Bedford Elections: “I chose to stand because I care" says Conservative candidate who wants to 'build a better Bedford'

A Conservative candidate for the new Wilstead and Wixams Ward said she’s standing as she cares, and she wants to build a “better Bedford borough”.

Andrea Spice, is running alongside Graeme Coombes and Marc Frost as the Conservative candidates for the new ward.

“I chose to stand because I care, I chose to stand because I find naturally that people come and talk to me if they’ve got a concern about all sorts of things in their lives,” Andrea said.

“People approach me about things because I’m known to be a listener and I’m known to take action to help them to get things resolved.

“So for me caring for people is my number one goal, but on the other side of that I have three teenage children,” she said.

“They’ve grown up in Bedford borough and Bedford borough hasn’t been the ultimate dream that I thought it would be for my children if I’m honest.

“So I want to make a stand to do something actively that can help to improve that and not just improving it for my children, but hopefully for their children and generations to come.

“I don’t want my children to think ‘oh, I want to leave Bedford and I never want to go back’.

“I want them to have fond memories as I think as a lot of my friends who are parents have done.

“They all grew up in Bedford, they left to see the world, or moved to London, wherever, and then they’ve come back to have family because they have such great fond memories of growing up in Bedford.

“And I worry that my children might not have quite so many of them and I want to help to resolve that.

“So I do it by joining community groups and by doing community work, but I truly think that the ultimate step, the giant step for doing that is to be on the council,” she said.

Andrea is also concerned that the borough isn’t an attractive proposition for a move, with limited public transport and health services in and around the new developments.

“People can’t get doctors appointments,” she said.

“If someone is in a place where they can see a GP, would they move to somewhere where there isn’t a doctor’s surgery,” she asked.

“So it’s just about making people feel that they’ve chosen Bedford borough for the right reasons and that the borough is giving them what they need.

Residents can contact Andrea via email, [email protected], and reach all three Conservative candidates by emailing [email protected].

“It sounds cheesy, but I just care, I care for my environment, I care for where I live, I care for where my friends live.

“The people that I don’t know and are soon to become my friends, I just want everybody to have the best.

“That doesn’t mean the super best, it just means that nobody’s left behind everybody’s included and we look after everybody,” she said.

All the candidates standing in the Wilstead and Wixams Ward can be found here.