Above: New Central Bedfordshire Offices in Chicksands. Photo: A D Winter
Unitary Council for Central Bedfordshire
1st April 2009 ~ What it means for Houghton Regis
The new Central Bedfordshire unitary council is launched today by combining the Mid Beds and South Beds District councils. This new council will provide ALL the services that are now the responsibility of Mid-Bedfordshire, South Bedfordshire District Council and Bedfordshire County Council, including education, roads, social services, planning, waste collection, benefits, and environmental health. Some of these services will be delivered jointly with the new North Beds Council to achieve economies of scale and cost savings.
Houghton Regis Town Council will continue to run local services like the cemetery, allotments, parks and open spaces.
Electoral changes
Fresh elections will be held on June 4, 2009, to form a new body of councillors. The combined area of Mid and South Beds currently has 103 district councillors and 33 county councillors. This total of 136 councillors will be reduced to just 66 in the new authority. Instead of 7 District Councillors and 2 County Councillors, Houghton Regis will only be represented by 4 Central Bedfordshire Councillors.
Area Covered by Central Bedfordshire
The area served by the new council will stretch from Tempsford in the north-east to Dunstable in the south-west. The largest town will be Leighton-Linslade with Dunstable the next largest.
Three Centres
Despite Mid Beds District Council having recently built central offices costing £15 million, the new authority is likely to have three sets of offices: Dunstable, Chicksands and Bedford County Hall, because there is not enough space to house all the 2,700 Central Beds staff in the existing Dunstable and Chicksands buildings. Some 2,000 Central Beds staff will have to work from the former County Hall when the new unitary starts.
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