. What cost this failure!
• Central Beds Council Tax to increase by 3.5% - this from the council that had promised to cut or not increase council tax in it's original bid for unitary status. In addition the workforce is to be cut by 20%. Was Central Beds Council blinded by becoming a unitary and inheriting the debts of Beds County Council to the detriment of the residents of Ampthill & the rest of Central Beds. Due Diligence was perhaps not a priority!
• Central Beds Chief Executive get £250,000 'Golden Goodbye' - Jaki Salisbury receives a 'golden goodbye' package in October 2009, when new Cheif Executive Richard Carr (from Wolverhapton Borough Council) takes over on a salary of £185,000
• Central Beds Cut Ampthill Bus Serices - the Red Rose 223/231 Sunday Service Bedford to Dunstable via Ampthill is scrapped
• Central Beds Budget Overspend - the new authority is likely to have an overspend of between £5.9m & £7.9m
• Lack of Shared Services - where are the savings in Central Beds & Bedford Borough duplicating services rather than sharing services!
• Councillor Allowances - the Conservative led authority asked an independent panel to determine the level of allowances for councillors of the new authority and then choose to ignore their recommendations and award themselves nearly £2000 per annum. Go figure with 66 councillors that's an extra £132,000!
• Cllr Tricia Turner becomes the first Leader of Central Beds Council - her deputy is Cllr Richard Stay who had expected to be leader post the June 2009 Election (perhaps a case of 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer' (Cllr Stay's Blog always makes interesting reading at  http://cllrstay.blogspot.com)
• Central Beds Council operating from 3 Sites - ironic that part of the rational for building the new Mid Beds District Council offices at Chicksands, was that the council should operate from one site instead of two (Ampthill and Biggleswade), unyet with the creation of the new council they will be operating from three sites (Chicksands, Dunstable & Bedford). So much for savings in travelling between the sites!