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Mayoral race: Candidates answer your questions
The six candidates answer your questions on education, the economy, climate change, and young people
With just one week until polling day the Times&Citizen has approached all the mayoral candidates to find out where they stand on the issues which matter to you.
We spoke to four ordinary people and asked them what they thought was the most important issue in this election.
This was what they wanted to know – and how each of the candidates replied.
To see each of the candidates answers in full, click on their names below. Or turn the page to read how each of their answers compare.
Apu Bagchi video
Dave Hodgson video
Eve Robinson-Morley video
James Valentine video
Parvez Akhtar video
Tony Hare video
Click here to see our dedicated mayoral election race sectionQuestion One
Shane Hughes, member of Zero Carbon Castle, a community group working to make the Castle Road area greener, asked: "A local authority's approach to renewables is a kind of litmus test as to how seriously you take climate change.
"I'd like to know specific policies that are going to increase renewables in the area."
Apu Bagchi, Independent: Feels the council has enjoyed some success increasing recycling, but called for extra Government support.
"We can definitely improve the quality of our streets in terms of traffic congestion, giving extra cycle paths, making sure parents don't have to drive children to school. We should also encourage people to have solar panels."
Dave Hodgson, Liberal Democrat: Would set up a climate change fund to help finance green schemes.
"The first thing is to make sure we have a zero carbon growth policy. Any development that comes into the borough would have to be carbon-neutral.
"This would force developers to incorporate renewables into their scheme. If they couldn't achieve that there would be an offset fund. They would put money into that fund, and it would be used locally on renewable sources."
Eve Robinson-Morley, Green: New council vehicles would be electric cars and Borough Hall would switch electricity supplier, if Mrs Robinson-Morley is elected.
"We need to be proactively seeking sites where wind turbines could be sited, rather than waiting for businesses and people who own the land to approach us.
"We need to be more proactive in saying that we want wind turbines here, so that we can be generating plenty of renewable energy which in the long term is only going to save council tax payers money."
James Valentine, Labour: Said Bedford should emulate Milton Keynes, where residents can put their glass outside their homes for recycling.
"The main thing has to be recycling. Householders are willing to do quite a lot more in terms of recycling, so they tend to be ahead of local government."
Parvez Akhtar: Conservative: Will lower the cost of applications for people to make their homes 'greener', and council buildings could generate electricity, using wind turbines or solar panels.
"One of the things we are doing at a national level is encouraging people to generate their own electricity.
"This is a Conservative Party policy, we're hoping to implement that when we become the Government, and the idea behind that is that you generate the electricity, you can use it yourself, and you can sell it back to the grid."
Tony Hare, Independent: Cited his experience working on projects over the years, including the new Wixams housing project. But he felt wind turbines were not suitable for north Bedfordshire.
"I spent five years on the Bedfordshire Waste Partnership Committee. We discussed no end of things like green waste, what to do with recycling, and everything else. Orange bags, as my neighbours will tell you, line up outside my house every two weeks."Question Two
Sanchez Price, a pupil at St Gregory's Middle School, Bromham, asked: "I'm 12 years old, I'm nearly a teenager, and I'm wondering what are you going to do for our lives because it's so frustrating."
Apu Bagchi: Mr Bagchi was part of the council delegation which took a team of young sportsmen and women to Bamberg for last month's Sportfest
"We ought to revive the idea of youth clubs and things like that. We ought to bring skateboarding clubs and facilities so that young people feel they are part of the community as well as doing things that they enjoy. We need more sporting facilities."
Dave Hodgson: Existing facilities should be made available when they are not being used by organisations. Mr Hodgson also called for Bedford to have a "world class education system" for students in the borough.
"We've got to have in the borough a range of jobs that you can do, from being a plumber to an electrician to an engineer."
Eve Robinson-Morley: Subsidised bus travel would help young people to travel independently of their parents.
"A lot of our young people have to travel to Milton Keynes or Luton to do the things that they find enjoyable.
"So I'd be talking to young people to find out exactly what they want to have locally and then try to encourage businesses to set up those facilities for young people."
James Valentine: Said there were facilities in Bedford, but cheaper, better public transport was crucial.
"What my children used to talk more about wasn't the lack of facilities, it was having access to them, and a particular aspect of that was transport. My youngest girl used to complain quite bitterly about the bus station, she didn't feel quite safe there.
"I think young people still don't feel safe there, it's a disgrace actually."
Parvez Akhtar: Said it was important to fund youth clubs, financed by cutting bureaucracy and waste.
"I intend to invest more money into facilities that provide kids with alternative pastimes. I intend to support projects like the cricket, and other projects like football, through funding from the council.
"The other important thing is that we open up schools as well, so that where there are youth clubs we fund them properly, where we don't have youth clubs we open them up."
Tony Hare: Reckons sport is the key for young people enjoying their lives, and said it would also provide them with useful skills.
"After-school clubs need to be expanded. That, to me, should make sure that young children are going to be looked after."QUESTION THREE
Libby Lionetti, owner of La Piazza restaurant in St Paul's Square, asked: "I'm a local businessman based here in Bedford town centre and I'd like to know what the new mayor can do for me. We're in the middle of a recession. Can you help us?"
Apu Bagchi: Called for local councils to have some power to set business rates and financially help local business.
"That's the one thing that I'll be pushing for, so that we can decide that those people who are struggling at the moment don't have to pay so much of their business rates so they can make some sort of allowance and they can build up their businesses."
Dave Hodgson: Priorities are cleaning the streets, backing BedfordBID voucher schemes, and keeping short-stay car parking prices as low as possible.
"We need to look at flexible leases for those shops that are under-used or unused, so that we can make it a vibrant town centre. We also need to look at pedestrianisation."
Eve Robinson-Morley: Set out a vision of a centre "full of local, independent people".
"I'd like to be offering payment breaks or reductions in business rates for people who are finding it difficult so that they can weather the storm.
"I want to encourage more people into the town centre, increasing the park and ride schemes that we have so that people can get in from all ends of the town."
James Valentine: Completing the Western Bypass would be Mr Valentine's number one priority if he was elected mayor. He also said Bedford's tourism potential was not made enough of.
"We do need to regenerate the town centre. Parts of it are run down.
"That will help to bring business into the town, and that will help businesses, like yours, improve your trade,"
Parvez Akhtar: Said his aim is to make parking and driving into Bedford easier.
"I plan to increase footfall, and I've got two ideas to do that. One is that when you park in the town centre you should be able to exchange your parking ticket for vouchers to spend locally in local shops, restaurants, and cafes.
"The other idea is an independents day for local retailers, during the summer, where we encourage people to come in. There's free parking for the day, you encourage people to come in and shop in the local stores."
Tony Hare: Reckoned his river buses idea could transform Bedford
"The river is hopelessly under-used. We have a beautiful river, a beautiful embankment. Milton Keynes and Luton haven't got a river. We need to use it.
"A good many years ago a group of us got together and decided that a way forward would be to utilise the river with river buses. The idea is to have parking outside of the town centre, which would be easily accessible."
QUESTION FOUR:
Tony Dadd, spokesman for the Save Middle Schools pressure group, asked:
"We're obviously supportive of our excellent middle schools system. But voters want to know where you stand on the issue. Do you support retention or do you want to change to two-tier?"
Apu Bagchi: Reckons that promised Government cash is not going to land until the recession is over – and until then there should be no change.
"We are not going to go charging along by changing from three to two without having the infrastructure or the transitional elements properly in place.
"We should reflect, and look at how the situation transpires in the coming years, because the recession will mean that we won't have any money from the government for this and we should not go ahead."
Dave Hodgson: Is in favour of switching to two-tier, but he will let a vote of all councillors make the decision.
"If we do go to two-tier there are some things that will have to be right before we move that way. Firstly the finances have to stack up, and secondly the transition has to be hassle-free and not interrupt any child's education.
"When it does come to the vote on the council, I believe it should be the councillors that make the decision."
Eve Robinson-Morley: Called for a public discussion and then a referendum.
"I don't think that there are particularly strong arguments for one system or the other. I'm not convinced that changing to two-tier is necessarily the right thing to do, but I'm also unclear on middle schools and the benefits of those to the young people here in Bedford."
James Valentine: Favours switching to a two-tier schools system.
"As governor at an upper school, we do find that when children come in during their entry year from the middle schools they tend to tread water for the first year.
"There are various reasons for that. I think that the teachers in the primary schools tend to concentrate on Key Stage 2, rather than the transitional Key Stage 3 phase, there's also the problem that children coming from different schools need to be brought to the same level."
Parvez Akhtar: Would keep three-tier and improve the existing schools set-up.
"At the moment, no-one can give me a cast-iron guarantee that the money from the Building Schools for the Future scheme will be available for us to carry out this restructuring. In the absence of this guarantee, I cannot risk a change to a two-tier system at taxpayers' expense."
Tony Hare: Strongly in favour of keeping three-tier, stating "three-tier works".
"On grounds of performance, and on grounds of cost, I have to say: leave three-tier alone.
"My understanding is that the three-tier performance in our area, in the last year or two, has been very good. There's never a guarantee that, if you change something, the results will improve."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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