'We listen' says Bedford mayor after backing down over plans to scrap River Festival

Despite the River Festival row, Bedford mayor Tom Wootton, said his role is still the “most wonderful, wonderful job”.

Over the weekend, many people took to social media to slam the suggestion of replacing the biennial River Festival with an annual event.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked mayor Wootton if somebody leaked the idea a little bit too early.

“There was a bit of a briefing [on the idea],” he replied. “Now, I could have tin-eared it out and there’s nothing anybody could have done about it.

“But part of being mayor and being different to the previous guy, is that he never changed his mind. So if there’s a problem he was right, everyone else is wrong.

“But that’s not the way we work, we listen, and you don’t put thousands of leaflets through people’s doors saying ‘we’re the listening people, we listen to this, we listen to that’, then the first time you have a bit of controversy when you suggest something and you don’t listen…

“So either I’m criticised as being weak, or I’m criticised for not listening,” he said.

“We are absolutely determined that we’re going to have a fantastic River Festival and it’s going to be Bedford’s best days out.

“But we thank Pinder Chauhan, our [Bedford and Kempston] parliamentary candidate, she came to see me on Sunday morning and said ‘Tom, you’re in a lot of trouble’.”

Ms Chauhan tweeted on Sunday that after a “long discussion” the River Festival will go ahead.

“So I thank Pinder very much for her good sense,” Mr Wootton said.

Mr Wootton, who has now spent four months as leader of Bedford Borough Council, was asked if he still feels that it is “the best job in the world”?

“There’s all the pressure to it, there’s a lot of emails, there’s a lot of froth, there’s a lot of false anger,” he said

“But you cannot get away from the fact that Bedford is the most amazing town. It’s just the most wonderful, wonderful job to help run your hometown.”