Archive for August, 2011
Richard praises green training in Kempston
Posted by admin | Filed under Business, Climate Change, Economy, Education, Universities & Skills
Richard with Jake Marsden (PV Installer) at Carillion
Bedford MP Richard Fuller has praised local company, Carillion Energy Services for its commitment to training and apprenticeships.
The MP was keen to see how the company was creating sustainable jobs in Bedford and the impact that this was having upon skills in the area.
Mr Fuller met senior managers and also had the opportunity to speak first hand with renewable installation engineer, Jake Marsden who gained vital training on the installation of solar photovoltaic panels at the Academy and qualified fully in October 2010.
Richard said: “I was really pleased to see first hand the scale of the Training Academy and I am particularly proud that Carillion Energy Services have chosen to use Bedford as the location for their UK Training Academy. Green Skills and employment are vital to the development of both the local and wider economy and here in Bedford, we are actively involved in developing these.”
Bringing the Torch Relay to Bedford
Posted by admin | Filed under Bedford & Kempston, Media & Sport
Richard with Brendan Harris holding Olympic Torches along the Embankment, Bedford
Last month, Richard invited one of the very few organisers of an Olympic Torch Relay, Brendan Harris, the Chief Operating Officer of the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games, to Bedford where they visited two local schools, Balliol Lower and Queens Park Academy. Brendan recounted the story of how he spent three months on the road with the Olympic flame, travelling 16,000 miles through 43 of the 50 States in the USA. As students listened, two real Olympic torches were passed around– one from the Atlanta Games, and the other from the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
The students learned that the torch relay is the largest spectator sporting event; that over 15,000 people carried the torch in 1996 and that the torch could be carried as you ran, as you walked, on a wheelchair, on a train, on a plane, in a canoe – just about any method of transport.
Brendan said that Bedford was a perfect destination for the 2012 London Olympic Games torch and urged the Council, and all of us, to contact the regional organising committee to say the torch must pass through our town on the 8th July when it wakes up in Cambridge and goes to bed in Luton.
Please join Richard in his efforts to get the torch to pass through Bedford by emailing: eastofengland@london2012.com
MP welcomes new measures to evict ‘neighbours from hell’
Posted by admin | Filed under Bedford & Kempston, Crime & Justice, Housing
The Housing Minister, Grant Shapps MP, has outlined new plans by the Government to make it easier to evict problem tenants from social housing.
The plans, which are now out for consultation, propose to allow previous convictions for anti-social behaviour to be taken into account, so where the situation has not improved, landlords can act swiftly to evict problem tenants. This will shorten the often long and expensive process which requires landlords to prove again the antisocial actions of their tenants.
Richard welcomed the news. Since becoming MP, he has heard from a number of local residents who suffer from anti-social neighbours. These proposals will help to shift the balance back in favour of the law-abiding victims of nightmare neighbours.
