Bedford Elections: LibDem councillor seeking re-election as she wants to see her plans through and keep making a difference

A LibDem councillor seeking re-election said she wants to continue to make a difference to Goldington Ward and the borough as a whole.

Christine McHugh, who is standing with Tim Caswell as the LibDem candidates, has represented Goldington twice. The first time was between 1996 and 2000, and now since 2019.

“I feel I’m in the middle of so many plans and I want to see them through,” Christine said.

“These are challenging times for councils – there is more need for our services but our budget keeps shrinking in real terms due to government cuts.

“As a unitary authority we have responsibility for life and death issues such as adults and children’s social care and public health.

“And it takes time to find your way around these large topics,” she said.

Christine said the biggest challenge as a councillor is finding the time to address all she’d like to do in the ward.

“Tim and I deal with hundreds of pieces of casework each year,” she said.

“Covid was particularly challenging – not least as for a long time we couldn’t knock on doors.

“But Tim and I volunteered at the Community Hub and dealt with lots of enquiries from residents by phone and email.

Christine said that the LibDem councillors don’t just talk to residents at election time.

“I remember last summer during one of the heatwaves, residents were so worried about the rising cost of gas and electricity over the winter months,” she said.

“The Cost-of-Living Crisis is hitting residents of all ages hard, working families as well as the retired who worked hard and saved hard.

“Everyone is [also] concerned at the poor access to GPs and the lack of affordable housing.

“The solutions for these lie mostly with central government and it’s frustrating to see so little concern and so little action from them,” she said.

In their work for the Goldington community, Christine said the two councillors have worked with the local police community team and the council’s community safety team to tackle anti-social behaviour.

“We’ve [also] tackled speeding with the new average speed cameras on Norse Road and would like to do more with Speed Information Devices,” she added.

“We’d also like to do much more to tackle nuisance parking and lack of parking space.”

Residents can follow Christine’s and Tim’s campaign on Facebook or they can contact Christine via email at [email protected] or by calling 07968 027560.

“It’s humbling when people vote for you to represent them and I hope voters will put their trust in me, Tim Caswell and mayor Dave Hodgson once again,” Christine said.

“We pledge to continue to work hard for Goldington.”

A list of all the candidates standing the Goldington ward can be found here.